Most Frequently Used Lineups and Bench Minutes

[jgisland]

KenPom released a new feature yesterday called "Most Frequently Used Lineups" that I thought was pretty interesting and it got me thinking about bench minutes.

Below are the 10 most frequently used lineups in the lats 5 games:

Most frequent lineups over the past 5 games
PG	SG	SF	PF	C	Pct
0 Askia Booker	25 Spencer Dinwiddie	2 Xavier Johnson	1 Wesley Gordon	40 Josh Scott	25.6
0 Askia Booker	25 Spencer Dinwiddie	23 Jaron Hopkins	2 Xavier Johnson	40 Josh Scott	9.8
3 Xavier Talton	25 Spencer Dinwiddie	23 Jaron Hopkins	2 Xavier Johnson	40 Josh Scott	5.6
0 Askia Booker	25 Spencer Dinwiddie	10 Tre'Shaun Fletcher	1 Wesley Gordon	40 Josh Scott	4.4
0 Askia Booker	25 Spencer Dinwiddie	13 Dustin Thomas	2 Xavier Johnson	40 Josh Scott	4.4
3 Xavier Talton	0 Askia Booker	25 Spencer Dinwiddie	2 Xavier Johnson	40 Josh Scott	3.5
3 Xavier Talton	0 Askia Booker	25 Spencer Dinwiddie	1 Wesley Gordon	40 Josh Scott	3.5
25 Spencer Dinwiddie	23 Jaron Hopkins	10 Tre'Shaun Fletcher	2 Xavier Johnson	40 Josh Scott	2.7
3 Xavier Talton	25 Spencer Dinwiddie	24 George King	2 Xavier Johnson	40 Josh Scott	2.4
0 Askia Booker	25 Spencer Dinwiddie	10 Tre'Shaun Fletcher	2 Xavier Johnson	40 Josh Scott	2.4
	UNKNOWN	6.2

A few interesting takeaways:

Dinwiddie and Scott are in all 10

Counting Wes as a Freshman, with Jaron, Fletch, Dustin and King - only 2 of the 10 lineups have two freshman in them. Tad only mixes in the frosh with the "veterans"

No line changes this year - all 10 of the lineups have at least 3 starters



Now onto the bench minutes - we've heard a lot about bench minutes and how Tad has a deeper bench this year.

Below is the % of bench minutes each of Tad's teams has played at CU

Year	% of bench minutes	NCAA Rank
2014	30.6	199
2013	27.6	240
2012	26.6	258
2011	27.5	251

Bench minutes are up this year, but not significantly. Even more interesting, the bench only played 19% of the minutes against Oregon and 22.5% against Oregon St. The starters are getting a lot of minutes in the first two conference games, it'll be interesting if this is a short term anomaly or a trend.

 

[Goose]

Hopefully anomaly. We HAVE to get Fletch some more minutes. And DT, if he can just get his aggressiveness back, would be able to provide some valuable time up front.

 

[Darth Snow]

worried about how we survive the grind with Mayor and Scott playing 37 mins per game.... need them to be ready for March.

 

[PuebloBuff]

Hopefully anomaly. We HAVE to get Fletch some more minutes. And DT, if he can just get his aggressiveness back, would be able to provide some valuable time up front.

Coming out of the Okie St game I thought Fletch was the furthest along defensively of the true frosh and might give us more flexibility on that end of the court. I also thought he was becoming more aggressive going to the rim. But it seems like one of the consistent adjustments we'll be making is going smaller if XJ has trouble keeping up with the other team's 3 and, right now, that seems to favor Jaron and, to a lesser extent, Talton.

 

[Goose]

JG is tired of hearing me say it, but I LOVE watching Fletch on D. He's not there yet, but when he gets down in his stance and spreads his arms out, his wingspan is unreal. Jay Bilas would LOVE talking about his length. Hours upon hours of length. Come his junior year, he's going to be a stud for us.

 

[torero]

Hopefully anomaly. We HAVE to get Fletch some more minutes. And DT, if he can just get his aggressiveness back, would be able to provide some valuable time up front.

I know you didn't forget, but remember Fletch didn't play at all in the OSU game because he was "banged up". Getting even just 8-10 minutes from him bumps up our bench minutes by itself. I love Fletch, so long, so smooth.

 

[jwhite17]

Even though the numbers might not show it, our bench is much improved over the last three years. I shudder to think about Tunks, Adams, and Chen as our main bench guys previous two years. The dropoff was significant and IMO cost us the tourney game when Boyle brought those guys in and then Illinois went on a huge run to end the 1st half.

As of now, we don't have a consistent 6th man scoring option off the bench (Jaron is starting to become the most consistent offensive threat though but he is still up and down), but collectively, they can score plently. They are all good athletes with length. Even King has potential and he barely plays. Talton is the best ball handler off the bench. Fletcher is the best defensively. HOpkins the best offensively. Thomas is lacking confidence but will get better. King is raw but a great athlete. I really like the potential and depth of the bench. Again, the numbers don't show it, but our dropout isn't nearly as bad as previous years.

I believe Boyle will use Hopkins, Talton, Fletcher and Thomas in that order. King/Mills will only be used if guys are in serious foul trouble or a blowout. He has the luxury of bringing guys along slower than in the past. He doesn't have to rely on any frosh for significant minutes right now, but I think the frosh will be ready by the middle of Pac 12 play.

 

[jgisland]

The bench is definitely improved over previous years, no doubt about that. But it's just interesting to me that hasn't necessarily translated into them playing more. CU isn't doing a lot of things we thought the deeper bench would allow them to do - ie press and push the tempo.

 

[Shldr2Shldr]

The bench is definitely improved over previous years, no doubt about that. But it's just interesting to me that hasn't necessarily translated into them playing more. CU isn't doing a lot of things we thought the deeper bench would allow them to do - ie press and push the tempo.

