Keith Benjamin may be the player most in need of a few days off to clear his head. Right now he is shooting his way to less playing time. Not because he is missing so much — and he is — but because he is shooting so much. I’ve only seen one game, and it seemed he was shooting too much then, regardless of the quality of the opportunity, and not passing.
Through 9 games, Pitt has 10 players with more than 100 minutes:
TOTALS ——– MIN —- FG-FGA —– FG% — Shot Freq.
—————————————————————–
Krauser, Carl……. 271 —– 53-111 —— .477 —– 2.44
Gray, Aaron……… 224 —– 41-76 ——- .539 —– 2.95
Kendall, Levon…… 213 —– 24-50 —— .480 —– 4.26
Ramon, Ronald…….184 —— 18-45 —— .400 —– 4.09
Young, Sam………. 146 —— 21-36 —— .583 —– 4.06
Fields, Levance….. 178 —— 18-36 —— .500 —– 4.94
Graves, Antonio….. 156 —— 15-40 —— .375 —– 3.90
DeGroat, John……. 121 —— 18-41 —— .439 —– 2.95
Benjamin, Keith…150 —– 16-46 ——- .348 —— 3.26
Biggs, Tyrell……. 116 —— 12-24 —— .500 —– 4.83
Benjamin is 4th on the team in total shots taken, last in the group in shooting percentage and 7th in total minutes played.
That last number gives a rough outline of the frequency with which a player shoots when on the court (Minutes/Field Goal Attempts). The smaller the number, the more frequent the player shoots when on the court. No surprise that Krauser and Gray shoot the most frequently. Surprised that DeGroat is tied for 2nd, but he is at least making a decent percentage. Kendall may have taken the 3rd most shots on the team, but his frequency is only ahead of Biggs and Fields.
Benjamin is the worst shooter and also 4th in shot frequency per minutes played. I don’t know what the coaches are telling him in practice, but the shot frequency has only increased in recent games — not to mention his poor shooting.
Opponent —- FG-FGA — MIN
——————————–
St. Peter —— 1-3 —— 16
RMU ———- 1-3 —— 18
Maine ——— 4-5 —— 17
St. Francis —– 2-4 ——- 24
Auburn ——– 3-9 ——- 16
Duquesne —— 2-6 ——- 17
Penn St. ——– 2-7 ——- 17
Vermont ——– 1-5 ——- 12
Coppin St. ——- 0-4 ——- 13
His hoisting it would appear, is costing him minutes. Like I said, I’ve only seen him play once, but the numbers seem to suggest that what I saw has been the way he has played over the last 5 games. He is not looking to pass. He only has 13 assists. In the first 3 games he had 7. In the last 3 games: 2.
Keith Benjamin is going to have to get his game under control, or it looks like he will get buried on the bench come Big East play.
