Michigan's 2021-22 roster is posted

I think one or two of Bufkin, Zeb, and Collins will be relegated to emergency use only. And I’m certainly not putting Bufkin as one of the ones left out

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With the way our roster is constructed this season I’d be a fan a larger 10-man rotation. I think we could mix in a lot of players and give teams unique looks and give teams some matchup problems.

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Possibly. Wholly depends on how good people like Frankie and Zeb are which we just don’t know right now.

I’m generally against large rotations though and I think the different matchups could be accomplished with an 8 or 9 man rotation

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I dig this - you think Diabate has those backup 5 minutes too (10ish minutes based on your projections)?

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Moussa and TWill are both 40% 3 point shooters this year.

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Moussa casually burying 3s over a 7’1 center >>>>

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I do. I totaled 200 minutes spread out amount 5 positions. I confuse myself when I list players at two position groups

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There’s some debate whether or not Zeb can play the 2. I don’t know how we got to Zeb playing the 3. :joy:

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what are the difficulties for Zeb to play 2/3?

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Zeb can’t shoot first of all so any off-ball role that has him as a secondary option to spread the floor or work off the PG’s primary action is not what he’s historically done. Zeb has always been a guy with the ball in his hands to attack or distribute. It isn’t that he CAN’T necessarily morph into a SG or SF in the future, it is just that he hasn’t shown that ever before and is still working on the basic parts of his own game before he becomes a different position.

I think Zeb could play along side Eli or Jones in the backcourt because his size and their ability to play both guard spots could make it work. I think it is going to be another year before we know if Zeb’s role can increase enough that he’s getting minutes beyond backup PG or part-time combo guard.

Your formatting is amazing. How did you do that?

Minute rotation looks about right too, but who actually takes the Zeb role you sketch out is totally unclear to me at the moment. Candidates: Kobe, TWill, Barnes and Zeb. i think my favorite outcome: Frankie is awesome and they play 3 guards 10 min a game?

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You have 10 guys in the normal rotation outside of “occasional minutes” category. I think it would be pretty straightforward to get that down to a more reasonable 8…

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Something McCormick briefly mentioned in his podcast🤔

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I might be recalling it wrong, but you were thinking some months back that this year would see a longer rotation than last year?

I think there will be fewer guys playing 38 minutes in key games but I don’t really think you need a rotation that goes much beyond 8 by the time conference play rolls around.

I’d say last year’s rotation was more of a 7.5 man rotation. Maybe this year’s is more of an 8.5 man rotation? But it is still so early and practice hasn’t even started so who really knows.

Dickinson, Brooks, Jones, Houstan, Diabate, Johns give you six. Then I think you just take the two or three best players out of Bufkin, Collins, Barnes, Williams, Jackson, Tschetter.

I’m not really sure positions matter because so many of those guys can play multiple spots. If one of those guys is your No. 7 and No. 8, you probably have the flexibility to bring them in at multiple spots. Hard to see a situation where you need more than two guys in that group.

Obviously a lot of people will see time in the non-conference, etc. I’m referring more to what things look like come conference play in a tight game.

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When did college basketball become a game where only 7-8 guys are part of a rotation?? Dating myself with this post but the last 30 years the national championship teams are littered with rosters that coaches went at least 8-9 deep

Kentucky x2 in the 90’s
Arizona went 8 deep
UConn went 9 deep
MSU went 9 deep
Maryland 8 deep-of note those 8 all played more than 17mpg
Syracuse 8 deep, had injury to player and minutes got ramped up for Melo/Warrick/McNamara

UConn 7-8 deep
UNC 8 deep

There are many more examples but these teams had 8 guys consistently going minimum 15 minutes a night. Is Michigan going to be able to have the type of roster than can give you that every night??

For individual games I can see but if you have a stretch of 4 games in 10 days or 4 games in 11 days it’s probably not the best plan to ride your 6 or 7 best. This is under the assumption a few of those frosh and Jones are capable of playing.

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how does that not jive with an 8 or 9 man rotation? A majority of your examples are 8 man rotations

Last year Baylor had an 8 man rotation and Gonzaga went 7 or 8
Year before that KU was 8 deep and Gonzaga was 7.

8 is normal, 7 is a little small and 9 is a little big. When your chips are down if you’re playing 9 guys you are probably not playing your best players as often as the other team, as your examples show and mine show. So unless you’re gaining an advantage because it fits your style of play there is very little reason to be playing 9 or 10 deep consistently in the biggest games. Especially come tourney time with constant stoppages.

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FSU uses 10-man

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I thought Michigan was much closer to a 7 man rotation, definitely a 7 man rotation after the Livers injury. As compared to 8 guys scooping up 15mpg. I guess a good example would be the win in Columbus when Livers was healthy. 8 guys played but the 7th and 8th guy split 20 total minutes.

Look at it from this perspective if you believe 5 starters are going to get 150 out of the 200 minutes (i am guessing the average for a starting 5 is 30 some may get 33 but another guy may get 27) that’s what you pretty much had last year for Michigan. Where are the other 50 coming from??

Eli has played 30mpg the last 2 years he’s not all of a sudden playing 25 especially with being a 5th year guy.

Jones should probably be around 30 mpg

Dickinson played 26 mpg is he going to get up to 30 mpg or do they have enough flexibility to give minutes to Johns/Diabate??

I can’t see Johns getting close to 30, same for Diabate. Houstan around 22-25?? Is it fair to say maybe Johns and Diabate give you a combined 35 minutes??

Williams should be in the mix for minutes that’s your 7th guy. So only one more guy out of Zeb/Bufkin/Collins/Tschetter/Barnes would be a regular in the rotation?? I have a hard time seeing that. You have 2 top 100 recruits not getting much run and a top 150 guy not getting any run in this scenario??

Brooks 30
Jones 30
Houstan 22
Johns 15
Dickinson 28
Diabate 22
Williams 15
Bufkin 17

You have 20 more minutes left to play with I might be low on Johns and Houstan but Johns time took a big hit from his 1st year with Juwan to his 2nd year. Is that because strictly because of Dickinson?? If it is I can’t see Johns mpg getting back up to 19-20 mpg like it was in the 19-20 season. So then you still have Collins good for 12-13 mpg.

I would be surprised if they could settle on a real good 8 man rotation when there are so many factors going into it eg. Johns (as mentioned before), can Diabate play 20mpg?? can Houstan get more than 25mpg? Can Williams scratch out a larger role than 12-13 mpg??

Yeah they’re basically the one exception. But I was referring to final four teams like Burger and they’ve never made a final four…

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