Just to be clear, your starters (4 seniors and 1 junior) played a combined 154 minutes. Your non-starters played a total of 46 minutes (11 minutes of which was Dale Jones, a junior). Your non-upperclassmen, of which there were 6 total, played a combined of 35 minutes, 18 of which went to Brady Ellingson. Statistically, that assessment of the situation is just inaccurate. Unless you mean literally played them as in "put them in the game for a few minutes at some point," in which case, yes, he did give them a handful of minutes. But the Hawkeyes had 5 underclassmen who played 5 or fewer minutes (Wagner - 3, Fleming - 4, Williams - 3, Uhl - 2, and Baer - 5, Ellingson being the only one who played more than 5 minutes with 18), so I don't think those guys were the real difference makers in our game against you guys.
Anyway, I wouldn't disagree that Fran was probably trying different things and preparing for future games, so it probably wasn't the same types of offensive/defensive sets you guys would later run in the year, particularly during your mid-season hot streak. But to say "he played a lot of young guys" with the implication that playing those young guys was the reason you guys didn't win against Augie is just not supported statistically. At least from what I can tell.
P.S. - Thanks for mentioning Augie's reaching the Elite Eight. Would be fun to keep things rolling. We have a tough matchup in this round with a really athletic team from Texas, but it should be fun to see how it shakes out. Sorry your guys' season ended earlier than expected. I kept thinking you guys would rediscover the formula that was working back in January, but it didn't seem to come about, unfortunately. Would've loved to see you guys take it a few rounds deeper. Should be interesting to see how Fran restructures things with so many seniors moving on. Could be fun to see which direction it goes if you have some guys step up.