As long as there have been team sports, every player on the team has wanted to be a starter. This year, Coach Avery Johnson’s basketball team has used three different starting lineups in building a 12-6 record.

Beginning with the Crimson Tide’s 77-75 win over Kentucky, Bama has had a six-game run with a starting lineup of Donta Hall at low post, Kira Lewis, Jr., at point guard, Herbert Jones at wing (those three have started all 18 games this season), Tevin Mack at forward (he’s started the last 11, replacing Galin Smith who started the first five), and wing Dazon Ingram the last five (in place of John Petty, Jr., who started the first 12 games).

Alabama’s record in those last six games is 3-3, but with wins over two ranked teams — Kentucky and Ole Miss — and a road win at Missouri. That stretch also includes two heart-breaking losses, to Texas A&M on a last second miracle shot and at now-No. 1 ranked Tennessee in Knoxville, 71-68. The other loss was at nationally-ranked LSU.

The big news in the current lineup is that Petty, who started 29 of 36 games as a freshman, now comes off the bench.

Petty, a 6-5 sophomore wing known primarily for his three-point shooting, has performed very well in his substitute role, scoring 87 points, 14.5 per game. He was averaging 10.8 in the 12 games he started.

John Petty is averaging 14.5 points off the bench

Johnson said, “We’re built differently this year. Just look at our bench, scoring over the 30 points a game [actually, 35.4] the last five games? It’s just a different team and Petty’s a part of that bench, and he doesn’t have a problem with it. Everyone wants to start, but I told him,’Do you want to come off the bench and play 20 or 30 minutes, or do you want to start and play 12?’ So I think he likes coming off the bench and playing minutes and having a role on our team.”

Petty, who has averaged 27 minutes per game as a sub, should like it. He had 32 points in Knoxville, making 6-10 three-pointers. He’s no stranger to the three-pointer after making an Alabama record 90 as a freshman last year, including a school record 10 against Alabama A&M.

Teammate Alec Reese said Petty “has been playing really well. When somebody gets hot, everybody’s energy just starts to pick up.”

Asked about having a moment of thinking you can’t miss, Reese said, “I haven’t really had a moment like that, but I’m sure he just feels like he should just keep shooting. He’s told me before that when he gets hot like that it just feels like he can’t miss, so it must be pretty nice.”

Petty said he thinks his success has come from “the mindset I take into the game, the preparation I put in before the game. The shots start to fall.

“It’s a great mindset. I feel like every shot is going in. But it’s all to my team and Coach Avery as well. My teammates find me open and get the ball to me. They have confidence in me. They tell me, ‘If you don’t shoot, you can’t make.’

“I think it helps the team when someone gets hot, no matter who it is. It fuels our team. Once we get fuel, we’re hard to put out.”

Petty also said he thinks coming off the bench has helped him because when he’s on the bench he’s “watching the flow of the game, watching the defense, watch how they rotate.

“If I make my first two shots, I know it’s going to be a good game.”

And if he misses the first two?

“I’ll still keep shooting. Not jacking, but I’ll still keep shooting and try to find a rhythm.

“But the way the rim has been looking lately, I doubt that I’ll miss my first two.”

Petty also thinks he is doing things other than three-point shots better, getting inside and posting up smaller defenders. Johnson agrees.

“I’ve seen the hard work in the summertime in the weight room, the way he improved his stamina and strength and seen that transfer to the game. He’s seeing when things go bad, there are other things he can do besides make a jump shot. He’s posting up, he’s driving to the basket.

“On our defensive rating, sometimes he’s one of our high guys. (In the last game) he had only two mistakes. Defensively he’s competing. He took a charge against Tennessee, he’s trying to block shots, he’s getting in there and sticking his nose in to rebound, he’s doing a better job of contending the ball off the dribble.

“I think it’s a wide array of areas that he’s improved and we’re going to need it. And he’s not going to be just a one-dimensional jump shooter.”

Is there such as a thing as a bad shot? Petty and Johnson don’t agree on that.

Petty said, “No, there’s no such thing as a bad shot. I learned that because Coach Avery could have blown up at some of the shots I’ve taken, but he has confidence in me. They’ve seen me in practice and he saw me through high school, so he knows when I’m in a rhythm there’s really no shot I can’t make.”

Johnson said, “He probably said that with a smile on his face because there is such a thing as a bad shot. He’s shooting fewer bad shots now. Shot selection is a big part of it and we talk about it on a daily basis.

“It’s important to have really great shot selection and as players recognize what is a good shot and a bad shot they’ll be much more effective.

“Every one of [Petty’s] shots in the last game was a good shot.

“But when a bad shot goes in we all love it.”