have in front of us in the final 7 games, it will be challenging to partially fill our competitive holes on both ends.
There are 6 standard rotation guys that the Mick rolls out, setting aside 3 more marginal guys (Brown, Williams & Jamerson who are given fewer ~ lower double-digit mins by CMC):
1) Dent 34.7 mins/gm (unsurprising given the primacy of the PG in the college game);
2) Bilo 30.5/gm (for our leading scorer by a huge margin of 34% over 2nd place Dent);
3) Clark 29.4/gm, injury & all;
4) 28.2/gm for our Garbage Man;
5) Perry 27.9; and
6) Book 20.5.
The above is a tangible measure of how CMC values those core 6, if I can use that term.
At this point, Perry might be the most balanced of the 6, contributing competently on both ends.
At the other end of the spectrum (pending the uncertain future for Skyy), I would highlight two of the aforementioned holes that will be crucial for us to plug up somewhat in the remainder of the 2025-26 season:
1) Bilo on D ~ we wouldn't be anywhere near our solid 9-4 B10 record without his team-leading O. His assault on a standout 50-40-90 shooting record speaks for itself. But, what he taketh, he unfortunately giveth a lot backeth via his spongy D.
Several times this yr there has been a chorus of dissent here as to Bilo's slow foot speed and reaction time on the D end. It continued to yesterday's game, when his play was compromised by foul trouble. So, I would add a judgement factor, viz lack thereof, to Bilo's travails on D. Ergo, my 1st of two highlighted holes, as most recently manifest by the UDub game when the Dubs went right to the low blocks like Huskies to honey, destroying UCLA by 44 paint pts to only 18 for UCLA. I'm not optimistic that that hole can be meaningfully filled; and
2) Book on everything ~ he's dead last in scoring among our core 6 with 7 pts/gm; he's 3rd in rebounding but only at 3.8/gm, or barely a marginal 1 more board/gm than our 3 perimeter core players ALONG WITH BROWN. He is our 2nd best 3pt% shooter behind Skyy, but he's taken far fewer treys than the rest of our core 6 ALONG WITH BROWN. I was thrilled with the game he had against Rutgers until one recognizes it was against 2-11 Rutgers and he followed that up the very next game by missing every shot he took in 25 mins vs 4-9 UDub scoring only 1 point and being agonizingly unfocused on D in that 18-44 shellacking we took in paint points yesterday. The competition in opposition Cs will notably step up in our final 7 gms. So, no, I don't expect that hole to diminish.
The only mini-relief I can add on this cautionary Sunday, before our brutal upcoming gms, is that $cum today barely edged past the 1-12 caboose of the B10, PennSt, by 2 pts at the buzzer on the road.