Both sides are partially right and partially wrong here.
I get the point that coug4life is making except that I think Michael Flowers also fits the role coug4life is talking about, and that because of Michael Flowers, I think the coach could not play Noah, and Michael Flowers would take Noah's role, and WSU would win.
That wasn't true earlier in the season, so Noah was needed back then, in the role coug4life describes.
Also Noah is kinda, sorta, like a Ryan Rapp, Lodwick, Witherall, etc.
Now those players were slow, unathletic, lacked lateral quickness, lacked athletic defensive ability, and didn't have the speed, quickness, etc, to drive, create their own shot, make those lay ups, floaters, runners, shots, etc.
And so they had to learn what Dick Bennet, etc, taught players before them. They had to learn POSITIONAL, MECHANICAL TECHNIQUES, MECHANICS, etc, that would enable them to play good defense, occasional score, draw charges, keep player in front, not let players blow by them, work hard, dive for balls, hustle, get floorburns, rebound, have a good attitude, be a good leader, be a ROLEPLAYER, GLUE GUY.
And so because they learned that, they typically got about 15 to 17 to 19 minutes per game, and became reasons why WSU won games, with them playing about 15 to 17 to 19 minutes per game.
Now I kinda, sorta said that Noah, is kinda, sorta, like them, except he is a better player, and more athletic then them.
But where he Noah is kind of like them, is that Noah works hard, he guards, defends against the toughest assignments, which gets him beat, and sometimes makes him look bad, and because of how good he was last year, he drew the toughest defenders, determined to shut down his offense, causing him to turn the ball over, miss shots, look bad, get mentally affected to where he regressed, went into a massive shooting slump. He Noah is averaging about 1.7 to 2 to 2.3 ASSIST per game. He Noah is about 3rd on the team in scoring at about 11 ppg.
I think it was Tony Delk, or some other player that went to the NBA, that scored 11 per game. Jrue Holiday that went to NBA averaged about 9.5 ppg, less then Noah William's, 11 ppg.
Noah has a good attitude, gives max effort, he is basically a ROLEPLAYER, GLUE GUY, Leader, this year, just like Lodwick was, except that Noah, is better, more athletic.
So that's part of why the coach is playing Noah, just like with why Bone played Lodwick.
But part of the reason why coach is playing Noah, is that even if Noah were to be as TERRIBLE, HORRIBLY bad for the team as some say, the team is WINNING, and coaches can be superstitious,etc, and not want to change anything, like how much Noah is playing, because if your WINNING, and if it isn't broke, why try to fix what isn't broken, whats working.
Also there is a LOT of SYNERGY, CHEMISTRY, between the players and Noah.
Also there is the chance that Noah may return to last year's form, success, etc, so the coach wants to play Noah about 20 minutes a game, in the hopes that Noah might play himself in returning to last season's form.
BUT IF WSU were to go on a LOSING STREAK, eventually Smith would stop playing Noah, and let Flowers take more of Noah's role, and replace Noah with Tyrell Roberts, Flowers, Bamba, Rodman, etc.
