Dividing Up 200 Minutes

[BfromCT]

I know that there has already been discussion of this subject in the “How will the minutes be distributed to all players next season?” started by mbr33ct, but that was a little while ago. Who plays major minutes and how much are interesting topics for thought in an off-season that has already proven to be much more dynamic than normal.

UConn is expected to have a roster of 14 players for 200 player minutes per game. The closest parallel I see the next year’s squad is 1999-2000, although the 2000-01 also merits consideration. That 36-1 team had thirteen players - seniors Stacy Hansmeyer and Paige Sauer; juniors Svetlana Abrosimova, Marci Czel, Shea Ralph, Christine Rigby, and Kelly Schumacher; sophomores Sue Bird, Swin Cash, Asjha Jones, Keirsten Walters (who played little or not at all due to injuries), and Tamika Williams; freshman Kennitra Johnson. All but two (Marci Czel and Christine Rigby) received significant minutes during the season and no one averaged anything close to 30 minutes per game, but this is based on memory since the Boneyard section on replays does not contain box scores for that season (they started the next season). If my memory is correct, the three of the ten seeing significant minutes who played the least were Hansmeyer, Sauer, and Johnson, but even they averaged around 10 minutes per game.

The general consensus is that the top eight players on next year’s team are seniors Christyn Williams, Olivia Nelson-Ododa, Evina Westbrook, and Dorka Juhasz (she may stay for a second year); junior Aubrey Griffin; sophomores Paige Bueckers, Nike Mühl, and Aaliyah Edwards; and freshman Azzi Fudd. For the sake of argument, let’s start by saying that each plays 25 minutes per game. 25 x 8 = 200. Of course, not all will play 25 minutes, again for the sake of debate, Paige will probably pay 30, Griffin around 15, Juhasz say 20, Fudd 20, and Westbrook 20. Then the total for the core players is reduced to 180 and the remaining 20 are to be divided up among the remaining six players. If we assume that Caroline Ducharme is the best of the rest, she gets 10 minutes, with another 10 minutes to be apportioned among the last five players.

Wait a minute, you say, Ducharme only 10 minutes, give me a break! And what about Amari DeBerry, a top 10 recruit, will she only be playing in garbage time? We simply do not know.

A good deal of what we postulate is hypothetical and obviously Boneyarders will have different opinions on this subject. It is possible that another player will decide to enter the transfer portal and there will certainly be injuries and that will mean more minutes to be divided up. Moreover, we do not know the level of improvement that might occur with freshmen becoming sophomores. Still the question of possible playing time is an interesting one to think about for the next few months.

Fire away.

 

[Carrot23]

Your core 8 is actually 9, so they use up more than 200 minutes. Now what?

 

[bluedevil]

Injuries are the x factor to start the ball rolling. They will occur although of course we never want to see that-but they will occur. Second do we know for a fact on May 7 that the roster is 14? The first is a given. We won't know the second for a while. Also all eyes will be on Ono. Her minutes could go up..could go down. Stay tuned for an interesting summer and get vaccinated...

 

[uconnfan68]

I know that there has already been discussion of this subject in the “How will the minutes be distributed to all players next season?” started by mbr33ct, but that was a little while ago. Who plays major minutes and how much are interesting topics for thought in an off-season that has already proven to be much more dynamic than normal.

UConn is expected to have a roster of 14 players for 200 player minutes per game. The closest parallel I see the next year’s squad is 1999-2000, although the 2000-01 also merits consideration. That 36-1 team had thirteen players - seniors Stacy Hansmeyer and Paige Sauer; juniors Svetlana Abrosimova, Marci Czel, Shea Ralph, Christine Rigby, and Kelly Schumacher; sophomores Sue Bird, Swin Cash, Asjha Jones, Keirsten Walters (who played little or not at all due to injuries), and Tamika Williams; freshman Kennitra Johnson. All but two (Marci Czel and Christine Rigby) received significant minutes during the season and no one averaged anything close to 30 minutes per game, but this is based on memory since the Boneyard section on replays does not contain box scores for that season (they started the next season). If my memory is correct, the three of the ten seeing significant minutes who played the least were Hansmeyer, Sauer, and Johnson, but even they averaged around 10 minutes per game.

