By R.L. Bynum

After retooling his roster, Coach Hubert Davis said he wants to play more players than last season.

That’s happened in some games for No. 9 Carolina (8–3), but the rotation size has essentially not changed from last season. During critical stretches of many games, Davis has played a six-man rotation — the starters, plus sophomore guard Seth Trimble — and Davis essentially is giving fewer players significant minutes, although playing time for starters has gone down.

While Coach Roy Williams annually played lots of players early in the season before settling into a smaller rotation for the bulk of ACC play, Davis takes a different approach.

“I don’t have a philosophy of, ‘I have a five-man rotation; I only want to play eight guys,’ ” Davis said before the season. “I don’t have a number. But if you prepare and you practice and you play well, you will play.”

That’s always been Davis’ caveat: players earn game minutes in practice, and then by showing in games that they deserve it.

Carolina’s only two victories over ranked teams this season have come when the Tar Heels scored more bench points than their opponents.

Fatigue clearly hurt UNC late in its 72–69 loss to Kansas in the 2022 national championship game when only six of the seven players who played were on the court for more than two minutes.

That again appeared to be a factor late in the 87–76 loss Dec. 5 at Madison Square Garden to No. 5 Connecticut. Nine Tar Heels played, but only six — the starters, plus Trimble — played double-digit minutes, and both RJ Davis and Harrison Ingram logged 38 minutes.

“The guys that I played tonight are the guys that I played,” Hubert Davis said, when asked about his rotation after the game. “It wasn’t anything deeper than that. Just playing the guys that I felt like put us in a position — depending on the scenario of the game — that gave us the best chance to win.”

Starters are playing fewer minutes this season, though. RJ Davis (34.5 minutes per game, second-highest in the ACC, compared to 35.0 last season) and Ingram (32.7) are the only starters averaging more than 30 minutes per game after all five averaged more than 30 last season.

Armando Bacot is averaging 29.7 minutes compared to 30.3 last season. Caleb Love led the team last season at 35.6 minutes per game, but the minutes at the second guard spot this season are split between Trimble (16.1 per game) and freshman Elliot Cadeau (22.9).

Notre Dame graduate transfer Cormac Ryan is averaging 29.2 minutes, playing mostly at the three spot, where Leaky Black played 32.1 minutes a game last season.

In the three losses, four starters — Davis (38.9), Ingram (34.7), Bacot (33.1) and Ryan (31.9) — averaged more than 31 minutes. In the eight wins, only Davis (32.8) and Ingram (32.0) averaged more than 29 minutes.

While eight players average double-digit minutes compared to seven last season, one of those is graduate guard Paxson Wojcik. He’s averaging 11.2 minutes, but he only played two minutes in each of the last two games and has only averaged 3.6 in the last five games.

Only seven players averaged double-digit minutes in the three losses this season and 13 defeats last season. But while 11 players averaged more than five minutes in those games last season, that number has dropped to nine this season.

Eight players averaged double-digit minutes in the eight wins this season and 20 victories last season. But the number of players averaging more than five minutes has also gone down in wins, from 12 last season to 10 this season.

Trimble, who played 9.1 minutes per game, has logged more than 20 minutes twice, including 22 in the 81–69 win Dec. 20 against No. 12 Oklahoma in Charlotte.

The reserves with the most playing time last season were Puff Johnson and D’Marco Dunn, who both transferred to Penn State. Johnson averaged 16 minutes per game and is playing 21.2 per game this season. Dunn averaged 10.2 last season and is averaging 15.8 this season.

Dontrez Styles averaged 5.9 minutes last season at UNC, but is playing 34.2 per game this season for Georgetown.

UNC’s rotations against overmatched non-conference opponents skew the numbers and don’t provide a good indicator of how they might play out in competitive ACC games. But looking at the five games against teams with NET rankings of 31 or higher may be a good indicator.

In those five games — wins over No. 6 Tennessee (100–92 in Chapel Hill on Nov. 29) and Oklahoma, and losses to Villanova (83–81 in overtime Nov. 23 in the Bahamas), Connecticut and No. 8 Kentucky (87–83 Dec. 16 in Atlanta) — the rotation size varied.

Only six players played double-digit minutes against the Huskies, seven against Tennessee and Kentucky and eight against Villanova. Only eight players played more than five minutes against Villanova, Tennessee and Kentucky, with nine playing at least five minutes against UConn.

Of those five games, Carolina only outscored its opponents in bench points in its only wins over ranked opponents — 26–23 against the Volunteers and 13–10 against the Sooners.

While Trimble consistently gets the most minutes off the bench, the next-highest has varied lately. That was freshman center Zayden High (12 minutes) against Oklahoma, with Jae’Lyn Withers playing more than Trimble against Kentucky (19 to 16).

