FanPost

Where have Korie's Minutes Gone?

When we learned that Korie Lucious would not be playing basketball for MSU again this season, there was a lot of speculation about how his 24.4 minutes per game would be redistributed to the remaining players. Although it's not a large sample size, the results after just 2 games are still interesting. Below is a list of the players who saw action in the 2 games following the dismissal. The first number is minutes per game before the dismissal, the second number is minutes per game after the dismissal, and the third number is the difference.

(One note: because the IU game went to overtime, the post-dismissal averages for some players were a bit skewed. For example, Kalin's average got bumped to 40 minutes per game. While that's technically accurate, I deducted the minutes played in OT from the affected players so that the averages over the last 2 games would be out of 40 minutes.)

Starters:

Lucas: 30.5 --> 37.5 (+7.0)

Summers: 30.1 --> 28.5 (-1.6)

Green: 29.2 --> 31.0 (+1.8)

Roe: 25.0 --> 28.0 (+3)

Appling: 19.6 --> 33.5 (+13.9)

Bench:

Sherman: 13.7 --> 4.5 (-9.2)

Nix: 8.2 --> 12 (+3.8)

Payne: 8.7 --> 2.5 (-6.2)

Thornton: 11.3 --> 9.5 (-1.8)

Kebler: 3.9 --> 13 (+9.1)

  • Biggest beneficiaries are, not surprisingly, the remaining guards (Appling, Lucas, and Kebler).
  • Kalin's jump is all the more impressive considering that he was already playing over 30 minutes a game and still saw an increase of 7 minutes per game.
  • I wouldn't read too much into the drop in Summers' minutes - he had foul trouble against Michigan and only played 27 minutes. He'll probably be back over 30 per game from here on out.
  • All of MSU's starters are now averaging at least 28 minutes per game.
  • The disparity between the starters and the bench is now pretty dramatic. In the last 2 games, Kebler leads all bench players with 13 minutes per game. I expect Nix will have a chance to stay up around 15-20 minutes if he can maintain the level of play from the IU game, but he only played 6 against Michigan. His minutes might still be matchup-based, but I could see him getting the primary assignment to guard Sullinger in a couple weeks.
  • Sherman and Payne's minutes reflect the general trend of being reduced significantly over the last few weeks. Payne only played 3 minutes against Michigan and 2 against IU.
  • Despite having fewer guards, Thornton's minutes have actually gone down. I imagine this is a function of his own play and Kebler making the most of his increased court time.

I'll try to update these numbers later in the year.

This is a FanPost, written by a member of the TOC community. It does not represent the official positions of The Only Colors, Inc.--largely because we have no official positions.