Minute Distribution of ASU Game

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Juan 37 minutes
Duane 34 minutes
Luke 33 minutes
JjJ 32 minutes
Carlino 29 minutes
Derrick 24 minutes
Steve 8 minutes
Cohen 3 minutes

Wojo definitely decided to ride the hot hands on this one. The four candidates for SOTG all played 32+ minutes. Those who struggled, sat. I think moving forward we need to see more time for Sandy and Steve. I think part of the reason the ASU was able to close the gap to single digits was fatigue on our part. Luke was a stud last night, but I don't think he can handle 33 minutes a game every night. Steve is unfortunately stuck playing the center role for the rest of the season, backing up Luke. Cohen I know made two dumb freshman mistakes in a row, but when you only have 8 players, I don't think you can afford to keep a guy in the doghouse for that long.

[jsglow]

+100.  Wojo needs to watch that.  I think he gets into the flow of the game and kind of forgets.  I'd personally have an assistant start to chart minutes on the sideline and serve as a 'warning bell'.  Al needed Hank.

[Texas Western]

Our top guys made it hard for Wojo for to take them out of the lineup last night. Nonetheless, would still like to see some more minutes from STjr., and more time together with Luke.

Was encouraged to see Derrick minute totals come down to 24, I still think he makes his best contribution to the team at 10-15. I don't mind if he starts the beginning of the game and the beginning of second half, but I don't think he should be anywhere near the floor at crunch time.

[mikekinsellaMVP]

Our top guys made it hard for Wojo for to take them out of the lineup last night. Nonetheless, would still like to see some more minutes from STjr., and more time together with Luke.

Was encouraged to see Derrick minute totals come down to 24, I still think he makes his best contribution to the team at 10-15. I don't mind if he starts the beginning of the game and the beginning of second half, but I don't think he should be anywhere near the floor at crunch time.

But look that list.  Where do the 10-15 minutes he loses go?  You want to give more minutes to the guys playing 30+?  The only real logical place for them to go is Sandy -- Steve's minutes are going to go up because Luke can't be expected to play 33 every game, and as others have stated, playing them together is a dangerous prospect (in terms of foul trouble) for an 8-man roster with their most difficult competition ahead.  The best case is Cohen gets 8-10 with Derrick playing 18-20.  I don't think any more is realistic in the near future.

[jsglow]

Our top guys made it hard for Wojo for to take them out of the lineup last night. Nonetheless, would still like to see some more minutes from STjr., and more time together with Luke.

Was encouraged to see Derrick minute totals come down to 24, I still think he makes his best contribution to the team at 10-15. I don't mind if he starts the beginning of the game and the beginning of second half, but I don't think he should be anywhere near the floor at crunch time.

I thought Derrick had one of his poorer games last night.  He made a couple of plays last night in the first half that weren't good.  First, he failed to make any easy pass on a break and instead took it unsuccessfully to the rim himself followed shortly thereafter with an attempted break pass that was too difficult and resulted in a turnover.  Usually I like Derrick's steadying floor influence but last night it simply wasn't there for him.  No doubt all our other guards have vastly superior skill sets.

Of note, he was 3-4 from the line.  If he can consistently do that he's very valuable on the floor in combating the press.  There was a brief experiment with 4 guards and Luke during ASU's pressure and tere was some institutional switching.

[bilsu]

I think I am the only one that believes Derrick should be in at the end of the game as long as we are in the double bonus. Sure there is the risk of Derrick missing both free throws, but missed free throws are not as disastrous as Carlino turning the ball over. As soon as Carlino is pressed he tries to get rid of the ball. He is like a deer in headlights. Derrick is the only one that can consistently bring the ball up against the press. Duane gets in trouble when ties to push it to fast and ties to split defenders.

[MU82]

I think I am the only one that believes Derrick should be in at the end of the game as long as we are in the double bonus. Sure there is the risk of Derrick missing both free throws, but missed free throws are not as disastrous as Carlino turning the ball over. As soon as Carlino is pressed he tries to get rid of the ball. He is like a deer in headlights. Derrick is the only one that can consistently bring the ball up against the press. Duane gets in trouble when ties to push it to fast and ties to split defenders.

