However, the bench didn't do anything against Northwestern until the game was firmly in hand. Context is important.
@JBBauer612
#Gophers lead Northwestern 45-27 behind a barrage of Austin Hollins treys. Minnesota's starters have 96% of the team's points.
The thing about the Gophers is that they don't need a lot of bench minutes. Ask the starters how many minutes they can play per night and I bet they'll tell you, "as much as coach needs me to." They're all big effort guys - having the starters consistently at 30-35 mpg in close games is fine.
The point is, they have different people contributing on different nights, including the bench. Did the four players I mentioned (EE, Ingram, Welch, Maverick, and even Oto at times) NOT have multiple games last year where they made major contributions, if not leading the team in scoring?
It was an intense game, on the road, and the players being criticized most all played 5 minutes or less. Somewhat difficult to get into the flow of the game with minimal minutes, no?
They're support players, not starters, for a reason but considering 4-5 of those bench players have come up big in the past, I'm not pushing the panic button because more than one had a rought outing last night. Those bench players have almost ALWAYS flourished best when playing with two or more of the starters on the floor with them at the same time, and rarely flourished when playing with 4 or all 5 of the players on the floor being bench players.
Lastly, a perimeter-based team lik Illinois isn't exactly a good matchup for guys like EE and Walker.
At any rate, not concerned one bit. Some nights the bench plays a lot of minutes, some nights they don't. Last night they didn't.
