College basketball teams across the country are hit with significant blows to their depth each year, whether it comes from losing players to transfer, injuries or early to the draft.
For the Gophers men's basketball team, it happened with a combination of all three things this season. The Gophers lost Isaiah Washington to transfer. They lost Eric Curry to injury. They lost Amir Coffey to the NBA.
That put Richard Pitino in a situation to rely on starters more than he ever has in his seven seasons as Minnesota's coach. And that formula so far isn't working, especially against stronger competition.
"When you play the schedule that we've played, it's hard at times to develop," Pitino said of the reserves for the Gophers (3-4), who host Clemson (5-2) in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge on Monday night.
All four losses for the Gophers this year have been against high-major opponents. They've been outscored 55-26 in those games in bench points. Part of Pitino not relying on his bench is because of the lack of experience, with four freshmen and a sophomore. But part of it is them just not being ready to contribute much because they don't play.
"They've got to get every opportunity in practice or in games to get better," Pitino said. "It's really, really hard to get great opportunities there, so they have to do it in practice and build trust."
What happens if the starters don't handle their business? Where does Pitino turn?
Point guard Marcus Carr averaged 11 points and shot 28% in the four losses, which includes nine points on 1-for-10 shooting in a loss at Butler and four points on 2-for-9 shooting in last week's loss to DePaul.
