While most players were hesitant to come out and say it, this weekend's NESCAC matchups between the women's basketball team and Trinity College and Amherst College on Friday and Saturday were filled with an assortment of unorthodox lineup moves.
"I've never had a coach run a team the way she does," senior co-captain Jayme Busnengo said in regard to coach Janice Savitz's usage of her roster. "I'm not saying it's necessarily bad, but it's different, and I don't know what the motivation is."
Especially after winning on Saturday against Amherst, these moves may not appear problematic. However, it's hard to overlook the fact that Busnengo played 10 minutes against Amherst after playing only 23 the previous night against Trinity.
"In the past few games, I've played a lot less than I usually do, and I take that to mean that I haven't been doing my job - which is to rebound," Busnengo said. "[Savitz] gives me some chances, and there are two other players who back me up."
Despite playing only 23 minutes on Friday, Busnengo was able to score nine points in the contest, good for third on the team. Although a coach clearly has the right to do as he or she sees fit against Trinity, the Jumbos were being crushed on the boards by a 47 to 37 margin. And not surprisingly, they were also being outscored. Busnengo happens to be one of the team's top players and during the second semester has also been the team's most consistent.
"I think rebounding is having a commitment to get after the basketball," coach Janice Savitz said. "When the shot goes up, [we have to] make contact and push. We are not making contact."
Busnengo has managed to average 5.2 rebounds in only 20.1 minutes of play each night, so it would seem that she is doing something right in terms of rebounding. Sophomore Kate Gluckman, another solid rebounder and rugged interior defender, also spent most of Friday's game on the bench. Gluckman picked up a mere three minutes of playing time when her presence could have helped Tufts both on the boards and on the defensive end.
As if trying to highlight that point, Gluckman scored six points and grabbed six rebounds in only 14 minutes of action against Amherst. After averaging 5.7 points and 4.2 rebounds per contest as a freshman, Gluckman has seen her playing time decrease significantly and is averaging only 6.5 minutes of action per game after logging 20.9 minutes per game as a freshman.
Just as it is not surprising that Gluckman did not play much on Friday, it should not necessarily come as a shock that Busnengo played so few minutes over the course of the weekend. On the season, she has averaged just a touch over 20 minutes of playing time per game. Despite playing approximately one half per game, though, she is the team's third leading scorer and rebounder (7.1 ppg and 5.2 rbg) while also leading the team in field goal percentage at .457.
"With all the substitutions, we are trying to give more people a rest," Savitz said. "We are trying to put people into situations where they can be most effective."
The substitution pattern seemed to work in the second half of Saturday's game, although some of the moves were difficult to understand. For instance, Tufts opened the second half down by four but quickly went on a 10-6 run in the opening 4:40 of the half to even the score at 38. During the streak, Goodman scored seven of the team's 10 points but was removed from the game at the 15:20 mark along with Busnengo and senior Katie Kehrberger.
Although she was on fire for most of the afternoon, scoring a game-high 19 points on 7-12 shooting, Goodman played only 23 minutes and did not make her return until nearly five minutes later at the 10:43 mark when she replaced sophomore Erin Buckley. Busnengo, on the other hand, did not check back into the game for the remainder of the afternoon.
"It's the most frustrating thing in the world to watch your team be behind and then not being put in the position to do anything about it," Busnengo said. "But it wouldn't do any good to be sitting on the bench sulking, so I try and support [my teammates] and give advice like they do for me."
While the case could be made that Goodman was in a bit of foul trouble, as she finished with four fouls, the fact is that Goodman may have been removed regardless. On the other hand, Busnengo was neither in foul trouble nor was she injured.
"I guess Coach just goes on who is hot that day," Goodman said. "I guess if her substitutions are going well, we go with that."
With the score tied at 60-60, 5'10" freshman Alison Love nailed a jumper at 3:19, inciting an 11-0 Jumbo run that ostensibly wrapped up the victory. Although Love hit a huge shot and grabbed five rebounds in ten minutes of play, the question must be asked why she was on the floor while the 5'11" Busnengo was relegated to the bench during crunch time.
"Maybe [Savitz] feels a person is tired when she subs them, or maybe she wants to give them a quick break, or maybe it has to do with fouls," Goodman said.
Similarly, sophomore Maritsa Christoudias has seen equally sporadic playing time, though she has admittedly not been nearly as consistent as Busnengo this season. Two games ago against Clark, a 76-62 double OT loss for the Jumbos, Christoudias started, played 26 minutes and led the team in steals with four while also finishing second in assists with three behind junior co-captain Hillary Dunn. Then on Friday night she started and played 14 minutes. But during Saturday's contest she came off the bench and played only seven minutes.
Often it does make sense to go with the hot hand, but if that is the thinking behind whether or not one plays, it doesn't follow that junior Erin Harrington played 30 minutes (second on the team) while shooting only 3-14 from the field including 0-6 from downtown on Saturday. Harrington, however, is the team's second leading scorer for the season at 10.4 points per game, and she did grab a game-high 12 rebounds against Amherst.
"All we can control is how we play when we're on the floor - individually and as a team," Christoudias said.
At one point during the second half of play on Friday evening, there were four freshman on the floor along with Kehrberger. Younger players deserve the opportunity to see some game action; however, in the highly competitive NESCAC it would seem prudent to have at least one of the team's top scorers in the game against good competition, especially in the second half.
"We got to make sure we give Hillary [Dunn] a blow," Savitz said. "The freshmen work hard and deserve to play."
Busnengo agrees that the freshman should have a chance to play but believes that experience should be an important factor to consider when deciding who plays the key minutes at the end of the game.
"I definitely feel that towards the end of the game you should have experienced players on the floor," Busnengo said. "While the younger players are very good, I feel that we should have more experienced players on the floor during crunch time."
Currently tied with Wesleyan for seventh in the NESCAC with a 1-2 record, there is still plenty of time for Tufts to climb in the standings. With six more NESCAC games before the NESCAC tournament begins on Feb. 19, the Jumbos will have ample opportunities to improve against conference foes. However, in order to achieve further success and better last season's (14-9, 4-5 NESCAC) record, it might be in the team's best interest to have a more consistent rotation.
"Everybody contributed today," Kehrberger said about the win over Amherst. "Although we made a lot of substitutions, it is reassuring because you know that whoever is coming in will get the job done."
While it may be reassuring that there are a number of contributors on the team, it has to be disconcerting and even distracting that nobody knows who will be in the lineup come crunch time or even on a day-to-day basis. If the team hopes to turn what is currently a .500 season into a success, players need to know their roles.