Interesting. I thought that on several occasions Carlino tried to dribble too much through the press and was hoping/assuming he'd get fouled.

[mu03eng]

Our top guys made it hard for Wojo for to take them out of the lineup last night. Nonetheless, would still like to see some more minutes from STjr., and more time together with Luke.

Was encouraged to see Derrick minute totals come down to 24, I still think he makes his best contribution to the team at 10-15. I don't mind if he starts the beginning of the game and the beginning of second half, but I don't think he should be anywhere near the floor at crunch time.

Ideally, I'd put Derrick at 20 minutes and he has to be in there at the end of games....Carlino especially seems to panic in late game situations.

I believe this is the first of many data points that shows if there are options other than Derrick, he will not be playing 36 minutes a game.  I'd like to see Luke get no more than 30 minutes and Steve to get at least 20-25 minutes but he just didn't have it last night.

I think there will be times mid to late in the half where we could see a Carlino, DuWil/JJJ, Juan, Teve, Fischer line-up which would be very interesting.

[MU82]

Aside from Derrick playing 5-10 minutes more than he should have given how poorly he was playing, I have absolutely no quibbles with Wojo's allocation of minutes. We easily defeated a decent opponent, and a big part of it was because Wojo rewarded the players who produced.

Wojo even benched Derrick a couple of times after screw-ups, but Derrick doesn't stay in the doghouse long.

[MarquetteDano]

I think I am the only one that believes Derrick should be in at the end of the game as long as we are in the double bonus. Sure there is the risk of Derrick missing both free throws, but missed free throws are not as disastrous as Carlino turning the ball over. As soon as Carlino is pressed he tries to get rid of the ball. He is like a deer in headlights. Derrick is the only one that can consistently bring the ball up against the press. Duane gets in trouble when ties to push it to fast and ties to split defenders.

I mainly agree with you.  If we are in the double bonus and know we are going to get pressed Derrick seems to be the player to handle it.  I think I would be more nervous though up 2 with 20 seconds to go.  If he bricks both free throws.... well you can run the numbers.

I think if we are up by a decent margin given the time left and the press is on its way, Derrick does seem like the best fit.

And to TAMU's post, also completely agree that Fischer cannot play 30+ minutes right now.  Near the end he was so gassed he couldn't even leave his feet for a board.

[BallBoy]

Ideally, I'd put Derrick at 20 minutes and he has to be in there at the end of games....Carlino especially seems to panic in late game situations.

I believe this is the first of many data points that shows if there are options other than Derrick, he will not be playing 36 minutes a game.  I'd like to see Luke get no more than 30 minutes and Steve to get at least 20-25 minutes but he just didn't have it last night.

I think there will be times mid to late in the half where we could see a Carlino, DuWil/JJJ, Juan, Teve, Fischer line-up which would be very interesting.

I agree that this the first data point that Derrick will see reduced minutes. It was called out a few weeks ago that having Fischer would push everyone back to their natural position which would reduce Derrick's minutes. Derrick will continue to get 20-25mins. Looking at this minute distribution, is there any sign that Derricks reduced minutes would go to Burton? Those would come from JJJ and Juan so Derrick did not play into Burton's transfer as one would like to believe.

Now that we have serviceable guards and players are in the natural positions Derrick's minutes will decrease and hopefully so will the posts.

[mikekinsellaMVP]

I believe this is the first of many data points that shows if there are options other than Derrick, he will not be playing 36 minutes a game.

+1

Hopefully it will put some long-standing disagreements to rest.

[mu03eng]

+1

Hopefully it will put some long-standing disagreements to rest.

The banhammer falling last night will help as well 

[CTWarrior]

Derrick's going to have to be able to feed the post if he wants to keep those major minutes.

[willie warrior]

Our top guys made it hard for Wojo for to take them out of the lineup last night. Nonetheless, would still like to see some more minutes from STjr., and more time together with Luke.

Was encouraged to see Derrick minute totals come down to 24, I still think he makes his best contribution to the team at 10-15. I don't mind if he starts the beginning of the game and the beginning of second half, but I don't think he should be anywhere near the floor at crunch time.

+ gazillion.

