When Mount St. Mary's beat Wagner in its regular-season finale on Saturday, Byron Ashe led the team with 19 points and Will Miller and Andrew Smeathers were next with 11 each.
What did they all have in common? Each of the three began the game seated in a folding chair on the sideline, still in their warm-ups.
The Mountaineers outscored the Seahawks 74-64 in that one, but in a far more lopsided game within the game, the MSM bench players outscored the MSM starters 49-25.
"Games started" is the most irrelevant column on the Mountaineers' stat sheet. Thirteen different players have started at least one game this season. But, often, it's the so-called reserves who log the most minutes and score the most points.
"It's more about the rotation and how we can get the right lineups on the floor together," MSM coach Jamion Christian said recently. "It really just comes down to the way I look at it, it's all about lineups. It really has nothing to do with who starts or sometimes even who finishes because you're looking at defensive lineup or free throw lineup. Just trying to put good lineups on the floor."
Lately it's been freshman point guard Junior Robinson, freshman guard Charles Glover, sophomore guard Khalid Nwandu, junior forward Gregory Graves and senior center Kristijan Krajina who've been hearing their names called at the beginning of games. But a good case can be made that three or four of the team's top players come off the bench.
The sophomore Ashe is the Mountaineers' leading scorer and he's been particularly hot lately. He has averaged 21 points per game over his past five, all off the bench. Usually entering games at about the same time is junior forward Andrew Smeathers, the team's third-leading scorer and leading in 3-pointers per game. Sophomore forward Will Miller is perhaps the team's best pure shooter and junior center Taylor Danaher leads MSM in shooting percentage and is one of the team's best rebounders. All of them have started at various points this season, but the team has been playing its best — winning four of five to close the regular season — with that quartet coming off the bench.
"Coach is just trying to find the best lineup for the situation," Ashe said. "The first five is more defensive, to start off stopping teams. Then we come into the game, we're more of an offensive group. We get the game going and the tempo up a lot more. I think that helps a lot, getting the right guys on the floor."
It might seem a revolutionary concept because no one else seems to be doing it, but, strategically, inserting many of your team's best scorers when the other team's starters are either coming out for a breather or tiring seems to make a lot of sense — especially when your best defensive unit has already frustrated the opposition's first unit.
The Mount ranks among the top seven in the nation in bench minutes as the substitutes play roughly 44 percent of games. The Mountaineers are averaging 36.6 points per game off the bench over their past 10.
Those 49 against Wagner? Not even the top bench performance of the season. The Mountaineers' subs racked up 54 against LIU Brooklyn on Feb. 19.
"If I can put Byron Ashe on the floor with Andy Smeathers, Will Miller, a point guard and a five, we're going to score a lot of points," Christian said, noting he needs Miller on the floor "when matchups dictate he can get nine 3-point shots, because he's going to make four. One of these nights he's going to make all nine. Andy Smeathers is the same way.
"So if we can mix and match the right guys around them we can be a really tough unit to play against."
Chances are, when St. Francis (Pa.) comes to Knott Arena on Wednesday for the Northeast Conference tournament quarterfinals, Glover, Nwandu, and Krajina will be in the starting lineup even though they average only about 13 points per game between them. Meanwhile, Ashe and his 12 points per game will come off the bench, as will Smeathers, Miller and Danaher, who combine to average about 18 per game.
And all appear to be OK with that.
"The only thing we talk about here is competing and playing with enthusiasm, playing for each other. ... No one's looking around saying I should be starting. They know it's not about starting, it's about putting our team in the best position to play well," Christian. "It's all about the way you play with people on the floor and which groups of people play well together. Sometimes you may look out there and you see Junior and Khalid and Charles Glover at the start of the game and you might say, 'Well, that's an interesting lineup. But that lineup is one of the best defensive lineups we have and it scores. So although it looks unorthodox, it works, for whatever reason."
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Reach staff writer Bob Blubaugh at 410-857-7895 or bob.blubaugh@carrollcountytimes.com.
