Let’s talk minutes. No, not the minutes of the last meeting. I’m talking about Kansas University men’s basketball minutes.
Minutes Played is a statistic that didn’t begin appearing in box scores until the mid-1970s so we have no idea how many minutes per game were logged by such KU standouts as Clyde Lovellette, Wilt Chamberlain, Dave Robisch and many others.
We do know that Danny Manning played more minutes than any player in KU recorded history, both in a season and for his career. However, KU’s record book doesn’t list average minutes played per game.
Manning, for instance, logged an average of 38.2 minutes per game in 1988, the Jayhawks’ last national championship season. Yet, I found one KU player who averaged more court time than that. Dave Magley averaged 39.0 during the 1981-82 season.
OK, before your eyes glaze over with all these MP numbers, I’ll get to the point.
Kansas has four players averaging more than 30 minutes a game this season. Based on coach Roy Williams’ history, that’s three more than Williams would like. Or is it?
During the ’90s, Williams’ philosophy was to play his starters about 27-28 minutes a game in order to keep them fresh and maintain a relentless ferocity designed to rubberize opponents’ legs, shrink their lungs and destroy their want-to.
Everybody talks about the Jayhawks’ terrific depth last season, about how Wayne Simien and Keith Langford coming off the bench provided KU with weapons other coaches only could wish they had.
Yet, as good as Simien and Langford were off the bench last season, three Kansas starters still logged more than 30 minutes a game. Jeff Boschee led at 31.3, followed by Kirk Hinrich’s 30.9 and Drew Gooden at 30.2. At the same time, Aaron Miles averaged 27.5 minutes and Nick Collison 26.8.
To tell the truth, if Collison had been able to avoid foul trouble, he might have reached the 30-minute plateau, too. In fact, he’s averaging 30.4 minutes a game right now, mainly because he’s been less foul-prone.
Those who grouse about KU’s weaker bench this season point to the fact four Jayhawks are spending more than 30 minutes on the floor every game. But is that really so bad?
If the Jayhawks reached the Final Four with three players over 30 minutes, what’s the big deal? And when it all shakes out, Williams may have only two or three anyway. As mentioned, Collison is on the bubble and so is Keith Langford at 30.1.
Hinrich, bad back and all, tops the minutes heap at 32.7, followed by Miles at 31.6. Simien, the other starter, is close at 28.1.
How do the Jayhawks’ minutes compare to last year? Everybody is up — Simien 12.8 minutes, Langford 9.2, Miles 4.1, Collison 3.6 and Hinrich 1.8. No surprise there.
Still, none of the five starters appear to be in the danger zone. None is even close to 35 minutes a game, and probably never will be. Williams has had only one player who has averaged more than 35 minutes a game. That was guard Ryan Robertson in 1998-99 (35.4).
Without a doubt, though, there will be times this season when Williams will wish he didn’t have to play his starters so much. I’m thinking mainly of the four Saturday-Monday weekends. KU always plays four Monday night games, the maximum allowed under the Big 12 Conference television contract.
Two of the Saturday-Monday assignments appear particularly difficult. One is Arizona on Saturday and Texas the following Monday. Both games will be in Allen Fieldhouse, but you have to wonder if the Jayhawks will have enough left over for a league contender after meeting the No. 1-ranked team in the country.
The other bad Saturday-Monday is in early March. The Jayhawks will play host to Oklahoma State, then make a time-consuming trip to Lubbock to meet Texas Tech.
Will the Jayhawks be running on fumes then? Or is the MP line merely a meaningless measurement of lungs and legs that fails to take into account such intangibles as hearts and minds?