The general consensus is that the top eight players on next year’s team are seniors Christyn Williams, Olivia Nelson-Ododa, Evina Westbrook, and Dorka Juhasz (she may stay for a second year); junior Aubrey Griffin; sophomores Paige Bueckers, Nike Mühl, and Aaliyah Edwards; and freshman Azzi Fudd. For the sake of argument, let’s start by saying that each plays 25 minutes per game. 25 x 8 = 200. Of course, not all will play 25 minutes, again for the sake of debate, Paige will probably pay 30, Griffin around 15, Juhasz say 20, Fudd 20, and Westbrook 20. Then the total for the core players is reduced to 180 and the remaining 20 are to be divided up among the remaining six players. If we assume that Caroline Ducharme is the best of the rest, she gets 10 minutes, with another 10 minutes to be apportioned among the last five players.

Wait a minute, you say, Ducharme only 10 minutes, give me a break! And what about Amari DeBerry, a top 10 recruit, will she only be playing in garbage time? We simply do not know.

A good deal of what we postulate is hypothetical and obviously Boneyarders will have different opinions on this subject. It is possible that another player will decide to enter the transfer portal and there will certainly be injuries and that will mean more minutes to be divided up. Moreover, we do not know the level of improvement that might occur with freshmen becoming sophomores. Still the question of possible playing time is an interesting one to think about for the next few months.

Fire away.

This is a useless exercise. I’m begging you to just stop.

 

[EricLA]

So this has been discussed to death. I could have easily skipped over this thread, but I just have to post some more insanity. That has nothing to do with anything.

Did you know that 200 is divisible by several numbers?

We know that it's divisible by 200, which gives you 1.

It's also divisible by 100, 50, 40, 25, and 20

Lastly, it is divisible by 10, 8, 5, 4, 2, and 1. Getting back to the OP, I predict that UCONN will field a team of only 1 player who will average 200 minutes per game next season! Go UCONN!!! ?

 

[BfromCT]

I apologize, not for starting the thread, but thinking that 9 is 8. And to think that math was my best subject in high school! Since people on the Boneyard spend a good deal of time thinking about what might happen in the future, I have no regrets about revisiting this subject, despite the sarcasm of the previous post. Perhaps I will be more intelligent when I have posted 13,000 times.

Obviously with 9 players in the mix, many of my numbers in this exercise are flawed and this goes to show how intense the competition will be for playing time next season, assuming all players are healthy. If 200 are divided as previously stated, and not with some arbitrary equality, then all 200 minutes will have been used up and there is no playing time for anyone else, an obvious impossibility. If, however, we think that Nika will play 20 minute, Dorka around 15, and Griffin 10, then 15 minutes are freed up for other players.

What this exercise is trying to show is that for the first time in a number of years, UConn will suffer from an embarrassment of riches, a far cry from the thin squads of the two seasons preceding the last one. The team has rarely had a rotation of more than seven players and for the upcoming season at least nine are in the mix.

And remember how short the bench was in the tournament this season with neither Anna nor Nika at full strength? It has been a long time, if ever, since UConn has had fourteen scholarship athletes, the vast majority of whom, if not All-Americans, would be extremely productive players on other teams.

 

[Skeets]

I apologize, not for starting the thread, but thinking that 9 is 8. And to think that math was my best subject in high school! Since people on the Boneyard spend a good deal of time thinking about what might happen in the future, I have no regrets about revisiting this subject, despite the sarcasm of the previous post. Perhaps I will be more intelligent when I have posted 13,000 times.

Obviously with 9 players in the mix, many of my numbers in this exercise are flawed and this goes to show how intense the competition will be for playing time next season, assuming all players are healthy. If 200 are divided as previously stated, and not with some arbitrary equality, then all 200 minutes will have been used up and there is no playing time for anyone else, an obvious impossibility. If, however, we think that Nika will play 20 minute, Dorka around 15, and Griffin 10, then 15 minutes are freed up for other players.

What this exercise is trying to show is that for the first time in a number of years, UConn will suffer from an embarrassment of riches, a far cry from the thin squads of the two seasons preceding the last one. The team has rarely had a rotation of more than seven players and for the upcoming season at least nine are in the mix.