West Virginia junior transfer James Okonkwo has played nine minutes — never more than three in a game — over five games and hasn’t gotten into a game since playing two minutes more than a month ago on Nov. 23 against Villanova.

After Friday’s 8 p.m. non-conference finale at the Smith Center (ACC Network) against Charleston Southern, it will be interesting to see how the rotation evolves in road games Jan. 2 against Pittsburgh, Jan. 6 against Clemson and Jan. 10 against N.C. State.

Rotation vs. best five opponents

83–81 OT loss to Villanova
Bench points — lost 12–10
8 players with more than 5 minutes, double-digits minute
11 players played
RJ Davis 41 minutes
100–92 win over No. 6 Tennessee
Bench points — won 26–13
7 players with double-digit minutes
8 players with more than 5 minutes
10 players played
RJ Davis 38 minutes
87–67 loss to No. 5 UConn
Bench points — lost 11–4
6 players with double-digit minutes
9 players with more than 5 minutes
9 players played
RJ Davis 38 minutes
87–83 loss to No. 8 Kentucky
Bench points — lost 36–14
7 players with double-digit minutes
8 players with more than 5 minutes
10 players played
RJ Davis 37 minutes
81–69 win over No. 12 Oklahoma
Bench points — won 13–11
7 players with double-digit minutes
8 players with more than 5 minutes
10 players played
RJ Davis 35 minutes

UNC season statistics

Date	Month/day	Score	Opponent/event (current ranks)	Record
	October
27	Friday	W, 117–53	vs. St. Augustine’s	Exhibition
	November
6	Monday	W, 86–70	vs. Radford	1–0
12	Sunday	W, 90–68	vs. Lehigh	2–0
17	Friday	W, 77–52	vs. UC Riverside	3–0
			Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas
22	Wednesday	W, 91–69	Northern Iowa	4–0
23	Thursday	L, 83–81, OT	Villanova	4–1
24	Friday	W, 87–72	Arkansas	5–1
			ACC/SEC Men’s Challenge
29	Wednesday	W, 100–92	vs. No. 6 Tennessee	6–1
	December
2	Saturday	W, 78–70	vs. Florida State	7–1, 1–0 ACC
			Jimmy V Classic in New York
5	Tuesday	L, 87–67	No. `1` Connecticut	7–2
			CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta
16	Saturday	L, 87–83	No. 12 Kentucky	7–3
			Jumpman Invitational in Charlotte
20	Wednesday	W, 81–69	Oklahoma	8–3
			—————————
29	Friday	W, 105–60	vs. Charleston Southern	9–3
	January
2	Tuesday	W, 70–57	at Pittsburgh	10–3, 2–0 ACC
6	Saturday	W, 65–55	at Clemson	11–3, 3–0 ACC
10	Wednesday	W, 67–54	at N.C. State	12–3, 4–0 ACC
13	Saturday	W, 103–67	vs. Syracuse	13–3, 5–0 ACC
17	Wednesday	W, 86–70	vs. Louisville	14–3, 6–0 ACC
20	Saturday	W, 76–66	vs. Boston College	15–3, 7–0 ACC
22	Monday	W, 85–64	vs. Wake Forest	16–3, 8–0 ACC
27	Saturday	W, 75–68	at Florida State	17–3, 9–0 ACC
30	Tuesday	L, 74–73	at Georgia Tech	17–4, 9–1 ACC
	February
3	Saturday	W, 93–84	vs. No. 13 Duke	18–4, 10–1 ACC
6	Tuesday	L, 80–76	vs. Clemson	18–5, 10–2 ACC
10	Saturday	W, 75–72	at Miami	19–5, 11–2 ACC
13	Tuesday	L, 86–79	at Syracuse	19–6, 11–3 ACC
17	Saturday	W, 96–81	vs. Virginia Tech	20–6, 12–3 ACC
24	Saturday	W, 54–44	at Virginia	21–6, 13–3 ACC
26	Monday	W, 75–71	vs. Miami	22–6, 14–3 ACC
	March
2	Saturday	W, 79–70	vs. N.C. State	23–6, 15–3 ACC
5	Tuesday	W, 84–51	vs. Notre Dame	24–6, 16–3 ACC
9	Saturday	W, 84–79	at No. 13 Duke	25–6, 17–3 ACC
			ACC tournament Washington
14	Thursday	W, 92–67	Quarterfinals: Florida State	26–6
15	Friday	W, 72–65	Semifinals: Pittsburgh	27–6
16	Saturday	L, 84–76	Final: N.C. State	27–7
			NCAA tournament
21	Thursday	W, 90–62	First round in Charlotte: Wagner	28–7
23	Saturday	W, 85–69	Second round in Charlotte: Michigan State	29–7
28	Thursday	L, 89–87	Sweet 16 in Los Angeles: No. 19 Alabama	29–8