Jacobs Article

[YmoBeThere]

Jacobs echoes the beliefs of several here, that Coach K continues to use a short bench when it matters. Other changes such as the zone we saw briefly appear to have disappeared. (I'll confess to not seeing every minute of the last few games for one reason or another.)

[jgehtland]

<pre>
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VISITORS: Pittsburgh 11-0
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
23 Sam Young........... 38
45 DeJuan Blair........ 35
02 Levance Fields...... 40-
04 Ronald Ramon........ 38
31 Mike Cook........... 21
01 Keith Benjamin...... 13
05 Tyrell Biggs........ 17
11 Gilbert Brown....... 23

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HOME TEAM: Duke 10-1

12 Kyle Singler........ 39
42 Lance Thomas....... 14
03 Greg Paulus......... 34
15 Gerald Henderson.... 29
21 DeMarcus Nelson..... 37
02 Nolan Smith......... 12
14 David McClure....... 8
20 Taylor King......... 11
30 Jon Scheyer......... 35
55 Brian Zoubek........ 6
</pre>

In that game, Pitt played 8 players double digit minutes. Duke played 8 players double digit minutes. Duke also added two other players for single digit minutes, whereas Pitt only played 8 players.

Duke played 10 people meaningful minutes. On top of that, in an overtime game, nobody even ran a full 40, which we used to see out of JJ and Shel regularly in regulation blowout games. If you subtract out Brian and David and add their minutes into Taylor's and Nolan's minutes, you get an identical distribution of minutes to what Pitt had EXCEPT they had a player run the full 45 (Fields).

Can anybody tell me how this represents K *shortening* the bench? Compare this to last year, and we essentially doubled the size of the meaningful rotation. I simply don't get it. There are only (in this case) 225 minutes to go around. Is Coach K not "shortening the bench" only if everybody gets an equal 22.5 minutes? Did anybody seriously want Kyle or Gerald out there for one fewer minute?

I am a believer that K uses his bench too infrequently. I just don't buy that being the case this year, and I don't know what it will take to make guys like Jacobs think that he's changed. Jacobs is an astute observer -- yet his comments about the bench were based on something other than objective reality.

And let me go on record right now as saying that we don't win any end-of-year tournaments unless we get more out of Zoubek. Six minutes off the bench isn't enough. However, I also don't think he's earned much more than that so I am not pinning it on K. But that's the sole bench issue I'm following closely this year. The rest seems to have worked itself out (satisfactorily, in my book).

[JBDuke]

Jacobs echoes the beliefs of several here, that Coach K continues to use a short bench when it matters. Other changes such as the zone we saw briefly appear to have disappeared. (I'll confess to not seeing every minute of the last few games for one reason or another.)

IIRC, we went briefly to zone in the Pitt game - largely when Zoubek was on the floor. As for depth, Taylor and Lance's minutes were curtailed due to ineffectivity, from what I could see. Duke still had 8 players with at least double-digit minutes, and 10 players played at least five.

[VaDukie]

I think people are missing the bigger point about K's use of depth this year. The key is that when we play big games, our best players haven't been worn down by playing huge minutes all year so they're still relatively fresh. I have no problem with him shortening the bench in big games when the goal should be a lineup that gives us our best chance to win.

Either way, 8 guys playing double digit minutes is a huge change from what we've seen in the past, so it's not like he's completely abandoning the bench.