Playing Time for Big Men: A Comparison

There's been a lot of discussion on playing time for the 4 and 5 positions--both the players on this year's roster, and the projected minutes for the big men that MU is still recruiting.

What stands out is that big men that get significant playing time are few and far between. Ryan Amoroso logged more minutes than all but three of the 16 4's and 5's ranked 50-100. Ousmane Barro played more than 11 of them.

For comparision purposes only, here are the playing times for the centers and power forwards the RCSI ranked between 50-100 for the 2004-05 season (going into conference tournaments:

RCSI Player Team MPG
99 Thompson Iowa 9.7
97T Kurz Notre Dame 3.6
97T Longar Oklahoma 9.9
87T Leunen Oregon 19.7
87T Harden Cal 15.9
94 Sharpe Miss St. 8.9
80 Mata UCLA 10.1
74 Heylvelt Gonzaga 0.0/Redshirt
82 Noah Florida 10.5
69 Jackson Kansas 7.2
68 Giles Kansas 8.2
66 Tangara Arizona 5.2
63 Grimes Missouri 10.0
60 Brackman NC State 17.6
58 Rhoads Miss. State 6.1
51 Dickey Georgia Tech 10.4

Now let's compare those minutes to MU's freshman 4's and 5's (and Kinsella, who is playing his first year in Division 1.

N/R Barro Marquette 10.2
N/R Amoroso Marquette 15.2
N/R Kinsella Marquette 5.3

Now let's compare some other MU big men over the years.

N/R McCaskill Marquette 8
N/R Crawford Marquette 6
N/R Abraham Marquette 5
N/R Harris Marquette 11
N/R Mueller Marquette 4
N/R Claussen Marquette 8
T100 Key Marquette 29
T100 McIlvaine Marquette 19
N/R Streator Marquette 4

The conclusion is clear. Except for the exceptional talents of Damon Key and Jim McIlvaine (who let's face it, only had to beat out Bob Dukiet's recruits for playing time) our current big men are playing more as freshman than is typical--not only by Marquette's recent standards, but by other top 100 players by which we can compare them.