And remember how short the bench was in the tournament this season with neither Anna nor Nika at full strength? It has been a long time, if ever, since UConn has had fourteen scholarship athletes, the vast majority of whom, if not All-Americans, would be extremely productive players on other teams.

Posting here 13,000 times is highly unlikely to make you more intelligent (HuskyNan being one of the exceptions).

 

[HuskyNan]

Posting here 13,000 times is highly unlikely to make you more intelligent (HuskyNan being one of the exceptions).

Sucking up? Good job! ?

 

[mbr33ct]

I know that there has already been discussion of this subject in the “How will the minutes be distributed to all players next season?” started by mbr33ct, but that was a little while ago. Who plays major minutes and how much are interesting topics for thought in an off-season that has already proven to be much more dynamic than normal.

UConn is expected to have a roster of 14 players for 200 player minutes per game. The closest parallel I see the next year’s squad is 1999-2000, although the 2000-01 also merits consideration. That 36-1 team had thirteen players - seniors Stacy Hansmeyer and Paige Sauer; juniors Svetlana Abrosimova, Marci Czel, Shea Ralph, Christine Rigby, and Kelly Schumacher; sophomores Sue Bird, Swin Cash, Asjha Jones, Keirsten Walters (who played little or not at all due to injuries), and Tamika Williams; freshman Kennitra Johnson. All but two (Marci Czel and Christine Rigby) received significant minutes during the season and no one averaged anything close to 30 minutes per game, but this is based on memory since the Boneyard section on replays does not contain box scores for that season (they started the next season). If my memory is correct, the three of the ten seeing significant minutes who played the least were Hansmeyer, Sauer, and Johnson, but even they averaged around 10 minutes per game.

The general consensus is that the top eight players on next year’s team are seniors Christyn Williams, Olivia Nelson-Ododa, Evina Westbrook, and Dorka Juhasz (she may stay for a second year); junior Aubrey Griffin; sophomores Paige Bueckers, Nike Mühl, and Aaliyah Edwards; and freshman Azzi Fudd. For the sake of argument, let’s start by saying that each plays 25 minutes per game. 25 x 8 = 200. Of course, not all will play 25 minutes, again for the sake of debate, Paige will probably pay 30, Griffin around 15, Juhasz say 20, Fudd 20, and Westbrook 20. Then the total for the core players is reduced to 180 and the remaining 20 are to be divided up among the remaining six players. If we assume that Caroline Ducharme is the best of the rest, she gets 10 minutes, with another 10 minutes to be apportioned among the last five players.

Wait a minute, you say, Ducharme only 10 minutes, give me a break! And what about Amari DeBerry, a top 10 recruit, will she only be playing in garbage time? We simply do not know.

A good deal of what we postulate is hypothetical and obviously Boneyarders will have different opinions on this subject. It is possible that another player will decide to enter the transfer portal and there will certainly be injuries and that will mean more minutes to be divided up. Moreover, we do not know the level of improvement that might occur with freshmen becoming sophomores. Still the question of possible playing time is an interesting one to think about for the next few months.

Fire away.

I won't get into the minutes distribution for this upcoming season...been there...done that and I even got one such post like you did when I started my thread (may it RPI). What I will post are the 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 roster final stats. (which I also posted along the thread I created).

The 2000-2001 team had 14 players on roster to match this upcoming season team (as it stands currently). Your memory would be incorrect, Kennitra Johnson played and averaged 22.4 min.gm, fourth in minutes. Kelly Schumacher averaged 15.6 min/gm. Hopefully this post does not generate any additional angst among some, merely here for general info.

 

[CL82]

Your core 8 is actually 9, so they use up more than 200 minutes. Now what?

Overtime?

 

[Centerstream]

This is a useless exercise. I’m begging you to just stop.

Unfortunately I don't think your begging will help.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

I know that there has already been discussion of this subject in the “How will the minutes be distributed to all players next season?” started by mbr33ct, but that was a little while ago. Who plays major minutes and how much are interesting topics for thought in an off-season that has already proven to be much more dynamic than normal.

