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Guest Column. Fox's substitution patterns leave a lot to be desired

This columnist feels Mark Fox's substitution patterns leave much to be desired.
This columnist feels Mark Fox's substitution patterns leave much to be desired. (UGA Sports Communication)

There’s one thing that’s for sure about the start to Georgia's basketball season, it is that Mark Fox restricts his freshmen’s (and other newcomers) minutes to the detriment of the team. It has been a frustrating start and unfortunately a story that we’ve seen all too many times before.

Yes, I am going to talk about Tyree Crump. Yes, I am going to talk about Sherrard Brantley.

As we all know, the topic of the week has been Crump, Jordan Harris, and their playing time (or lack thereof) in the loss against Marquette on Sunday.

Crump is a freshman, was a consensus Top 100 4 star recruit, and is widely regarded as the best recruit that UGA has signed since Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. In the game prior against Morehouse, Crump led the Bulldogs in scoring with 16 points in just 13 minutes.

Against Marquette, Crump did not take off his warmup. Harris, another 4 star guard recruit, played 2 minutes. Meanwhile, Juwan Parker and Kenny Paul Geno played 43 combined minutes, and combined for a grand total of 2 points. If you didn’t watch the game, or if you hadn’t followed UGA basketball for the past 8 years, you probably wouldn’t believe that the above are true. Before this instance, in the history of basketball, has a player ever gone from being the team’s leading scorer in one game, to a DNP in the very next game without being suspended, ineligible, or imprisoned?

On the season, the Bulldogs have gotten inefficient production from Parker (25.6 minutes per game) and nonexistent production from Geno (12.6 minutes per game), while newcomer Pape Diatta (12 minutes) has made multiple plays (including some great passes) that neither of the others are capable of. Meanwhile, Harris has shown himself to be on an entirely different (higher) level of player than either Parker or Geno altogether, but inexplicably has only played 11.3 minutes per game. Crump (7 minutes) has not performed nearly as well as Harris, but has also not been given an opportunity to get comfortable or gain any confidence in any game other than Morehouse.

Many dissenters would argue that this has been a common theme for UGA basketball during Fox’s tenure so I went back and looked year-by-year to refresh my memory for each of Fox’s seasons. Here is what I found:

2009-10 Season (14-17 overall, 5-11 SEC) This was a lost season and a transition year from the start. That year, in Fox’s first abbreviated freshman class, he brought in all guards: Ebuka Anyaorah (10.5 minutes per game, 2.7 pts/gm), Vincent Williams (9.5 mins/gm, 1.2 pts/gm), and Demario Mayfield (6.5 mins, 1 pt/gm). In that season, Ricky McPhee played 32 minutes a game and averaged just less than 10 PPG. I don’t see much of an issue here as McPhee was Georgia's bestoption that year. I will say though, that in an obvious rebuilding year, I would have given each of the freshman a few more minutes apiece anyway, solely for the sake of development and to see what we had. Could the lack of playing time played a factor in Mayfield’s fall from grace? What could it have hurt to play him a bit more?

2010-11 Season (21-12 overall, 9-7 SEC), 10 Seed, Lost in 1st round, NCAA tournament (Washington) This was the first of Fox’s two NCAA Tournament appearances, and was a good year. Unfortunately, we saw the first true example of Fox’s early recruiting woes here. After having over a year to have things settled, Fox brought in just forwards Marcus Thornton and Donte Williams in his first full recruiting class. Fox then compounded this issue by playing Thornton out of position for 2 years at small forward, while many fans argued that he was clearly a post player. Thornton had a rough freshman year, averaging 1.5 points and 1.9 rebounds in 9.4 minutes per game. Williams averaged right at one point and one rebound in his freshman season. No real qualms over playing time here, although personally, I would have split Connor Nolte’s 10 minutes (1.7 points, 1 rebound) between Thornton and Williams.

2011-12 Season (15-17 overall, 5-11 SEC) This was Pope's freshman year. He clearly played a lot, but he was also a different breed from every other player that Mark Fox has brought in at UGA. He started immediately and played about 30 minutes per game. Nemi Djurisic was also a freshman and played 20 minutes per game. No problem whatsoever with Fox’s utilization of freshmen during this season. Fox’s mistake in this season was continuing to play Thornton out of position at small forward. In 22.3 minutes per game, Thornton struggled to 3 points and 4.8 rebounds per game.

2012-13 (15-17 overall, 9-9 SEC): Here we are: Kenny Gaines’ freshman year. This article has already gone way longer than I expected it to, so I will attempt to be brief. In another rebuilding year, Gaines scored more points per game, shot a higher percentage from the field, from the 3 point line, free throw line, and was just generally better than Brantley. But somehow, despite all of this, Brantley played almost twice as many minutes as Gaines did that year (17.5 minutes per game for Brantley vs. 10.3 minutes for Gaines). That year, Georgia started the season off 1-4 with losses to Youngstown State, Southern Miss, Indiana, and UCLA. In those games, Brantley played 31, 14, 20, and 24 minutes, respectively. Gaines played 7, 6, 8, and 7. In a close 4 point loss to UCLA, Brantley was 1-8 from 3. Gaines was 0-0.

Sound familiar? If it doesn’t, it should. Unfortunately for those of us who are praying for expanded roles for Harris, Diatta, and Crump, and lessened roles for Parker and Geno once SEC play rolls around, it didn’t get much better for Gaines in that season.

In the SEC opener, in a 33-point loss to Florida, Gaines did not play due to a reported suspension due to violation of team rules (In the Marquette game, Harris missed the final 30 minutes.) Georgia would also lose the next game 2 games to Mississippi State and Missouri to start SEC play 0-3. In those two games, Brantley played 43 minutes and scored 0 points. Kenny Gaines played 16 minutes and scored 8 points. Even by the end of the year in a lost season, Gaines minutes still paled in comparison to Brantley. In a late season win over Tennessee, Brantley played 26 minutes while Gaines played 8.

