One aspect of building a complete team and a deeper program in college sports is easy to overlook. When a team is playing dramatically inferior opponents, no one is worried about the actual outcome. Winning is a foregone conclusion. What really matters in these games is not winning — since that is never in doubt — but giving the bench and the backups a lot of work.
Coaches need to be able to throw their backups into live-action situations so that they can evaluate those players and thereby coach them better as the season goes along. Those backup players need the reps so that they learn how to play and face various situations. The starters don’t need the extra time. The backups do. When the backups develop, a team creates a better and deeper roster in the current season. When the backups develop, they become more prepared not only for the current season, but for next year. Younger players fit into the system and grow. When they improve, they give a coach more options for the future.
JuJu Watkins is the star of this USC team. More precisely, she is the superstar on this team, with Rayah Marshall being the star who helps her out.
On Monday against Le Moyne College, Watkins didn’t just score 35 points on 13 of 20 shooting. She helped USC gain a 26-point halftime lead so that coach Lindsay Gottlieb could clear the bench and give her backups a lot of work in the second half. USC cruised to a 93-42 win and handed Le Moyne (based in New York state) a large check for its cross-country flight to Los Angeles. The game was less about building a resume or giving Watkins a good test.
This game was for the backups. USC achieved its main goal of giving the backups ample action.
In a 40-minute game with five players on the floor, a college basketball team and coach have to manage 200 game minutes. In this win over Le Moyne, Gottlieb and assistant Beth Burns were able to give extended minutes to their backups. Of the 200 minutes played on Monday, 104 went to the starters and 96 to the backups, almost a 50-50 split. Five USC backups played at least 15 minutes, six played at least 12.
The importance of the game was much less about actual numbers and statistical output, much more about getting backups some work. USC did that. It will be exciting to see how much depth Gottlieb and Burns can develop around Watkins, Marshall, and the rest of the starting five.
Watkins, by scoring 35 points and putting this game away early, was a good teammate. She made sure the backups got an extended opportunity. She helped set the table for the rest of the season, or at least for the coming weeks of practice and player development at USC.
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