UConn is expected to have a roster of 14 players for 200 player minutes per game. The closest parallel I see the next year’s squad is 1999-2000, although the 2000-01 also merits consideration. That 36-1 team had thirteen players - seniors Stacy Hansmeyer and Paige Sauer; juniors Svetlana Abrosimova, Marci Czel, Shea Ralph, Christine Rigby, and Kelly Schumacher; sophomores Sue Bird, Swin Cash, Asjha Jones, Keirsten Walters (who played little or not at all due to injuries), and Tamika Williams; freshman Kennitra Johnson. All but two (Marci Czel and Christine Rigby) received significant minutes during the season and no one averaged anything close to 30 minutes per game, but this is based on memory since the Boneyard section on replays does not contain box scores for that season (they started the next season). If my memory is correct, the three of the ten seeing significant minutes who played the least were Hansmeyer, Sauer, and Johnson, but even they averaged around 10 minutes per game.

The general consensus is that the top eight players on next year’s team are seniors Christyn Williams, Olivia Nelson-Ododa, Evina Westbrook, and Dorka Juhasz (she may stay for a second year); junior Aubrey Griffin; sophomores Paige Bueckers, Nike Mühl, and Aaliyah Edwards; and freshman Azzi Fudd. For the sake of argument, let’s start by saying that each plays 25 minutes per game. 25 x 8 = 200. Of course, not all will play 25 minutes, again for the sake of debate, Paige will probably pay 30, Griffin around 15, Juhasz say 20, Fudd 20, and Westbrook 20. Then the total for the core players is reduced to 180 and the remaining 20 are to be divided up among the remaining six players. If we assume that Caroline Ducharme is the best of the rest, she gets 10 minutes, with another 10 minutes to be apportioned among the last five players.

Wait a minute, you say, Ducharme only 10 minutes, give me a break! And what about Amari DeBerry, a top 10 recruit, will she only be playing in garbage time? We simply do not know.

A good deal of what we postulate is hypothetical and obviously Boneyarders will have different opinions on this subject. It is possible that another player will decide to enter the transfer portal and there will certainly be injuries and that will mean more minutes to be divided up. Moreover, we do not know the level of improvement that might occur with freshmen becoming sophomores. Still the question of possible playing time is an interesting one to think about for the next few months.

Fire away.

The simple truth is that juggling playing time amongst 14 talented athletes will be a major problem. Perhaps everyone is happy. Perhaps Coach Geno can find a way to keep everyone motivated and rooting for each other. But this isn't 2000-2001. Players enjoy much greater mobility now. Yes, there could be major injuries that open up more minutes. But the 200 minutes problem is not going away. And pretending that everything is rainbows and butterflies won't make it go away.

 

[HuskyNan]

Good grief, people complained for years about the lack of a bench and a dearth of post players. Now UConn has an outstanding roster and people are complaining there are too many good players to earn time on the court? Poor Geno, he can’t win

 

[jdubct]

Good grief, people complained for years about the lack of a bench and a dearth of post players. Now UConn has an outstanding roster and people are complaining there are too many good players to earn time on the court? Poor Geno, he can’t win

Geno, maybe not. However, the players can win!

 

[Shaffer0011]

This topic gets over analyzed every season and the next one is no exception. I really don’t think is will be that difficult for Geno. Paige plays as much as needed, 30+ per game. CW and Evina with Azzi first off the bench. Azzi may play more minutes than Evina. Nika spells the point about 10 minutes per game. Liv, Dorka and Aaliyah split the forward minutes leaving 5-10 for Amari. Aubrey will be used as she has in the past. Filling in for injury, foul trouble, a specific defensive assignment, etc. Mir, Saylor, and Piath get anything left when we play Big East teams. Caroline is the big question. I think she is a future starter when Evina and CW are gone. Evina’s return probably takes minutes away from her this year and may slow her development. it will be interesting to see if Geno or fate finds minutes for her.

 

[huskeynut]

I have refrained from commenting on these "minutes" post. It's a mindless exercise.

Thee discussion should be who are the 8 to 9 players in the rotation.

Paige, E, Nika, Christyn and Olivia are the first 5. Next are Aaliyah, Dorka, Azzi and I think Caroline. Possible #10 is Amari.

Time will tell.