[79Warrior]

But look that list.  Where do the 10-15 minutes he loses go?  You want to give more minutes to the guys playing 30+?  The only real logical place for them to go is Sandy -- Steve's minutes are going to go up because Luke can't be expected to play 33 every game, and as others have stated, playing them together is a dangerous prospect (in terms of foul trouble) for an 8-man roster with their most difficult competition ahead.  The best case is Cohen gets 8-10 with Derrick playing 18-20.  I don't think any more is realistic in the near future.

I am not so sure about Steve. He cannot even convert the bunnies. He stands to lose the most with Luke back.

[willie warrior]

Derrick's going to have to be able to feed the post if he wants to keep those major minutes.

And make FT's.

[mikekinsellaMVP]

I am not so sure about Steve. He cannot even convert the bunnies. He stands to lose the most with Luke back.

And he did.  But I honestly don't think we can rely on a consistent 30+ from Luke in conference play.  And playing with Juan or Sandy as the biggest guy on the court isn't exactly appealing, either.

The banhammer falling last night will help as well  

WOW.  Missed the fireworks.  I would have thought rocky would be feeling more charitable in the wake of a big win.

[mikekinsellaMVP]

And make FT's.

He did it at a better clip then Duane did last night, though that was probably the highlight of his performance.

[jsglow]

Aside from Derrick playing 5-10 minutes more than he should have given how poorly he was playing, I have absolutely no quibbles with Wojo's allocation of minutes. We easily defeated a decent opponent, and a big part of it was because Wojo rewarded the players who produced.

Wojo even benched Derrick a couple of times after screw-ups, but Derrick doesn't stay in the doghouse long.

Are you going to turn those minutes over Pete?  We have 8 freakin' scholarship players and play a 3 guard lineup with essentially 4 guys (plus Frosh Sandy as a swing).  If you go to a 2 guard lineup all 3 of our bigs need to be on the floor at the same time.

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

I believe this is the first of many data points that shows if there are options other than Derrick, he will not be playing 36 minutes a game.  I'd like to see Luke get no more than 30 minutes and Steve to get at least 20-25 minutes but he just didn't have it last night.

I hope you're right.

One thing that I've repeated several times:

I'm sure Buzz/Wojo would love to have another option other than Derrick, but they didn't believe that they did. JJJ and Duane were great last night, so it's really easy to put Derrick on the bench. In the next game, if JJJ blows a bunch of defensive assignments, then you'll see more of Derrick.

Basically, I think Derrick has played a lot out of necessity, not choice. If the other kids play well, then the coach will play them instead.

[Coleman]

WOW.  Missed the fireworks.  I would have thought rocky would be feeling more charitable in the wake of a big win.

He WAS being charitable, to everyone else on this board. Christmas came early on Scoop.

[PGsHeroes32]

If we had it my way.

Luke would be down a little. Derrick would be down. Juan down just a tad. Duane and JJJ about the same(assuming good performance) Carlino about the same maybe down a bit. Cohen and Steve up and actually in flow.

Juan- 34
Duane- 32
JJJ- 30
Fischer-30
Carlino-27
Derrick-17
30 minutes between Steve and Sandy. Now Steve should get at least 15. Cohen's share depends more on how he looks. His "15" can give a few to Derrick, Matt or Steve and be 8-10 if he's not doing much.

[tower912]

80 minutes up front.   Split relatively evenly between Luke, Juan, STjr,  with Sandy getting occasional minutes
120 minutes in the backcourt.   Roughly 30 minutes each between Duane, Carlino, Derrick, and JJJ, with Sandy getting occasional minutes at the 3.

I know the argument that they are young, that they hadn't played in 10 days....I just disagree with it.   There will be nights like last night where Wojo rides the hot hands, but I simply think it isn't going to work long term having guys play >35 minutes a game. 

[jsglow]

I think I recall a brief period where Wojo did have all of Luke, Steve and Juan in the game during the first half.  Maybe 1-2 minutes.

When all three of them successfully got to halftime with a single foul each, I think it has the potential for further utilization in the second half in upcoming games.  An early second half foul by Luke may have prevented Wojo from going that way last night.

Reflecting back, I do think Wojo could have given Steve a longer second half run.  By the end Luke had lost some effectiveness seen a bit on the defensive end.

But all this is nitpicking.  We just played our best basketball of the season.  And we all saw areas of possible improvement.  Life's good.