Basketball Benny lineup most efficient in CBB since 2019-20

The lineup Kentucky fans have been clamoring for since the start of the 2022-23 season isn’t just working, it’s shattering the efficiency charts. In fact, it’s the most efficient lineup one through five in college basketball by a significant margin.

Crunching the numbers following the Wildcats’ 85-71 win over Georgia on Tuesday, national analytics expert Evan Miyakawa found that the lineup of Cason Wallace, Antonio Reeves, CJ Fredrick, Jacob Toppin and Oscar Tshiebwe graded out as the best lineup in basketball with an adjusted team efficiency margin of 86.0.

No other school had a lineup with an efficiency margin greater than 70.0 (LSU). In fact, only three total lineups graded out higher than 60.0, with Kansas (66.6) having the other.

The lineup that has changed Kentucky's season now has the highest Adjusted Team Efficiency Margin in the entire country for all D1 lineups (60+ possessions at https://t.co/cegyfz96ax).

In fact, Wallace/Reeves/Fredrick/Toppin/Oscar has the highest mark of any lineup since 2019-20 pic.twitter.com/VVBrPMmz43

— Evan Miyakawa (@EvanMiya) January 18, 2023

Taking a deeper dive, Kentucky’s lineup of Wallace, Reeves, Fredrick, Toppin and Tshiebwe is actually the most efficient of any five-man unit since the 2019-20 season.

Why is this important? Adjusted team efficiency margin adjusts for the quality of opposition faced by a lineup, down to the individual opposing players, on every possession. The higher the margin, the better the lineup against the strongest competition.

The sample size is growing, as well, with that unit putting together 68 total offensive possessions and 65 defensive possessions together. Entering the team’s trip to Tennessee this past weekend, that lineup had only played 20 possessions together. Sahvir Wheeler’s absence against the Volunteers and limited time on the floor vs. Georgia set up an extended look at that five-man group, with the best example of its offensive success coming in the second half against the Bulldogs. That lineup outscored UGA 37-19 during their time together on the floor, while all other lineups were outscored 52-48.

Despite the lineup’s offensive potential, John Calipari was concerned with how it’d be on the other end of the floor. Interestingly enough, it’s graded out as the most efficient defensive lineup in college basketball with at least 60 possessions at 51.6. So not only is it producing points on the offensive end, it’s limiting production on the other.

“The only thing I worried about was defensively, and that means you’re putting a lot of weight on Jacob to rebound. He did it, so you can play with three guards,” Calipari said. “If he doesn’t do it, you’ve got to have Chris in there rebounding. You have to.”

Kentucky tried both, with those six — Livingston being the other piece off the bench — making up the team’s entire rotation in the second half. The Wildcats turned an 11-point deficit in the first half to a 14-point win using that strategy, with the team putting together arguably its best half of the season.

“The game just dictated to me this is how you’ve got to play this,” Calipari said. “It’s not brain surgery. We were all watching the same thing.”

Kentucky fans will be the first to tell Calipari they were all watching the same thing, too. They saw the way ball movement and spacing improved with Wallace on the floor alongside two shooters, as did Tshiebwe’s ability to go to work down low. It passed the eye test, and now that the sample size is growing, the analytics are starting to back it up, as well.

Not bad for some Basketball Bennies.