Is that because we don't or because we can't? What I am getting at is it seems most teams try to slow us down and don't let us push the tempo. Every team that has run with us or has at least let us run we have beaten in a fast paced, high scoring game. UT-Martin, JSU, Ark State, Oregon, etc. I think the recipe for success against CU is to make us use shot clock. I don't think anybody is going to beat us in a run and gun kind of game.

 

[wyobuff]

I noticed during the Oregon game that he was doing defensive subs with wes/Jhop and offensive subs with XT and Jelly. Kind of made me think that Jhop was doing a bit better (or at least was more consistent) on D than Fletch - having jhop guard wiggins vs KU also supports this.

it seems like tad likes to keep 60% of the starters on the floor, then mix in jhop, XT, dustin, fletch or whoever for the other 2.

 

[jgisland]

Is that because we don't or because we can't? What I am getting at is it seems most teams try to slow us down and don't let us push the tempo. Every team that has run with us or has at least let us run we have beaten in a fast paced, high scoring game. UT-Martin, JSU, Ark State, Oregon, etc. I think the recipe for success against CU is to make us use shot clock. I don't think anybody is going to beat us in a run and gun kind of game.

Both - teams getting back in transition D and forgoing chances for offensive rebounds clearly hinders our chances to push the tempo. But even the Oregon game as high of tempo the game was played at, we actually attempted below our average # of FGA's in transition.

The press is the big thing for me - Tad definitely gave us the impression we'd see more of it this year because of a deeper bench.

 

[Shldr2Shldr]

Both - teams getting back in transition D and forgoing chances for offensive rebounds clearly hinders our chances to push the tempo. But even the Oregon game as high of tempo the game was played at, we actually attempted below our average # of FGA's in transition.

The press is the big thing for me - Tad definitely gave us the impression we'd see more of it this year because of a deeper bench.

I think the inconsistency in the Freshman is what is hindering the press D. I think Tad was expecting a lot more out of them by this point in the season. DT needs to find his groove again.

 

[whatthebuff]

I think it comes down to our ambitious schedule (4th most difficult in the nation). It just hasn't allowed us to use the bench as much because we're usually in close games long into the 2nd half. It would be interesting to see the bench stats of other teams with top 10 schedules.

 

[tante]

I still see us doing a lot of standing around on the offense end trying to save energy for defense. I think if the freshman were more consistent on defense, we would see something that resembles an offense.

 

[cu3x]

This was posted elsewhere, as a quote from Tad (don't know who the "I" is):

I asked CU coach Tad Boyle if he was close to the point where he can
stop thinking of his freshmen as freshmen.

“To some degree, yes,” he answered. “I think sometimes late in the
game, no. (Sunday) late in the game there were some guys that were
fatigued and I wanted to make a substitution but I didn’t because I
didn’t want to put a freshman in that situation. I still think like
that probably more in the second half than I do in the first half or
early in the second half."

Those guys need experience and tonight looks like a good opp to get it

 

[whatthebuff]

Cu2x, that's a weird quote because it kind of contradicts this from Tad's post game

I kept asking both those guys throughout the second half if they needed [breaks], and they always said, ‘no.’ I had to give them each a rest. I got them a small one, but it was just one of those games where you have to go with the ones who got you here, and Ski, Spencer, Josh [Scott] and [Xavier Johnson], those guys are the ones who got us here.”

 

[sackman]

The bench is definitely improved over previous years, no doubt about that. But it's just interesting to me that hasn't necessarily translated into them playing more. CU isn't doing a lot of things we thought the deeper bench would allow them to do - ie press and push the tempo.

Agreed. At the beginning of the year, I thought we'd go 10 deep. For the first couple games, we did. The bench has gotten a lot shorter recently.

 

[cu3x]

Cu2x, that's a weird quote because it kind of contradicts this from Tad's post game

Sorry I couldn't give a source - that's all there was

 

[cu3x]

Cu2x, that's a weird quote because it kind of contradicts this from Tad's post game

Agree, it doesn't seem consistent. Sorry I couldn't give a source - that's all there was

 

[wyobuff]

Cu2x - I thought I remembered seeing that as well, so I sourced it for you.

Source: http://www.cubuffs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=600&ATCLID=209361790

 

[cu3x]

thanks

 

[cubuffs85]

Even though the numbers might not show it, our bench is much improved over the last three years. I shudder to think about Tunks, Adams, and Chen as our main bench guys previous two years. The dropoff was significant and IMO cost us the tourney game when Boyle brought those guys in and then Illinois went on a huge run to end the 1st half.

As of now, we don't have a consistent 6th man scoring option off the bench (Jaron is starting to become the most consistent offensive threat though but he is still up and down), but collectively, they can score plently. They are all good athletes with length. Even King has potential and he barely plays. Talton is the best ball handler off the bench. Fletcher is the best defensively. HOpkins the best offensively. Thomas is lacking confidence but will get better. King is raw but a great athlete. I really like the potential and depth of the bench. Again, the numbers don't show it, but our dropout isn't nearly as bad as previous years.

I believe Boyle will use Hopkins, Talton, Fletcher and Thomas in that order. King/Mills will only be used if guys are in serious foul trouble or a blowout. He has the luxury of bringing guys along slower than in the past. He doesn't have to rely on any frosh for significant minutes right now, but I think the frosh will be ready by the middle of Pac 12 play.

I know people like to think like that, but that just wasn't our day. That happens in sports.

I do agree with you, that Boyle does have the luxury that he and previous coaches didn't have in allowing players to develop in ways they couldn't have. I don't think we're going to have too many players like Cory Higgins from here on out (four year starters). If a player is good enough to start in year one, he probably won't be here for his senior year. That's generally a good thing.