Starters

[Troublemaker]

Actually, I think he does, at least a little bit. In 2008 Scheyer came off the bench but played more minutes than several of the starters. I think there are other examples. I wouldn't be shocked if this sort of thing happens this season.

David Henderson comes to mind.

True, good examples. ('84 for David in case anyone was wondering the season)

[Troublemaker]

I do wonder if playing Thornton as part of our first wave gives us somewhat of a disadvantageous start, especially against teams that feature high-caliber shooting guards in the vein of Rasheed.

That certainly wasn't true against Kansas. Duke jumped out to leads of 5-0, 8-2, and 10-5.

Incidentally, the first points of the game were the result of Tyler tapping out an offensive rebound to Jabari who then found Amile under the basket for a score.

It was 1 of only 5 offensive rebounds for Duke all day.

[Troublemaker]

Wouldn't you know it? Tyler led Duke in plus/minus against Kansas (tied with Marshall): http://statsheet.com/mcb/games/2013/...-94/plus_minus

Guess who led Duke in plus/minus against Davidson? Oh, it was Tyler: http://statsheet.com/mcb/games/2013/...111/plus_minus

Maybe we can dial down some of this Tyler criticism until he slides all the way down to #2 or something in Duke's plus/minus rankings.

[Troublemaker]

As a reminder, Tyler ranked second in plus/minus for Duke last season: http://www.scacchoops.com/TempoBased...DU&Season=2013

If you follow the link, apparently riverside6 has deleted last year's seniors from the database, so you will see a list of returning players with Tyler leading the pack. As someone who follows plus/minus, I can tell you that he ranked higher than Mason and Seth, while Ryan led the team in plus/minus. (Ryan, of course, was incredibly valuable to the team the past two seasons. Whenever he was out with injury, we struggled mightily without his spacing the floor and help defense abilities. Just wanted to compliment Ryan one more time. )