I had a friend talking about low freshman playing time the other night. I did not disagree with him, although I’ve always been a bit more in the middle between “the fans don’t see the truth” and “Fox hates freshman”, plus I don’t get worked up.
The perception is definitely bad. When people say it impacts the program, I agree, and if it gets bad enough, we’ll have to change coaches - but I won’t be getting a phone call on that.
I’ve always felt we play freshman a little less than others, but mainly because our freshman - until the last 5 years - weren’t all that good, and when they were, only one or maybe two were good enough to play, plus Fox expects a lot of understanding about the offense (which I have said is too complicated from day one) plus maybe very high expectations on defense.
So, I got curious about the whole thing. I didn’t expect to settle any arguments, but after researching the Hoopsboard - no, I’m kidding, I didn’t research the Hoopsboard .
I got curious about the whole thing and decided to look at the numbers for a couple consecutive years, years I thought might be reasonably representative since they are back a few, but not too far back. I suggest everyone check my numbers – I am not perfect, although I am, liek all of you, of course always right.
If you think looking at additional years would be good, have at it. Kind of spread the effort around.
Here’s what I did, and by the way there are other ways to figure this and you can probably put a finer point on the treatment, but it’s just basketball and for me this gives enough to chew on:
I picked a few teams I thought were reasonable comparisons to Georgia. I added the number of minutes played by freshman on each team, ignoring freshman that played less than 100 minutes – everyone’s got a couple of those guys. If a freshman lost games from significant injury I multiplied the number of minutes – it happened twice, both at Tennessee - and I doubled one and more than doubled another. It seemed generous. Then I divided by the number of games played (between 31 and 37), then by the number of freshman playing over 100 minutes. I did not distinguish between freshman and redshirt freshman.
There was only one freshman with between 75 and 200 minutes (151) except those with significant injuries. I thought that was interesting.
Twice did a team have 4 freshman that figured in – LSU in 2012-13 and Ole Miss in 2013 - 14. Otherwise, there were 2 or 3 freshman with playing time over 100 minutes per team (all but one of those over 200). I thought that was interesting, particularly in light of of our current recruiting situation.
I have to admit, I looked up and ran the numbers three times – I was a little surprised.
I make no judgments. It’s only numbers. I’m just going to leave this here and let you guys ignore it or talk about it. Whatever floats your boat. Before I go, some pre-emptive retorts: If I picked the wrong years – fine, pick your own. If it doesn’t mean anything, of course, it’s just numbers - you decide what it means. If you “Can see with my own eyes,” didn’t say you couldn’t. For the, “You are obviously (fill in this blank),” spare me the obvious. Besides, when you say “Obviously” it usually makes things obvious about yourself, not the person you are talking about.
Here is the two year break down.
2013 LSU, 1097 freshman minutes, 35 minutes per game, 12 per freshman per game
2014 LSU, 2359 freshman minutes, 69 minutes per game, 23 per freshman per game
2013 GA, 1518 freshman minutes, 47 minutes per game, 16 per freshman per game
2014 GA, 894 freshman minutes, 28 minutes per game, 14 per freshman per game
2013 UT, 1015 freshman minutes, 31 minutes per game, 10 per freshman per game
2014 UT, 1394 freshman minutes, 38 minutes per game, 12 per freshman per game
2013 Miss, 1059 freshman minutes, 29 minutes per game, 7 per freshman per game
2014 Miss, 948 freshman minutes, 29 minutes per game, 14 per freshman per game
I think both the per game and per player numbers are meaningful, but in different ways. All teams combined, its 19.1% freshman minutes per game. Since freshman with less than 100 minutes are not figured in, my opinion as a basketball savvy observer is that between 15-20% would be the number that makes sense for most teams. Georgia was 18.75%, but don’t compare that to the 19.1 %. IMO, that comparison is quite flawed – it’s only two years and four teams. And that’s my last word – it’s only two years, two particular years, and four teams out of more than 300.
The perception is definitely bad. When people say it impacts the program, I agree, and if it gets bad enough, we’ll have to change coaches - but I won’t be getting a phone call on that.
I’ve always felt we play freshman a little less than others, but mainly because our freshman - until the last 5 years - weren’t all that good, and when they were, only one or maybe two were good enough to play, plus Fox expects a lot of understanding about the offense (which I have said is too complicated from day one) plus maybe very high expectations on defense.
So, I got curious about the whole thing. I didn’t expect to settle any arguments, but after researching the Hoopsboard - no, I’m kidding, I didn’t research the Hoopsboard .
I got curious about the whole thing and decided to look at the numbers for a couple consecutive years, years I thought might be reasonably representative since they are back a few, but not too far back. I suggest everyone check my numbers – I am not perfect, although I am, liek all of you, of course always right.
If you think looking at additional years would be good, have at it. Kind of spread the effort around.
Here’s what I did, and by the way there are other ways to figure this and you can probably put a finer point on the treatment, but it’s just basketball and for me this gives enough to chew on:
I picked a few teams I thought were reasonable comparisons to Georgia. I added the number of minutes played by freshman on each team, ignoring freshman that played less than 100 minutes – everyone’s got a couple of those guys. If a freshman lost games from significant injury I multiplied the number of minutes – it happened twice, both at Tennessee - and I doubled one and more than doubled another. It seemed generous. Then I divided by the number of games played (between 31 and 37), then by the number of freshman playing over 100 minutes. I did not distinguish between freshman and redshirt freshman.
There was only one freshman with between 75 and 200 minutes (151) except those with significant injuries. I thought that was interesting.
Twice did a team have 4 freshman that figured in – LSU in 2012-13 and Ole Miss in 2013 - 14. Otherwise, there were 2 or 3 freshman with playing time over 100 minutes per team (all but one of those over 200). I thought that was interesting, particularly in light of of our current recruiting situation.
I have to admit, I looked up and ran the numbers three times – I was a little surprised.
I make no judgments. It’s only numbers. I’m just going to leave this here and let you guys ignore it or talk about it. Whatever floats your boat. Before I go, some pre-emptive retorts: If I picked the wrong years – fine, pick your own. If it doesn’t mean anything, of course, it’s just numbers - you decide what it means. If you “Can see with my own eyes,” didn’t say you couldn’t. For the, “You are obviously (fill in this blank),” spare me the obvious. Besides, when you say “Obviously” it usually makes things obvious about yourself, not the person you are talking about.
Here is the two year break down.
2013 LSU, 1097 freshman minutes, 35 minutes per game, 12 per freshman per game
2014 LSU, 2359 freshman minutes, 69 minutes per game, 23 per freshman per game
2013 GA, 1518 freshman minutes, 47 minutes per game, 16 per freshman per game
2014 GA, 894 freshman minutes, 28 minutes per game, 14 per freshman per game
2013 UT, 1015 freshman minutes, 31 minutes per game, 10 per freshman per game
2014 UT, 1394 freshman minutes, 38 minutes per game, 12 per freshman per game
2013 Miss, 1059 freshman minutes, 29 minutes per game, 7 per freshman per game
2014 Miss, 948 freshman minutes, 29 minutes per game, 14 per freshman per game
I think both the per game and per player numbers are meaningful, but in different ways. All teams combined, its 19.1% freshman minutes per game. Since freshman with less than 100 minutes are not figured in, my opinion as a basketball savvy observer is that between 15-20% would be the number that makes sense for most teams. Georgia was 18.75%, but don’t compare that to the 19.1 %. IMO, that comparison is quite flawed – it’s only two years and four teams. And that’s my last word – it’s only two years, two particular years, and four teams out of more than 300.
