John Calipari has real depth to work with at Arkansas

One of the really encouraging aspects of the Arkansas basketball win over Gonzaga in an exhibition game at Bud Walton Arena on Saturday is that the Hogs have real depth. John Calipari was able to play 10 players at least 11 minutes.

One can say that because it was an exhibition, Calipari and his Arkansas staff wanted to give a lot of guys a chance to play and see how they performed against a good opponent, and that's true. The minute allocation for an exhibition game is often different from what we see in the regular season at a lot of programs. However, this might actually be a situation in which Arkansas and Calipari should regularly distribute minutes more widely - maybe not from game to game, but with a degree of regularity you won't see on other rosters at other schools with less depth.

A fairly normal minute distribution pie for a lot of college basketball teams is to play at least three if not four starters 30 or more minutes per game. The most important players might hit 34 to 36 minutes on a fairly consistent basis, but 30 minutes (or something close to it, at least 28) is often a baseline number for the proven centerpiece players on a team. The best players on the floor play a lot more minutes. It's a simple concept. 

However, Arkansas might benefit from a more balanced distribution of minutes. It's true that if lineup combinations are constantly being changed, on-court chemistry could suffer and there could be more choppy and uneven game sequences for the Razorbacks. However, if Calipari experiments more - not less - with lineup combinations and puts 10 different players on the floor for more balanced durations of time, that will give Arkansas more puzzle pieces to consider as we move into the SEC basketball schedule in January and February. Perhaps the product will suffer in November, but the payoff could be more versatility and adaptability in March Madness.

Reasonable people could probably find a middle ground in this regard: Against cupcake opponents, Calipari should lean very heavily into a balanced minute distribution. Against elite opponents in November, he could stick with his best five to seven players if he thinks there's a clear line of separation between the top seven players and then eight through ten on the bench.

However, in the bigger picture, the large number of freshmen on this roster means that the more minutes they all get, the more they have a chance to develop. Throwing them onto the court more, not less, gives Arkansas a better chance of being able to put 10 quality players on the floor in February. With more players getting minutes and no one playing 35 minutes a night, the team could stay fresh later in the season while other teams with less depth hit a wall and stagnate. 

John Calipari needs to make use of Arkansas' depth. It could be the difference between the Sweet 16 and the Final Four.