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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 4156919, member: 289"] Jim Boeheim made a comment that Villanova was only using 6 players. Jim is often accused of using only 6-7 players while other coaches use 8-9 or more. It provoked a discussion about how many minutes per game a player would have to play to be considered “used” and it was proposed that 10 minutes a game b the standard. I decided to see how many players have averaged 10 minutes a game for Jim’s teams over the years. I thought about using the numbers of games x 10 minutes as the standard as some players don’t play in all the games but decided that if a player averaged 10 minutes a game in the games he played, he was part of the rotation in those games. Likely, he was injured, suspended or had left the team for the games he didn’t play in. But Jim was using him when he was available if he averaged 10 minutes a game. Orangehoops doesn’t have minutes before the 1980-81 season, and neither does Cuse.com, the SU Athletic site or Sports Reference.com, so we’ll start there. That’s the Carrier Dome Era. (Note: Orangehoops doesn’t average minutes. Sports reference doesn’t have them until 1983-84. Cuse.com has the minutes for 1980-81 and 1982-83 but nothing for 1981-82. I actually used a Media Guide from 2017-18 which had everything from 1980-81 and then supplemented it with Sports Reference.com for subsequent years.) [URL unfurl="true"]http://orangehoops.org/BBall.htm[/URL] [URL unfurl="true"]https://cuse.com/sports/2009/2/3/sidebar_52.aspx?path=mbasket[/URL] [URL="https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/syracuse/"]Syracuse Orange Index | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com[/URL] 1980-81 9 players played at least 10 minutes a game Team record: 22-12 1981-82 8: 16-13 1982-83 9: 21-10 1983-84 7: 23-9 1984-85 7: 22-9 1985-86 10: 26-6 1986-87 8: 31-7 1987-88 8: 26-9 1988-89 7: 30-8 1989-90 8: 26-7 1990-91 8: 26-6 1991-92 8: 22-10 1992-93 7: 20-9 1993-94 7: 23-7 1994-95 8: 20-10 1995-96 7: 29-9 1996-97 9: 19-13 1997-98 6: 26-9 1998-99 10: 21-12 1999-2000 8: 26-6 2000-01 7: 25-9 2001-02 8: 23-13 2002-03 8: 30-5 2003-04 8: 23-8 2004-05 9: 27-7 2005-06 8: 23-12 2006-07 8: 24-11 2007-08 8: 21-14 2008-09 8: 28-10 2009-10 8: 30-5 2010-11 8: 27-8 2011-12 10: 34-3 2012-13 9: 30-10 2013-14 8: 28-6 2014-15 8: 18-13 2015-16 7: 23-14 2016-17 9: 19-15 2017-18 8: 23-14 2018-19 9: 20-14 2019-20 7: 18-14 2020-21 7: 18-10 2021-22 7: 11-11 In the one year where 6 players played 10+ minutes per game, our record was 26-9 In the 11 years when 7 players have played 10+ minutes a game, our average record is 22-10 In the 20 years when 8 players have played 10+ minutes a game, our average record is 26-9 In the 7 years when 9 players have played 10+ minutes a game, our average record is 23-12 In the 3 years when 10 players have played 10+ minutes a game, our average record is 27-7 The first and last stats are small samples. It appears that 8 guys playing 10+ minutes is optimum for the Boeheim system. And in these 42 years, that’s been the average – exactly. (336/42) Let’s compare that to the current Top 25, (from Sports reference.com) Auburn 10 players Gonzaga 8 UCLA 9 Purdue 10 Kentucky 7 Houston 10 Arizona 9 Baylor 9 Duke 8 Kansas 8 Wisconsin 8 Villanova 8 Michigan State 9 Texas Tech 10 Providence 8 Ohio State 10 Connecticut 9 Illinois 8 So California 9 Iowa State 9 Xavier 8 Tennessee 10 Texas 10 Marquette 9 Louisiana State 8 That’s an average of 8.52, half a player more than Jim Boeheim’s average. But basically, 8 guys is more of a minimum than an average. And Jim has used 7 guys three years in a row now. So, yes, Jim Boeheim has a tighter rotation than a typical Top 25 coach and it’s less now than it used to be. But the differences aren’t huge. And the players have to prove they belong out there. Jim will go above 7 and even above 8 if that many players prove they can help the team – or if he’s searching for guys who can. [/QUOTE]

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