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| Freshman Josh Hagins |
We heard stories all season about UALR’s inexperience.
But how did the Trojans stack up against the nation’s other most inexperienced
teams. The answer is pretty well.
UALR finished the season as the nation’s 13th
most inexperienced team by Statsheet.com, which uses a system that tracks the
minutes played by class of every Division I player. UALR’s rotation last season
included two juniors, four sophomores and five freshmen.
Of the top 20 most inexperienced teams, only six
finished with a winning record. That list was topped by Michigan, which is
headed to this weekend’s Final four. Charlotte and Kentucky were the only
others in that group to win 20 games. The other three were UALR at 17-15,
Hartford at 17-14 and St. John’s at 17-16.
The other 14 teams finished with losing records,
including Louisiana-Lafayette at 13-20. UALR and ULL had identical experience
ratings last season.
How did UALR stack up against like programs? Again,
pretty well. UALR was one of only four out of the 20 most inexperienced teams
to have a winning record in conference play. UALR was 11-9 in Sun Belt games.
Hartford was 10-6, Kentucky 12-6 and Michigan 12-6. As a point of reference,
Louisiana-Lafayette finished 8-12.
Statsheet.com’s numbers state that freshman average
18.5 percent of the minutes across Division I. UALR’s freshmen played 41
percent of last season’s minutes.
Juniors and seniors combine to average 58.3 of the
minutes. UALR’s juniors and seniors played 28 percent of last season’s minutes.
UALR has the possibility of losing only one player from
this year’s team in senior Ted Crass. In addition to those scheduled to return,
UALR had two freshmen, one sophomore and one junior sitting out as redshirts
last season.
