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[QUOTE="SWC75, post: 2383994, member: 289"]
You are probably right about players 9 and above. 8 guys you are willing to use in close games is pretty good depth, especially if some of them can play more than one positon. I doubt very many teams go deeper than that. It still takes a lot of playing time to not play very much during conference games and still average 10 minutes a game for the season. I agree that it would be more relevant if Cuse.com averaged the numbers per total games. It would be even more relevant to average it per games available. It would take a ton of research to determine for what games players were injured, ill or suspended. So let’s not average them at all and look at it with 300 minutes as the standard:

1980-81                8 players
1981-82                8 players
1982-83                9 players
1983-84                7 players
1984-85                7 players
1985-86                8 players
1986-87                7 players
1987-88                7 players
1988-89                8 players
1989-90                8 players
1990-91                7 players
1991-92                7 players
1992-93                7 players
1993-94                7 players
1994-95                7 players (one had 299 but rules are rules)
1995-96                7 players
1996-97                7 players
1997-98                7 players
1998-99                8 players
1999-00                8 players
2000-01                7 players
2001-02                8 players
2002-03                8 players
2003-04                8 players
2004-05                9 players
2005-06                7 players
2006-07                8 players
2007-08                8 players
2008-09                8 players
2009-10                7 players
2010-11                9 players
2011-12                9 players
2012-13                9 players
2013-14                7 players
2014-15                8 players
2015-16                7 players
2016-17                7 players

So I guess it’s correct to say that JB’s rotation is typically 7, (18 times), 8 (14 times) or 9 (5 times) players. (Average: 7.6 players) If anything he seems to be using more players in recent years. But I think it’s based on two things: the number of players who show the coach they can be relied on to contribute in a competitive game and the quality of the top players, who Jim will be reluctant to pull from the game. He’s said that all 9 guys will play this year, (he’s not going to say at this point that anybody won’t play). I think, barring injuries, this will be an 8 man rotation with Washington being a freshman behind three veteran guards.

For comparison’s sake, let’s look at last season’s AP Top 25, (stats from ESPN):
#1 Villanova                        7 players
#2 Gonzaga                        8 players
#3 Kansas                            7 players
#4 Arizona                          9 players
#5 North Carolina             9 players
#6 Kentucky                       9 players
#7 Duke                               7 players
#8 UCLA                               8 players
#9 Oregon                           8 players
#10 Louisville                     8 players
#11 SMU                              6 players
#12 Baylor                           8 players
#13 West Virginia             10 players
#14 Notre Dame               7 players
#15 Purdue                         7 players
#16 Iowa State                  8 players
#16 Florida State              10 players (tied in ranking)
#18 Cincinnati                    8 players
#19 Wichita State             10 players
#20 Florida                          9 players
#21 Butler                           9 players
#22 St. Mary’s                   8 players
#23 Michigan                     8 players
#24 Virginia                         10 players
#25 Wisconsin                   8 players

That’s 1 team with 6 players, 4 teams with 7 players, 10 with 8 players, 5 with 9 players and 4 with 10 players, an average of 8.0 players. The Top Ten teams tended to use fewer players than #11-25, probably because their top players were All-Americans. Jim Boeheim doesn’t seem like such an outlier in his rotation practices.
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