071: Roles and responsibilities
North Carolina is playing its bench more this season.
A criticism of head coach Hubert Davis over the past two seasons was a resistance to go deep into the Carolina bench.
Through 18 games this season, North Carolina’s bench usage is up almost 10 percent from last season. Specifically, 27.1 percent of Carolina’s possible minutes are played by the bench according to Ken Pomeroy1.
This ranks a nudge below the Division-I average of 31.5 percent of bench minutes. Compare this to the 2018-19 season, when Carolina’s bench played 26.3 percent of minutes.
A head coach is only as good as his next adjustment.
The bench played ~20 percent of possible minutes during the 2021-22 season. The iron-five that delivered the 2022 title run was often too good to take off the floor2.
Last season, Carolina played its bench even less for about a total of 18 percent of possible minutes. This led to seven departures in the transfer portal as several of those players wanted more playing time.
This season has brought an adjustment. UNC going deep into its bench was well represented Saturday in its 76-66 win at Boston College.
11 different players logged minutes, including six players off the bench that played a combined 48 minutes.
Seth Trimble3 has played ~42 percent of possible minutes this season or almost double his amount as a freshman last season (~23 percent).
Jae’Lyn Withers started 64 games over three seasons at Louisville prior to transferring to North Carolina. Withers is on the court less often as a Tar Heel than as a Cardinal, but has stacked three consecutive games with an offensive rating above 1404.
Jalen Washington has played 160 minutes, which exceeds his total minutes as a freshman (113 minutes). Paxson Wojcik, Zayden High, and James Okonkwo all have logged a combined 279 minutes too.
You get the idea. The roles and responsibilities of this team feel well-defined. And a perfect 7-0 start in ACC play seems to back that up too.
Remember
It’s not even February yet.
We don’t have to litigate which of the 32 college basketball conferences are the best right now. Or guess the number of tournament bids for each league.
We can assume some leagues are gauntlets and other leagues may stink.
Remember, some teams that are projected to win games end up losing games too.
You can find conference standings and point differentials updated periodically throughout the season here: https://blessyourchart.shinyapps.io/cbb_conf_index/
Pomeroy defines bench usage as the minutes of remaining players that are not the starters are all assumed to be bench minutes. Players that have played less than 10% of their team’s minutes are not included.
In hindsight, the shot making of the 2022 title run felt unsustainable. The beauty of sports, or those six games in March, is sometimes things don’t need to be sustainable to get a dynamite outcome.
No idea on Trimble’s basketball future. I think he could sign with the WWE tomorrow because he is that kind of athlete though.
Trevor Marks outlined how Withers can contribute off the bench in this article as Inside Carolina.