I know there has been a lot of discussion in the past about Coach K playing his starters too much during the course of games leading to a tired team at the end of the season. While that opinion does have some merit, when you look at MAC League play and how close most games are, most coaches are going to "ride their starters" as much as they can. While I know its a small sample size, please take a look at the following Average Minutes played by the 60 Starters in the 6 MAC game last night that were for the most part very competitive games:
1. BGSU (25.2)
2. Ball St (26.6)
3. Ohio (26.8)
4. Buffalo (27.6)
5. Miami (27.8)
6. Toledo (28.6)
7. NIU (29.0)
8. CMU (29.2)
9. Akron (30.6)
10.Kent (30.6)
11. WMU (31.0)
12. EMU (33.8)
I understand that specific circumstances like personal fouls and the closeness of the score will determine the number of minutes played by individual starters in a given game, but I think the averages listed above will be the norm rather than the exception in most league games.
(01-03-2018 02:18 PM)Basketball Jones Wrote: [ -> ]I know there has been a lot of discussion in the past about Coach K playing his starters too much during the course of games leading to a tired team at the end of the season. While that opinion does have some merit, when you look at MAC League play and how close most games are, most coaches are going to "ride their starters" as much as they can. While I know its a small sample size, please take a look at the following Average Minutes played by the 60 Starters in the 6 MAC game last night that were for the most part very competitive games:
1. BGSU (25.2)
2. Ball St (26.6)
3. Ohio (26.8)
4. Buffalo (27.6)
5. Miami (27.8)
6. Toledo (28.6)
7. NIU (29.0)
8. CMU (29.2)
9. Akron (30.6)
10.Kent (30.6)
11. WMU (31.0)
12. EMU (33.8)
I understand that specific circumstances like personal fouls and the closeness of the score will determine the number of minutes played by individual starters in a given game, but I think the averages listed above will be the norm rather than the exception in most league games.
Navi and Sanford are 1and 3 in the MAC in minutes played and Fletcher was in the Top Ten most of the year. UT is skewed on average due to the relatively few minutes played by (usual) starter Adway. Still, I don’t sense a huge fall off late due to tiredness and other teams have starters who play less than key reserves as well.
(01-03-2018 02:29 PM)H2Oville Rocket Wrote: [ -> ] (01-03-2018 02:18 PM)Basketball Jones Wrote: [ -> ]I know there has been a lot of discussion in the past about Coach K playing his starters too much during the course of games leading to a tired team at the end of the season. While that opinion does have some merit, when you look at MAC League play and how close most games are, most coaches are going to "ride their starters" as much as they can. While I know its a small sample size, please take a look at the following Average Minutes played by the 60 Starters in the 6 MAC game last night that were for the most part very competitive games:
1. BGSU (25.2)
2. Ball St (26.6)
3. Ohio (26.8)
4. Buffalo (27.6)
5. Miami (27.8)
6. Toledo (28.6)
7. NIU (29.0)
8. CMU (29.2)
9. Akron (30.6)
10.Kent (30.6)
11. WMU (31.0)
12. EMU (33.8)
I understand that specific circumstances like personal fouls and the closeness of the score will determine the number of minutes played by individual starters in a given game, but I think the averages listed above will be the norm rather than the exception in most league games.
Navi and Sanford are 1and 3 in the MAC in minutes played and Fletcher was in the Top Ten most of the year. UT is skewed on average due to the relatively few minutes played by (usual) starter Adway. Still, I don’t sense a huge fall off late due to tiredness and other teams have starters who play less than key reserves as well.
Good points. And, the addition of Willie Jackson has helped, as was predicted/hoped. I am particularly concerned about Sanford, though. he may running on fumes come March...
Rockets have a nice rotation at the 5 with Adway & Knapke.
They have a nice rotation at the 1 with M Jackson & Roberts, as Roberts appears to be getting some more PT.
You then have W Jackson & D Alderson coming off the bench, which gives the Rockets a nice 9 man rotation.
Bench just needs to keep getting minutes.
Much more balanced this year.