 

[UcMiami]

I won't get into the minutes distribution for this upcoming season...been there...done that and I even got one such post like you did when I started my thread (may it RPI). What I will post are the 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 roster final stats. (which I also posted along the thread I created).

The 2000-2001 team had 14 players on roster to match this upcoming season team (as it stands currently). Your memory would be incorrect, Kennitra Johnson played and averaged 22.4 min.gm, fourth in minutes. Kelly Schumacher averaged 15.6 min/gm. Hopefully this post does not generate any additional angst among some, merely here for general info.

View attachment 67329

Good to remember on the 2000-01 team Sveta's average minutes came in 17 games - half the season, and Shea missed the last five games.

What people forget is that Uconn generally plays three types of games: completely over-matched opponents; easy wins; highly competitive games. The ratio for those games is usually 2:3:1 (10:15:5.) So while 'average minutes' is interesting it doesn't represent the reality of the games being played. In the first category Geno could leave his starters home and still have an easy win, in the second he could leave them home and have a highly competitive game - he isn't doing that, but in the first category of games if he plays his starters 15 minutes in the first half and 5 minutes in the second half it leaves 100 minutes in that game to be divided by his 9 other players or 20 minutes each for 3 primary bench player and 7 minutes each the other 6, or any other way you want to break it down. In the second group of games maybe he plays his starters 15 and 10 which leaves 75 minutes for his 9 bench players - 15 minutes each for three primary subs, and 30 minutes for the other 6. Finally the last few truly competitive games when his starters play 15 and 10 and his primary bench of 3 plays most of the remaining 75 minutes and the 6 remaining play almost nothing. So minutes average out wherever they do depending on fouls, style of play, and the exact ratio of types of games played, as well as how well the roster develops and any injuries or illnesses.

So the starters/primary bench are probably: Ono, Paige, Christyn, Edwards, Nika, Evina, Dorka, and Fudd And they average somewhere between 29 and 17 minutes. And the other 6 players average somewhere between 15 and 3 minutes. If Aubrey or Caroline or Amari or Mir, or _____ really develop, then maybe the primary bench expands and cuts into the starter minutes or decreases the end of bench minutes.

NB Collier as a freshman and Gabby as a sophomore got 17.2 and 18.6 mpg on a team of 10 scholarship players and 2 walk-ons. Those two were eventually AAs.

 

[MD#12Fan]

Consider this: I've mentioned it before with no takers. Try Try again.
A "Blue Team". I know with all of our "veteran" posters, you remember Dean Smith's Blue Team at UNC. He substituted 5 guys, maybe once each half, in unison. The benefits of this are pretty obvious: 1) great for team morale 2) everyone went into each game ready to play 3) rest for starters 4) recruiting- players knew if they went to UNC, they would get a chance to play. Remember the famous Dean quote, "the only person to hold Michael Jordan under 20 was Dean Smith". Two from the DC area- Mike Pepper from Flint Hill before it was Flint Hill (Dennis Scott), we beat them regularly when I was in HS, Bruce Buckley- all-Met player from Bladensburg HS. This group would basically stay on the floor as long as they could at least maintain the lead. What a psychological boost. They would all 5 kneel at the scorers table and everyone knew what was up. It was exciting!
So, you have your 5 starters, and two or three key subs, the Blue Team- that's 13. Injuries, bench warmers and you've got it.
Everybody plays and contributes. Obviously the groups change as players move up and down on the depth chart. One more thing: usually the Blue Team has a "captain" of sorts, like a leader, could be a more veteran player, E comes to mind, or someone else steps up to fill the leadership role. Could be unexpected, a career booster, like if Saylor or Mir stepped up. Coaching idea: sometimes if you give someone a role on the team, the player will fill the needs and responsibilities of the assigned role.

 

[Cuango]

This is a useless exercise. I’m begging you to just stop.

Why?

 

[hoophuskee]

I apologize, not for starting the thread, but thinking that 9 is 8. And to think that math was my best subject in high school! Since people on the Boneyard spend a good deal of time thinking about what might happen in the future, I have no regrets about revisiting this subject, despite the sarcasm of the previous post. Perhaps I will be more intelligent when I have posted 13,000 times.

