At this point in the 2007-08 season, Duke had 11 different players who played 12+ minutes in at least one game. The 9th guy played 10+ minutes in 7 of the 13 games. The 10th guy had 6+ minutes in 6 of the 13 games. In one game, the 9th guy played 19 minutes.
The comparative minute distribution, after 13 games looked like this:
Code:
man 2008 2020
1 396 369
2 363 307
3 348 289
4 336 282
5 311 278
6 221 259
7 207 232
8 175 194
9 140 191
10 69 182
11 32 33
If Tre and Cassius hadn't missed games this season, or if Dave McClure (the 10th guy in the 2008 grid, who had only 69 minutes after 13 games but ended the season with 268 minutes) hadn't started hurt that season, the numbers might look even more similar.
By the time we got to our 1-pt win over a 15-seed and our 2nd round loss in the 2008 NCAA tourney, our 9th and 10th guys were playing 2 to 4 minutes, and our 7th and 8th guys were playing 8 to 14 minutes. But my point is, after 13 games and going into the New Year, what we're seeing this year, while unusual, is not unprecedented. Obviously, we'll have to wait and see how it goes for the rest of this season before drawing further conclusions.