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So far, I've been impressed with Kevin Young. He has great athleticism for a player his size, and knows how to use it. He's not exactly polished, but he's been effective in this minutes he's played. At least, I think so. It would seem Bill Self disagrees.
Justin Wesley, the other big man off the bench is seeing, 16.7 minutes per game to Young's 7.7. I can see why Self likes Wesley. He's the kind of guy you don't always notice is on the floor. That can be a good thing, because it means he isn't making any mistakes. On a fairly inexperienced team such as this, that can be important. Still, from a production standpoint, there's no doubting that Young has played better. So why is Wesley getting more than 2 minutes to every one Young plays?
Now I'm not so good with tables, so I'm sure there's a more aesthetically pleasing way to present this. At any rate, the following is a statistical comparison between the two players.
Minute %: Wesley 41.6%, Young 19.1%
Points per 40: Young 22.6, Wesley 11.2
Offensive Rating: Wesley 152.1, Young 149.2
eFG%: Young 72.2%, Wesley 71.4%
Offensive Rebound %: Young 20%, Wesley 4.6%
Defensive Rebound %: Young 30.3%, Wesley 11.6%
Steal %: Young 7.5%, Wesley 2.3%
Block %: Young 9.5%, Wesley 0%
Turnover %: Wesley 0%, Young 12.5%
+/- average: Young +16.0, Wesley +3.5
Obviously, the sample size is small, but you can see who dominates the statsheet. The only thing Wesley has going for him is TO%, but in truth Young has only turned the ball over once. It will be interesting the see if the minutes start to align themselves differently if Young keeps up the superior production level. As of right now, though, I would really like to see more minutes out of Kevin Young, especially if Jeff Withey keeps fouling/tiring as quickly as he has been.