Minutes played

[NavinRJohnson]

MU should have a distinct advantage tonight, given what has transpired the previous couple nights. Just looking at minutes played for Pittsburgh's players - especially key players...

Sam Young: 36 and 41, against an average of 32 mpg
Ronald Ramon: 37 and 42 against an average of 31
LeVance Fields: 36 and 35 against an average of 30
DeJuan Blair: 24 and 33 against an average of 27
Their bench is pretty thin as it is and Gilbert Brown played 36 minutes last night against an average of 22.

Compare that to MU who is deeper to begin with, will be again tonight and have had players basically right on their averages.

Hayward: 26 and 26 against an average of 25.
Barro: 17 and 25 against an average of 20
Matthews: 30 and 32 against an average of 29

James and Mcneal are the guys who have been a bit above...

James: 33 and 33 against an average of 29
McNeal: 37 and 28 agianst an average of 30

Obviously with the starters at or near their averages, the bench is the same way.

Of course anything can happen as both teams will be tired, but as this game wears on, I could easily see Blair and Young having some fatigue induced foul trouble, and Pitt's guards having a tough time keeping up with us. MU's bench players in particular should have the freshest legs on the court, and I can easily envision guys like FItzgerald and Cubillan being the best shooters on the floor tonight, and getting good looks.

[BuzzSucksSucks]

Nice stats, thanks NJ.

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

IF heavy legs come into play... it will certainly happen tonight and/or tomorrow (if PITT wins).

I've been a big fan of MU's depth all year long, especially given MU's style of play.

If MU can speed the pace up tonight... they've got a good shot at really taking it to PITT in the last 10min.

[NavinRJohnson]

Since I think this will probably be a pretty close game, I honestly think it might be a good thing if Pitt were to get off to a little bit of a fast start. Obviously, I don't want them to go up by 20 or anything like that, but if they expend a fair amount of energy and emotion early, I see MU being able to come roaring back and blow right by them.