Obviously with 9 players in the mix, many of my numbers in this exercise are flawed and this goes to show how intense the competition will be for playing time next season, assuming all players are healthy. If 200 are divided as previously stated, and not with some arbitrary equality, then all 200 minutes will have been used up and there is no playing time for anyone else, an obvious impossibility. If, however, we think that Nika will play 20 minute, Dorka around 15, and Griffin 10, then 15 minutes are freed up for other players.

What this exercise is trying to show is that for the first time in a number of years, UConn will suffer from an embarrassment of riches, a far cry from the thin squads of the two seasons preceding the last one. The team has rarely had a rotation of more than seven players and for the upcoming season at least nine are in the mix.

And remember how short the bench was in the tournament this season with neither Anna nor Nika at full strength? It has been a long time, if ever, since UConn has had fourteen scholarship athletes, the vast majority of whom, if not All-Americans, would be extremely productive players on other teams.

Don't have any regrets. If people don't like it they can easily ignore the thread. Those that don't like it and wanted to post as such - just disregard their comments and post what you want to talk about. Your not beholden to anyone. (Neither is anyone who doesn't like it either. Let 'em rip too.).

For me- I have no idea how the minutes will break down. I don't know how the 3pt shot will affect things either- now that they are moving it back. It may mean low post play is even more important. Or maybe "more precision guard play" etc.


And in regards to minutes- instead of locking yourself into 200 (it's rare season's turn out that way considering injuries and players being benched etc.) why not take an average of the last 4 which is about 217 minutes? I'd be shocked if Geno doesn't have a good player in the doghouse for a game etc.

 

[eebmg]

I think we put to much emphasis focusing on the minutes in a season instead of looking ar the 4 year development of players at UConn

I think any player with a realistic future in professional ball will crack the proverbial 8 man rotation by their sophomore year and start no later than their junior year. I know their are some exceptions like defensive unicorns (Kia Stokes) and maybe Aubrey will fit that pattern but I think it a decent rule of thumb

Players below that level will then have to make a decision. Stay at UConn in a more limited capacity and enjoy the program success and other intrinsic virtues or look for more playing time at a lower level program which is fine but will not realistically result in a magical metamorphosis and professional ball. And even in those cases, the prestige of being in the UConn program and the belief that they know how to play ball can lead to unique career options (Kyla Irwin)

 

[chrissaran]

I've said all along that he needs to get the second team meaningful minutes, or what's the point of having them sit on the bench. Evina, Olivia, Christyn, Aubrey, Paige, Aaliyah, Nika, Mir, Saylor, Piath, Azzi, Amari, Caroline, and Dorka. There is no way to distribute the minutes evenly. There may be some players who play less minutes than they're used to. However it works out, it makes no sense to have all this talent only to have players sitting on the bench playing 2 or 3 minutes each game.

 

[Centerstream]

Ah, only 6 more months to continue with this discussion.
Oh wait, starting in November it will be "why isn't (fill in the player's name here) getting more playing time?"
Love it.

 

[oldhusky]

I won't get into the minutes distribution for this upcoming season...been there...done that and I even got one such post like you did when I started my thread (may it RPI). What I will post are the 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 roster final stats. (which I also posted along the thread I created).

The 2000-2001 team had 14 players on roster to match this upcoming season team (as it stands currently). Your memory would be incorrect, Kennitra Johnson played and averaged 22.4 min.gm, fourth in minutes. Kelly Schumacher averaged 15.6 min/gm. Hopefully this post does not generate any additional angst among some, merely here for general info.

View attachment 67329

This is a very good historical analogy of how much Geno "might" use this roster. Those two seasons nobody had more than 30 minutes a game, and 10 players were used for significant minutes (more than 10 per game). I am not including Battle the second year because she only played 5 games and Svet missed quite a few. The other players were pretty much getting blow out, mop up minutes, but the 10 appeared to be used in almost all games, not just conference or easy games.

I have no idea if it will happen, but I hope Geno moves close to this model. I suspect whoever winds up 11-14 will normally be DNP coaches decision in big games. I don't want to lose them, but I really really don't want to lose say someone in the 8-10 range, because they aren't even getting regular minutes in conference games. This roster, short of major injuries is way to talented to have a short rotation.