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There is a huge drop-off from 1-5 to 6-9. But, that's fairly common.
I will say this: Joe's typical drop-off after 1-6 is usually like falling off a cliff. This year is better -- depth-wise -- than most Joe teams. Most years he'd choose to redshirt players rather than have quality depth, and, by mid-season, somebody would be hurt and a walk-on would be in the rotation.
His starting five this year is really special. So, naturally there's going to be a dip on the bench.
Looking closer at the (so far) immediate reserves:
There's basically a 'Sixth Man' for the guards and a 'Sixth Man' for the post players.
Tomiwa Sulaiman is going to be one of Joe's next star post players but he's still pretty raw on the offensive end. But, he's a very strong defender and rebounder. He is a physical specimen at 6'6" and 210 lbs and has a massive wingspan. And, in his defense, they aren't running any offense through him. They haven't had a rebounder/defender of his quality coming off the bench in forever.
Ousmane Diop is the other post player living in the outskirts of the (deep) rotation. His role now is perfect. Play 6-12 mpg and create havoc. He's big, fast, not a bad shooter and really just has a way of getting involved. Big boy off the bench at 6'10". Downside is he's a bit of a hack and draws fouls quickly. Amazingly, at his size, he's one of the fastest runners on the floor ... former soccer player.
Kyle Polce is taking on the Greg Bearer role. He's a good defender. Nice size. Quick. Aggressive. But, his main role on offense has been to be a facilitator.
Bryce Radford is a very serviceable backup this year. He brings a long-range threat to the floor, can adequately play the point when needed, plays smart (very few TOs). His glitch thus far has been on the defensive end but he's making headway. I don't think he's a bad defender but he gets a little over-aggressive and gets caught out of position. He's getting better each game.
This bench rotation, keep in mind, is made up of (3) freshmen (although not 'true' freshmen) and Diop (who started playing basketball at 18 years old). In an emergency, the next man in would likely be K.J. Rhodes (another Year 3 freshman). Joe's two NYC 'true' freshmen could also be options but we know his feelings on playing true freshmen.
The major area of concern, obviously, is if one of the starting guards go down for any length of time. As we saw at Bowie, they got pretty discombobulated ... still scored 90 points but the defense wasn't nearly the same. I think Joe's bench is fine this year in the roles they have right now. Not sure any of them are ready to adequately move in to the starting lineup. Sulaiman would probably be the smoothest transition.
But, hey, I've sat through so many Joe seasons of having more dudes on the bench in tracksuits than jerseys, so, right now, this feels like a luxury. Armoni got his Triple Double out of the way. I don't want to see him playing with IUP up 50 points again. Once was enough. Not worth the risk.
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