{"id":228,"date":"2014-02-04T16:10:06","date_gmt":"2014-02-04T22:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/67.227.157.91\/~kenpom\/wp_blog\/starters-who-dont-play\/"},"modified":"2014-02-04T16:10:06","modified_gmt":"2014-02-04T22:10:06","slug":"starters-who-dont-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kenpom.com\/blog\/starters-who-dont-play\/","title":{"rendered":"Starters who don’t play"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Friday, I commented on the plight of Longwood\u2019s Jeff Havenstein. He started in Longwood\u2019s win over Charleston Southern, but played just two minutes. These kinds of occurrences aren\u2019t all that unusual, but they often involve some sort of tragedy<\/a>, like a serious injury. In Havenstein\u2019s case, it was a coaches decision. That got me wondering about which coaches make a mockery of the starter label, and likewise which bench players might as well be considered starters. <\/p>\n

First, let\u2019s look at the guys who don\u2019t start but play the most. The following players have played the highest percentage their team\u2019s minutes without starting a single time. You can call these guys sixth men if you want, but it\u2019s very misleading.<\/p>\n

5. Shannon Evans<\/a>, Buffalo.<\/strong> Evans has played at least 30 minutes in four of the Bulls\u2019 18 games, and on the season has appeared in 64.5% of Buffalo\u2019s minutes. While Bobby Hurley starts a conventional lineup in terms of size, the 6-1 Evans\u2019 early appearance into a game usually comes at the expense of a big, meaning Buffalo goes with three guards.<\/p>\n

4. Tre Demps<\/a>, Northwestern.<\/strong> Chris Collins has had to do some work to keep Demps out of the starting lineup. With JerShon Cobb, Drew Crawford, and Dave Sobolewski each missing games at various times this season, it would have made sense for Demps to make a start at some point. He made nine starts last season, so it\u2019s not like Demps is unfamiliar with jump ball procedure. He\u2019s played in 65.6% of the Wildcats minutes and hasn\u2019t played fewer than 24 minutes since December 4th. <\/p>\n

3. William Gates, Jr.<\/a>, Furman.<\/strong> You could make a documentary about this guy\u2019s season so far. Gates\u2019 particular hoop dream is to start a Division-I basketball game, and despite playing in 65.7% of the Paladins\u2019 minutes, the freshman has yet to do so. He\u2019s played at least 30 minutes in a whopping nine of Furman\u2019s 19 games against D-I foes.<\/p>\n

2. Ian Miller<\/a>, Florida State.<\/strong> Miller was the leader on this list, but he sprained his ankle early in Saturday\u2019s loss to Clemson and played just seven minutes. His status for Wednesday\u2019s game against Virginia Tech is in doubt. He\u2019s still played in 66.8% of the Seminoles\u2019 minutes, which included a team-high 34 minutes of regulation action in his most-recent healthy game against N.C. State.<\/p>\n

1. Jon Harris<\/a>, Cleveland State.<\/strong> Harris somehow played 36 minutes in a game against UIC on January 22. The 6-7 senior entered the game at the 17:01 mark of the first half, and at the 18:47 mark of the second half, and didn\u2019t take a seat until the end of each period. Overall he\u2019s played in 67.1% of the Vikings\u2019 minutes, and along with Anton Grady, is one of the more formidable offensive duos in the Horizon League. Based on pure production, Harris should be starting, although I\u2019m sure Gary Waters has his reasons for bringing him off the bench. What will Waters do on Senior Day?<\/p>\n

Now for the guys who wear the starter label proudly, but spend most of the game on the bench. This group includes players that have started and appeared in each of their team\u2019s games but have played the lowest percentage of their team\u2019s minutes.<\/p>\n

5. Michael Holyfield<\/a>, Sam Houston State.<\/strong> Fourth-year head coach Jason Hooten runs a deep bench, so it\u2019s not like he has something particular against Holyfield, who currently ranks 11th nationally in OR%, 31st in DR%, and 43rd in block percentage. Hooten would have probably given the junior more than 41.7% of the team\u2019s available minutes if it weren\u2019t for him committing over seven fouls per 40 minutes played.<\/p>\n

4. Adam Woodbury<\/a>, Iowa.<\/strong> Speaking of big men on teams with deep benches, Woodbury has started each of the Hawkeyes\u2019 22 games, but has played at least 20 minutes in just four of them. The 7-1 sophomore has played just 40.6% of the Hawkeyes\u2019 minutes, eerily similar to his 40.8% mark of last season, when he also started every game. <\/p>\n

3. Zac Tillman<\/a>, Monmouth.<\/strong> Monmouth\u2019s 6-10 freshman has played single-digit minutes three times in his 22 starts and overall has appeared in a mere 37.6% of the Hawks\u2019 minutes. Like Holyfield and Woodbury, Tillman likes to foul (6.7 per 40 minutes) perhaps knowing that his time on the court is going to be brief anyway.<\/p>\n

2. Jeff Havenstein<\/a>, Longwood.<\/strong> Havenstein has started 23 games and taken 29 shots. Partly because he hates to shoot and partly because he doesn\u2019t stick around long after the opening tip. This is his fourth season in Farmville and he\u2019s never taken more than 10% of the Lancers\u2019 shots when he\u2019s on the floor. After the two-minute game against Charleston Southern, he\u2019s back in head coach Jayson Gee\u2019s good graces, playing a combined 23 minutes in Longwood\u2019s last two games. His season high is 21 minutes and overall Havenstein has appeared in just 34.5% of Longwood\u2019s minutes.<\/p>\n

1. Matt Milk<\/a>, St. Francis Brooklyn.<\/strong> Milk\u2019s honor gets an asterisk since he actually didn\u2019t play in a recent game against Bryant. However, his presence here is legit because even if he had played 40 minutes in that game, Milk still would have the lowest percentage of minutes played among players that have started each of their team\u2019s games. There have been 11 games where he\u2019s played single-digit minutes including twice where he played just four. In the 21 games he\u2019s played against D-I teams, he\u2019s appeared in a mere 22.6% of the Terrier\u2019s minutes. He\u2019s giving Ben Gillery<\/a> a run for his money. Every game Milk is on the floor for the jump, but when he subs out, he\u2019s out for the rest of the period. He may or may not start the second half, but if the does the drill is the same. Head coach Glenn Braica can tell people he\u2019s got Milk in the starting lineup, but just know that Milk is the least-used starter in the land.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Friday, I commented on the plight of Longwood\u2019s Jeff Havenstein. He started in Longwood\u2019s win over Charleston Southern, but played just two minutes. These kinds of occurrences aren\u2019t all that unusual, but they often involve some sort of tragedy, like a serious injury. In Havenstein\u2019s case, it was a coaches decision. That got me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenpom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenpom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenpom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenpom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenpom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kenpom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenpom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenpom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenpom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}