2013-14 (20-14 overall, 12-6 SEC) NIT: This freshman class consisted of Parker, Kenny Geno, and JJ Frazier, and was a year that could have resulted in an NCAA tournament berth possibly with as little as one more victory. I found something interesting that I have never realized before while looking at this season. Did you know that during JJ Frazier’s freshman year, he only played four minutes per game more than walk-on Taylor Echols (10.6 to 6.4)? Granted, Echols only played in 20 games, as opposed to the full season for Frazier, but that is almost 150 minutes that should have gone directly to JJ Frazier. In a four-point early season non-conference loss to Colorado, Parker, Geno, and Echols played 29 combined minutes. Frazier was a DNP. Now I’m not saying that JJ as a freshman is anywhere near the caliber of player that he is now, but I will also say that if you give me a choice of giving the three players mentioned 29 minutes, and giving Frazier 29 minutes, I will take Frazier 10 times out of 10.

2014-15 (21-12, 11-7 SEC) NCAA Tournament- 10 Seed: This was Yante Maten’s freshman year. I am personally of the opinion that Maten would have been almost as good his freshman year as he was his sophomore year if given the same opportunity. Ditto for JJ Frazier the year before. Unfortunately, we will never know. Yante played 18 minutes a game as a freshman, which seems ok enough. But 6.2 minutes per game went to Houston Kessler that year. Maten should have taken each and every second of those minutes. Parker averaged 20 MPG. Geno averaged 12. Cam Forte averaged 12.9 minutes. I don’t care that they play different positions; Maten should have taken as many of those minutes as his conditioning allowed. Given the significant minutes that these suspect players played at the 3, Fox could have gotten creative, gone bigger, and found a way to give Maten 30 minutes a game at the other forward spot. Maten did not magically turn into an All-time UGA great between his freshman and sophomore year. He was badly wanted by Michigan State, and he was the Gatorade Michigan High School player of the year. Maten was always a great player. He just didn’t get enough minutes to prove it as a freshman. I can’t fathom how Fox thought it was acceptable to not give all of Kessler’s minutes to Maten immediately.

It’s also incredible to think that a team that made the NCAA tournament played Geno and Parker 32 minutes per game. Maybe Fox only thinks in one dimension, and is convinced that if he plays Parker and Geno 32 minutes a game again this year, we will be guaranteed to make the tournament again?

2015-16 Hopefully you guys remember last year, so I won't go into much detail. Last year, we finally brought in 2 post players that had been needed for years in Derek Ogbeide and Mike Edwards. Out of sheer desperation and necessity, these two played 15 minutes and 16.5 minutes per game, respectively. Again, this seems fine, except for when you notice that Houston Kessler played exactly as many minutes per game (15.7). If Fox truly cared about winning or developing his young players, he would have given 8 of those minutes to Ogbeide and 8 minutes to Edwards. Without even considering the development angle, both Edwards and Ogbeide were significantly better options as freshmen than Kessler. Kessler should only have been playing when 2 of our 3 post players were in deep foul trouble, rather than playing exactly the same amount of minutes as younger and better players in Ogbeide and Edwards.

Which brings us back to the present. I must say, after taking a stroll down memory lane, I am more convinced now than ever that Fox will not change. Unfortunately, he is a coach that has consistently opted for overmatched upperclassmen in lieu of talented and superior freshmen.

Over the past 8 years, the names have changed, but the same flawed philosophy persists.

Fox has plenty of faults. But the one fault that will be his undoing at the University of Georgia will be his refusal to allow his freshman to play loosely and freely, and more importantly, just play, period. Objectively, his mismanagement of freshmen and affinity for mid-major caliber or below upperclassmen has held this program back for at least 5 years. For at least these past 5 years, frustrated fans have begged Fox to just simply play his best players for the majority of the minutes. He has failed miserably at this simple, bare minimum requirement/request.

Which brings me to my final point, and I will bring my long-winded thoughts to a close. If you had only watched UGA basketball for the past 8 years, and not watched any other teams play, you might forget that talented freshmen play, and contribute, literally all over the place, every year.

I looked up the stats for the 12 players ahead of Crump on the Rivals 100 from last year, along with the 12 players immediately behind. The numbers show just about what anyone who closely follows Georgia basketball would expect.

Of the 24 players, 21 have played this season (2 are redshirting and 1 did not make it in to school). Of those 21, Crump has played the fewest per game of all; by 2 full minutes per game (this does not even factor the Marquette game in Crump’s 7.0 MPG average). 11 of the 21 players average 20 or more minutes per game, while 19 of the 21 average double digit minutes. Other than Crump, the only other player that averages less than 10 minutes per game is Xavier Simpson of Michigan. When looking at his stat lines, he has appeared to lose playing time recently due to poor play, as he has not made a field goal since the opening game, and is now coming off his fewest minutes played of the year in Michigan’s most recent game.

The numbers show concrete evidence of what many fans of UGA basketball fans have been feeling for a long time. Mark Fox has shown a strong aversion to playing talented freshman for years to the detriment of the team, and, to date, it doesn’t seem like he has learned from any of his previous mistakes. Fans that hoped for an NCAA Tournament berth this season are left to hold out hope that Fox will swallow his pride, go against everything he has done to date, and allow these potential offensive threats in Harris and Crump (and Diatta) to play significant minutes going forward. I just wouldn’t count on it.

* Views expressed in this column do not represent the opinion of UGASports.com. Derek Watson can be reached at dtwatson34@gmail.com

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