KU Jayhawks coach Bill Self has crazy depth. Here’s an innovative way he could use it
Bill Self officially has the deepest roster of his Kansas tenure, setting up an important question he’ll have to grapple with over the next few months.
What, exactly, is the best way to utilize all these good players?
Following Tuesday’s announcements that Ochai Agbaji and Remy Martin are coming back to school, KU men’s basketball has 14 capable scholarship players in a sport where depth isn’t usually the advantage it appears on paper.
Here’s the reality: While a loaded roster is great to look at in the offseason, teams that make great use of their bench typically aren’t the ones who make it to college basketball’s final weekend.
Case in point: Last year’s men’s Final Four teams ranked 209th, 234th, 265th and 311th in percentage of bench minutes used. Go back in the last five postseasons, and only one team — North Carolina in 2017 — ranked in the top 100 in bench minutes (69th). In contrast, five Final Four teams over that time ranked in the 300s in bench minutes, a group that includes KU in 2018 (345th).
Just because a team typically isn’t helped by immense depth, though, doesn’t mean that this year’s Jayhawks have to fall into that category. Self has the flexibility to be creative if he wants to get the most out of his roster construction, meaning outside-the-box ideas like extra full-court pressing or five-for-five substitutions can’t be ruled out if he’s looking to best maximize his own circumstances.
There’s a less conventional path, however — and one that would easier to implement — if Self wants to be innovative and blaze his own trail this next season.
It would require an idea that college basketball analyst Ken Pomeroy has suggested to coaches in the past before he says he was “universally laughed at.”
The idea would be creating college basketball’s own version of an “opener” ... a few years after baseball has seen a shift to a similar type of role with its pitchers.
In short, Pomeroy’s plan would call for this: Don’t have a traditional starting lineup, while starting 2-3 players who would typically be reserves.
College basketball research shows why this could be valuable. Pomeroy says the first few possessions of each game don’t play out like the others, with fewer shots at the rim, fewer threes, fewer fouls and longer possessions. In short, teams tend to play extra-cautious in these opening minutes while playing mostly risk-averse.
But what if a school decided to flip that thought process on its head?
Let’s say Self, through early practices, determines three reserves will be down in KU’s rotation but are still talented players who play with great energy. The thought would be to let those guys start alongside two others — Martin and Agbaji would make sense in this example — while looking to have those guys expend maximum effort in their 3-4 opening minutes before getting subbed out around the first media timeout.
It’s not difficult to see the potential benefits. For one, KU would look to capitalize with aggressiveness on an early stretch when most teams play conservatively. This also would give a steady and important role to three players who might not get into the game otherwise, allowing them to be motivated in practice while realizing they’ll have an important impact on every game.
The former starters checking in at the first media timeout could be helped as well. Someone like center David McCormack could play with more freedom knowing he’s less likely to be in foul trouble with fewer minutes left in the half. There’s also potential for the second lineup to have a conditioning advantage over the next few minutes, especially if the original starters perform their roles of going all out during their short time on the court.
This change actually would fit in nicely with Self’s basketball worldview as well. He’s harped in the past about a team’s starting lineup not mattering as people believe, while also saying what was most important was which players were in at the end of the game, not the beginning. Following through with a new method like this wouldn’t be outside his personality, while also serving as a tidy way of backing up some previously held beliefs.
So what’s the downside? Pomeroy understands coaches’ greatest fear: that the team will get off to a bad start without its best players in. If that happens, the coach immediately opens himself up to criticism that could have been completely avoided if he’d crafted his starting lineup a more typical way.
College basketball is changing quickly, though, with coaches more willing now to put themselves out there if it means capitalizing on a small edge. Alabama coach Nate Oats, in particular, spoke openly last year about how he rarely starts his best five players, looking instead to put players in a position where he can boost overall production.
Self is in a rare spot. He is a hall of fame coach with a lifetime contract, meaning he has free rein to be bold without blowback. Trying something different has no risk to get him fired, nor will it universally turn the fanbase against him. He’s earned both his credibility and job security through extensive previous success.
Here’s a chance to use that to his advantage. KU has the kind of depth that’s nice to look at, but typically doesn’t give college basketball teams any tangible benefit when it comes to the most important games late.
A few “openers” could change that, while allowing Self — ever-so-slightly — to push a numbers game in the Jayhawks’ favor.
