Starting Lineup minutes

[WindyCityGoldenEagle]

With buzzs constant emphasis on every possession, every minute matters it continues to boggle my mind why we continue to roll with the starting lineup for as long as we do. We are essentially playing the mix of Dw, jake, Juan, jamil, Chris for 6-8 mins every game. I get wanting to set a defensive, hustle tone for the entire team at the start of each half and going with that group to start but I just can't for the life of me get why this group gets so many mins together (20% of the game).

I know, I know, "it's who finishes the game and who plays the most mins that matters the most" but the reality is those 6-8 mins count just as much as the other 32 mins when it comes to production.

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

I am also sometimes perplexed by this. Otule has to start for the tip. DW, Jake, and Jamil are all pretty well cemented. But why both halves? Why do we not see subs starting at the first whistle, especially if we do give up an early lead?

[IWB]

Not sure, but I have some guesses....

Last night Buzz talked about some of the goals he sets for each game. It isn't 'we need to limit ourselves to X turnovers', it is more like:

We need to attempt 52 shots
We need to be in the bonus by the 9:50 mark
etc etc

Last night they were in the bonus 4 minutes earlier than the average.

So many teams come out for the start of the game and the start of the second half all jacked up. So where guys like the G'Town big men, they sat the last 8 minutes of the first half in foul trouble, but then they come right in to start the second half and what happens? They are so jacked up they pick up dumb fouls right away. As does Marquette.

Maybe Buzz looks at it as, 'There will be X number of fouls on players in the first 4 minutes of each half. These guys are better at forcing the fouls, and I can live with these players picking up an extra foul.... Maybe he wants that lineup until the opponent picks up a certain number of fouls or the officiating has settled in.

Again, no idea, just guessing.

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

Excellent call, Jim. Otule and Juan drew the two that sent Hopkins to the bench early, and Jake drew the one that fouled Ayegba out. Those fouls really made Davante's work down the stretch a lot easier, especially because Gardner is so good himself at drawing fouls.

[WindyCityGoldenEagle]

I don't know that I'm buying that logic especially the part of the equation that otule and juan "are better at forcing fouls." Last night conveniently fit into this philosphy but all in all I can't imagine Otule and Juan represent the best options for drawing fouls against the opposition - i think we'd all agree it's mayo and ox at those respective positions. The other side of the equation- sure, I could possibly see Buzz having some stat that shows a higher frequency of foul calls in the first 4 minutes of each half and therefore goes with those guys. However, I can't imagine the marginal difference in the average fouls for those first four mins compared to the rest of the game and the slight advantage we would gain by not having our best players out there to avoid these fouls outweighs the negatives of leaving such an offensively inept group out there for so long.

Honestly I've been scratching my head for a while on this one and can't really seem to come up with an answer - so i guess some answer is better than my no answer :)

[TulsaWarrior]

I have a feeling Buzz has some stats he doesn't share publicly. ;-)

[pbiflyer]

I have a feeling Buzz has some stats he doesn't share publicly. ;-)

I bet he has a stat for how many stats he doesn't share publicly. ;)