Back on a December 4 blowout against North Carolina A&T, Austin Torres played one more minute than Martinas Geben. But ever since that game, Geben had been the guy playing significantly more minutes. On the season, Geben is averaging 15.2 minutes per game to 8.6 for Torres.

This changed, however, after the Irish’s loss to Virginia in which Geben played 15 minutes compared to 3 for Torres. In the following game against Georgia Tech, Torres played 21 minutes to only 8 for Geben. Against Duke?: 8 minutes for Torres and 7 for Geben.

Why the fewer minutes for Geben? He doesn’t have that much to offer right now offensively; he hasn’t shown the ability to score in the post or be a great offensive rebounder, and his lack of shooting ability can at times hinder the Irish offense. To his credit, he’s shown some solid passing ability, but he still is rather turnover-prone.

Geben’s doing an okay job in terms of defending and rebounding, but he struggles sometimes if he has to go out and defend a quicker big man on the perimeter.

At 6’7, Torres isn’t quite the interior presence the 6’10 Geben is, but it’s not that much of a drop-off. He’s also quicker defensively, allowing him to handle a larger variety of matchups.

The Irish had Torres guard Duke’s Jayson Tatum, a 6’8 future lottery pick who was giving the Irish a lot of trouble (19 points on 8-14 shooting). Torres did pretty well when Tatum challenged him: he was strong enough to not get overpowered and quick enough to not get blown by.

Additionally, Torres brings his patented energy whenever he’s on the floor and has been doing a pretty good job of crashing the offensive glass and catching/finishing around the rim. He’s not great on either end of the floor, but he’s doing well enough. And as a senior, I think he has experience and toughness that head coach Mike Brey values right now. I would expect him to continue getting more minutes than Geben moving forward.

However, if Torres is unable to make a free throw moving forward, maybe he won’t see quite as many minutes…

Starting Lineup Change?

Even with his decline in minutes, Geben has thus far remained in the starting five. But unsurprisingly, Coach Brey has speculated about a lineup change. He said that Geben may remain the starter, but that he’s also considering inserting Torres, Rex Pflueger, or TJ Gibbs into that fifth spot next to Matt Farrell, VJ Beachem, Steve Vasturia, and Bonzie Colson.

Per usual, Brey’s lineup decisions will likely require an offense for defense tradeoff. The smaller lineups (with four shooters and one big man) are usually better offensively but are susceptible to giving up a lot of offensive rebounds and points in the paint. Bigger lineups (with two of Colson, Geben, and Torres on the floor) typically produce greater defensive success but aren’t nearly as lethal offensively.

Brey seems to echo this line of thinking.

“I think for us, that’s a tricky one, because we do want to play small sometimes and downshift,” Brey said. “It’s a group responsibility and can we ride our small group — are we scoring enough to absorb a couple putbacks? — is kind of how I always look at it when we’re downshifted.”

Best of Both Worlds?

As I’ve pointed out before, Mike Brey uses his bench the 326th most in the country among 351 teams (per KenPom). Beachem, Colson, Farrell, and Vasturia are all averaging over 30 minutes per game, and Gibbs, Pflueger, Torres, and Matt Ryan provide minutes as well.

But it looks like Brey is considering expanding his nine-man rotation, or at least inserting a new guy into the mix. That “new guy” is 6’9, 245 lb. freshman forward John Mooney.

Why Mooney? As a three-star recruit out of Florida, it’s hard to expect too much from the freshman if he does indeed get the chance to see the floor. Additionally, if he is able to make a significant contribution, why hasn’t he been playing the entire season?

These are fair questions, but Mooney apparently has the general skill set the Irish really need right now from a big man: someone who can provide an offensive boost/stretch the floor on one end and provide an interior presence on the other.

When Mooney took this shot late against Duke, I assumed he just shot the ball because he was open. He missed badly, but I guess he actually has the ability to stretch the floor.

(As discussed) When Colson is on the floor with one of Geben/Torres, the Irish can better survive defensively (better able to protect the paint/grab rebounds) but this hinders the offense due to a lack of shooting/scoring. When Colson is on the floor as the lone big, the Irish are typically good offensively, but often get killed in the paint at the defensive end.

In an ideal scenario, Mooney would provide the best of both worlds in two-big lineups with him and Colson. He would man the paint defensively and provide some scoring/shooting on the offensive end.

VJ Beachem basically summed up this “best of both worlds” idea.

“He’s somebody that can really space the floor for us, he’s a really good shooter for his size,” Beachem said of Mooney. “Also his physical presence inside can really help us out defensively on the glass and just being a bigger body.”

These tradeoffs between big and small lineups have been an issue for the Irish all season, but the team had been playing well enough to get by anyway. But over the past three games, the Irish have only been averaging .96 points per possession offensively (averaging 1.129 on the season) and have had some defensive issues as well. It’s true that two of these games came against the 3rd and 10th best defenses in the country per KenPom (Virginia and Georgia Tech), but maybe a slight lineup change is necessary to get the Irish out of their recent rut.

Inserting one of Torres, Gibbs, or Pflueger into the starting lineup would likely have a bigger impact than increased playing time for Mooney, because as discussed, it’s hard to expect too much from the freshman. Still, the fact that Mooney is in a sense an “unknown quantity” makes his potential appearance in the rotation very intriguing.

It looks like Mike Brey is probably going to give both ideas a try. We’ll see what happens.