Rupp running only the 10,000 at NCAAs was obviously done with the US Champs coming up where the hope is he finishes in the Top 3 for a spot on the world team. The tactics for last night - push it for the last 1200 - while somewhat of a gamble are still reasonable when one considered his recent races where he unleashed a pretty nice finishing kick.
I'm sure there was a lot of confidence in Rupp being able to outkick everyone in the field over 1200m. Looking back on it now perhaps they would have him push it earlier, but easy to say now. You can talk about other scenerios - Rupp running 28:30 pace is one - which might not have been too draining and still allowed him to have a good shot at the win without damaging his chances at US Champs, but they went with the 1200m plan last night. It's over and done with.
In reviewing the race last night don't forget that in the last month Rupp has run several hard efforts. He may be in excellent shape, but you can only run a couple of hard 10,000s on the track a year and Rupp had two already (Stanford Invite and Cardinal Invite) with hopefully two more later this summer. Look at the greats - Geb, Tergat - and you don't see them running more than a couple each year.
All that being said the tactics at the US Champs will have to be far different than last night if he has any chance of making the team. US Champs will have a couple of others - Culpepper, Abdi, Meb to name a few, who can lay it down over the last mile. I'm sure we will see a different race from Rupp in Indy.