If we want to get a little closer to basketball, there is precedent for having a small-ball team lose a big man late in the season and still go deep in the tourney:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_NCAA_Men's_Division_I_Basketball_TournamentLoyola Maramount lost star forward Hank Gathers in their conference tourney when he died of a heart problem on the court. Their offensive system was a crazy, jack-it-up system designed to offset some of their lack of size, and wear people out. They made it to the Elite 8, losing to eventual champion UNLV, as an 11th seed.
Now, we won't be trying to get off a shot in 5 seconds every possession or full court pressing all game long (or will we...? Hmmm...). But we have lots of guys that can throw it up from anywhere with a reasonable expectation that it will go in: Abuou, Emery, Hartsock, Rogers, and of course Jimmer all average 34% or better from range; Collinsworth and Magnusson are close at 28% and 29.4%, respectively, and even Zylstra and Martineau are in that vicinity and may improve with more attempts as they get their stroke down. We are conditioned to run, to fast break, and to shoot. We may be forced to be one dimensional, but it's a dimension we're pretty dang good at. I think Rose ups the tempo even more as a way to offset the loss. A big man can't hurt you if he can't breathe, and if you run his fat butt up and down the court, it won't be long before he can't.
