Hey guys,

I have a bench player that I haven't ever had a starting spot for but has been excellent off the bench and he is close to breaking into top 15 for scoring and he has broken into the top 15 for assists and steals. I have been playing HD for a while but I haven't had a player like him that I have played off the bench his entire four years and had this type of success.

Part of it could be because he couldn't beat out the guys in front of him (PG in front of him is #2 in assists and #3 in steals and the SG is a JR with a 726 rating).

http://www.whatifsports.com/hd/PlayerProfile/Stats.aspx?tid=12504&pid=2072196

I have never had extremely high scoring teams (77.9 ppg) this year so it isn't because I am running uptempo all the time.

So does anyone have anyone similar they have had in their career? Did I screw up by keeping this guy on the bench all year? 

I frequently put good scorers on my 2nd team to take advantage or worse defenders.

whatifsports.com/hd/PlayerProfile/Ratings.aspx

This guy is only a 60 ATH, 80 LP but he is 15 points in 18 minutes with a FG% about 52%.

I had a guy a couple years ago lead the nation in scoring at Princeton coming off the bench.

i had a player, calvin flannigan, that was recruiting to be a career backup. after a redshirt year, he was a huge contributor his last 3 years, leading the team in scoring the last 2 i believe. he was 2nd all time in school scoring, and helped lead the team to 3 straight national championships. he was a d2 sg with like 93 speed and 97 per or something, in the old engine, but his def and pass were low enough that i didn't want to start him. his collegiate stat line reads, a whopping 139 games played (140 is the max possible), 0 games started, 18.4 minutes, 48.4% fg, 44% 3pt, 1.1 stl, 1.0 assists, and 10.9 points (all my teams then had extremely balanced scoring, so that was a super high figure, for someone to average over 4 years. i think he capped around 13.5 and was up to 9 or so by soph year).

i have had success, obviously not the same level, but still a lot of success with a career backup, particularly at the 2. you can just get such efficient production from an offensive star who might not quite have the def, passing, or something else you would want on the starting line.

Yeah.  I think it's easier to get big number in WIS than real life because starters just play less minutes in WIS.  Lots of guys can play 35 minutes at a high level in real life, but the best teams in HD probably only have their starters play 25-28 minutes.  In WIS, that means a backup who plays 15-20 min a game will get a lot of time against another backup, whereas in real life, it would probably be mostly against the starter, leading to decreased efficiency and productivity,

I've only played for five seasons, but Jeff Middlebrooks has had a big impact for my team despite never starting a game. I haven't started him because his athleticism and defense are lower than my current starters. He's my 2nd best scorer and leads my team in steals, assists, and may be a potential CPOY candidate.

Brady Tutt

Started his senior year, but the two CPOYs you see were from his sophomore and junior seasons, when he was on the bench.  He did manage third team as a starter...

In my third (and only successful) season at Lakeland, I relegated Shannon Spencer to the bench, and he ended up averaging 16 points per game, leading the conference in effeciency and third in total scoring. 

Wes Sartin was my best bench player.  Stat wise he was a 10 ppg and 5 rpg for his career.  But talent wise, he would have been the best player on about 300 other D3 teams in Naismith.  He was the 6th best player in an 8 player class that lost 9 games in their 4 year career winning the championship their freshman year, losing in the biggest upset in HD during the 1st round of their Sophomore season and finishing their career with back to back final 4s.  


Season 2-5 for North Carolina Wesleyan in Div 3.  By his senior year, he had enough talent that he could have started for some Big 6 programs, but was the 6th man on a Div 3 team.