Despite what Jesse reports, I think Doyle is going to be a game time decision against Evansville. In the
MVC weekly coach teleconference on Monday, Moser said "you can't really sit him for a week because there are games every three or four days" or something to that effect. He said that he's going easy in practice, acknowledged he was "hindered," but didn't say he was out definitely.
Looking at our schedule, Evansville is an important game because of the chance to nail down a tiebreaker with a team we seem to be even with. After that, we go to Indiana State-- another team we should be able to beat, even on the road. The game at Wichita State is the one where he should rest, if you ask me. Winning on their court is a longshot, even with a perfectly healthy Doyle. Keep him home, and see what the young guys can do. He would have a full week from Indiana State to Illinois State at home.
Here's the real question: What are we playing for right now, and what are the risks/rewards?
1. We want to stay out of Thursday.
2. We really, really, really want to stay out of Thursday.
3. There's not really a difference between a 4 and 5 seed, but the difference between a 5 and Thursday could be a tiebreaker.
4. A cynical argument could be made that a 6 seed is actually better than a 4/5, because you stay out of (presumably) Wichita State's side of the bracket... but that could change if UNI makes up a game on WSU and/or beats them out on the strength of schedule tiebreaker.
5. We would like to be in the running for an NIT at large... but we're on the bubble now with the SIU loss. We need to put ourselves in a position to win the games we can/should, and if we're going to rest guys, it should be against the teams we wouldn't get penalized for losing to anyway.
6. There's not really a guarantee that Doyle (or any other player) pops back to full strength by sitting out 1 or 2 games. If it doesn't happen, you've just dug yourself a deeper hole.
Can we win without Doyle? Yes, especially against weaker teams and at home. Can we win without Doyle, while fighting whatever kept Montel James from playing the last 17 minutes of the SIU game, with Earl Peterson only scoring two points in his last two games, and with Knuth and Ingram only scoring 11 points between them over the last two games? Almost certainly not.