The problem is essentially asking, how many ways can you select 6 different players from a group of 8 players?
When order is important, we use the permutation formula and when order is not important, we use the combination formula.
Here, the order is not important , so we use the combination formula. Shown below:
![^nC_r=(n!)/((n-r)!r!)](https://img.qammunity.org/2023/formulas/mathematics/college/1q6cebegtgha4ctlij3deo1h0foedhbfzo.png)
This is the number of ways to select r things from total n things.
We have
r = 6
n = 8
Substituting and simplifying, we have:
![\begin{gathered} ^nC_r=(n!)/((n-r)!r!) \\ ^8C_6=(8!)/((8-6)!6!) \\ =(8!)/(2!6!) \\ =(8\cdot7\cdot6\cdot5\cdot4\cdot3\cdot2\cdot1)/(2\cdot1\cdot6\cdot5\cdot4\cdot3\cdot2\cdot1) \\ =(8\cdot7)/(2\cdot1) \\ =(56)/(2) \\ =28 \end{gathered}](https://img.qammunity.org/2023/formulas/mathematics/college/mrbp7dkz2qagjfum0e9qskrtzaa2geq6wb.png)
So,
Coach Malone would need 28 games to achieve his target.