I've said this a few times lately but I think we have the rotation mostly figured out at this point. What appeared to be an 11-man competition has quickly been trimmed down to a standard 8-man rotation before Thanksgiving. Jakstys was always a redshirt candidate but he was surprisingly joined by Ty Rodgers. Jake Davis is also a bit player, which isn't really a surprise either. The other surprising development is that it now appears that Carey Booth is no longer getting regular minutes, as Morez Johnson is too good to just be the backup 5 and has taken all his minutes at the 4. I think Booth is the emergency foul trouble big (the BBV role.) So we are looking at the following preferred rotation in a typical competitive game.
PG: KJ (30), Boswell (10)
SG: Boswell (18), DGL (12), White (10)
SF: White (12), Riley (28)
PF: Humrichous (28), Johnson (12)
C: Ivisic (28), Johnson (12)
Here's the 8-man by total minutes:
KJ (30), Boswell (28), Ivisic (28), Humrichous (28), Riley (28), Johnson (24), White (22), DGL (12)
PG: KJ (30), Boswell (10)
SG: Boswell (18), DGL (12), White (10)
SF: White (12), Riley (28)
PF: Humrichous (28), Johnson (12)
C: Ivisic (28), Johnson (12)
Here's the 8-man by total minutes:
KJ (30), Boswell (28), Ivisic (28), Humrichous (28), Riley (28), Johnson (24), White (22), DGL (12)
- Even though White starts over Riley, Riley plays more minutes and is one of our best 5 players. This is by design as Riley is young and seems to take a little time to get acclimated to games. White seems to fare better as the go-to guy in the first few minutes of games. We'll see if this dynamic evolves as we get further in the season. I think the fans will want to start Riley well before Underwood does. I thought Riley had an off night against Little Rock and still put up 13 points with a 143 ORtg. White is a nice all-around player. Riley has an interesting mix of skills but is mainly just a scorer right now.
- 24 minutes for Morez Johnson is more aspirational than reality-based right now. You may notice though that we play much better when Johnson gets more minutes (and I'm sure Underwood has.) It's probably because Johnson rebounds at an insanely high level on both ends and pretty much leads the team in all the "big man" per-possession stats. The guy is an absolute beast and if he can stay on the court (foul trouble) he is also one of our 5 best players. I'm mainly starting this thread to hype up Morez Johnson as he's somehow underrated at this moment.
- Ivisic seems very capable of playing starter minutes at the 5. Plug and play center. Not super flashy but very solid.
- Humrichous is a 6'9" guy that can hit a high-volume of 3-pointers at 40%. That gets you 28 minutes as a "spacer." His defense is the weak link. If Booth claws his way back into the rotation, these are some of the minutes he could take.
- KJ is the go-to lead guard "action guy." You can tell Underwood just loves the guy and he's the star freshman point guard that he always wanted. Underwood will be fighting himself to keep him to only 30 mpg.
- Boswell is the defensive stopper and the emotional leader for the team. When Plan A goes wrong, he's Plan B. When the freshmen get tight and the other team starts going on a run, Boswell is the guy who makes a play to turn things around. His offense is suffering for the sake of his defense right now but he'll figure it out.
- DGL is the bench sparkplug change of pace guy. His job is to just play balls to the wall for 12 minutes and mess up the other team's B unit. If he gets hot you can ride him for a while to turn a game around.
- KJ, Boswell, Riley, Johnson, and Ivisic are 5 absolute studs. They are a bit younger or inexperienced at the college level, but these 5 are going to go thermonuclear on someone in the NCAA Tournament.
