Importance of Depth in Tournaments

Written by Jack Jones - Google +

Bench Players If you are going to bet the NCAA basketball tournament then you might want a little help. Big Al McMordie is one of the best handicappers we have for making against the spread picks and today he’s going to talk about depth in the tournament.

Now that the conference tournaments are getting into full action, we are at the perfect time to talk about depth perception. No, I don’t mean eyesight but rather teams that have 7, 8, or even 9 players deep.

Depth is a key element to examine during tournament play because these games take place in such a short span, often two games in two nights or three games in three nights. With the next game coming so quickly there is pressure on the athletes to bounce back from night to night.

Last year a solid team was North Carolina, who not only had a deep bench but ran all over opponents wearing them down. They won the ACC tournament with three wins in three days, finishing off Clemson 86-81 in the finale. This team should be a contender once again with five differnet players scoring in double figures.

What you need to look for is how coaches use their bench during the season. If the seventh, eighth, and ninth guys off the bench see playing time and contribute a healthy amount then the coach must have confidence in his reserves. What happened when the team made overtime did they run out of gas? What happened when starters fouled out and the pressure was on the reserves?

Looking at overtime games can give you a lot of clues about teams strengths and weaknesses. Giving a lot of playing time to bench players means the starters will be fresher for overtime, or if a starter gets in foul trouble, having quality reserves a coach can trust gives that team an advantage.

Think about last year’s championship game between Kansas and Memphis. The Jayhawks got 59 minutes and 15 points from their bench, while the Tigers only saw 31 minutes and two points from their reserves. It’s no surprise that Kansas won the OT then 12-5 right?

It’s not just overtime where you need a solid bench, but having guys on the pine that you can trust enables a team to make a second half comeback. That same Kansas team was down to Texas in the Big 12 Championship game a year ago, but won the second half 39-28 to give them the Bgi 12 crown.

Take a look at yesterday’s box scores when handicapping these tournament games. If a team used their starters quite a bit, they may be gassed for the next day’s game. If the starters minutes were limited, they could be a team to hop on.

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