Of all the achievements Kevin Young has stirred in his first season as coach at BYU, one of the most significant and unusual is the use of his players, so many of his players.
His rotation has been wider than the norm, often using 10 or 11, sometimes more, players to win games. Not just lopsided games the Cougars are substantially favored to win, but close games, too. Traditionally, and this makes sense, coaches are willing to give additional time to a greater number of players when they believe their teams should have no or little problem winning.
That’s not the case with Young. A typical college rotation in meaningful games lands somewhere between seven and eight players, frequently edging more toward seven in the biggest of the biggies. Statistic geeks point out, for instance, that come NCAA Tournament time, rotations generally shrink by fractional amounts as progress through the tournament occurs.
It will be compelling basketball theater to see what Young does with his team in the Big 12 tournament — beginning for the Cougars on Thursday in Kansas City — and the Big Dance thereafter. In the league affair, if BYU finds ways to win, it will play again and again with little rest, giving the Cougars a freshness advantage if Young stays with what he’s been doing, particularly over the Cougars’ current eight-game win streak.
During that span, Young has used expanded forces in tight wins and in blowouts.
Against West Virginia, a four-point win on the road, 12 guys played, many of them getting substantial minutes. Egor Demin played 24:22, Richie Saunders 36:22, Mawot Mag got 22:57, Trevin Knell 16:48, Keba Keita 14:17, Kanon Catchings 18:23, Trey Stewart 6:10, Fousseyni Traore 20:06, Dallin Hall 24:49, Mihailo Boskovic 9:14, Dawson Baker 6:13, Elijah Crawford got just a speck at 0:15.
And so it went, with varied playing time distributed differently depending on situations. Against Kansas State, 11 players got PT. Against Kansas, a crushing, 13 players played. In a one-point win at Arizona, 11 guys received time, 10 of them eight minutes or more. Against Iowa State on the road, 10 Cougars played, all but one getting double-digit minutes. And against Utah, 10 players saw the floor, the shortest time registering at 9:19. Otherwise, those minutes were handed out fairly evenly.
Asked about all of this on Monday, specifically, with so many players having not only to share their minutes, but also, outside of a couple of stars, getting a different slice of that time from game to game, how they react to those variations, Young answered the standard-issue way, the way you would expect a coach to respond, but one who this time just might be actually telling the truth:
“It speaks to the character of the guys in our locker room and in our program,” he said. “It also speaks to the relationships that our assistant coaches have with our players, keeping the guys in the boat, rowing in the same direction. Always being there to work with them, keeping them focusing on what they can do to continue to get better. And then, our guys, they want to win. When you’re able to win like we have it’s hard to not be invested.
“At the end of the day, every guy who’s a high-level competitor wants to win. Some guys want to win on their own accord, and that can be a challenge to put that aside. But I give each one of our guys credit. They’ve done that. And I know it’s not easy for guys. I can go down the list of why every single guy on our team deserves more minutes than they’re currently getting. But it’s something that we’ve found that has — honestly, we just kind of tripped on it — it’s been a strength of this team. Hopefully, it comes even more to the forefront, especially in the conference tournament … hopefully our depth can pay dividends there, as we advance into the NCAAs. Keeping a fresh group out there has been something that’s helped us.”
Through the years, I’ve confronted many “high-level” players, on and off the record, as to whether, if they could pick only one, they’d rather play more or win more. A good number, on the promise of confidentiality, whispered that they’d rather play more.
Young seems to have altered that inclination, having convinced his team to pick up those oars and row together. With the Cougars, then, there’s satisfaction in the playing, in the sitting, and in the winning. Measured amounts of each appear to be gratifying enough as the victories have stacked up.
All that’s left to see now is whether tournament pressure, the threat of elimination, the ebb and flow of made and missed shots, made and missed defensive assignments will change what has worked so well thus far.
