On the road in a hostile environment, the team desperately needs a basket. The crowd is losing its mind, the raucous noise of the students shaking the arena while giving the defense razor sharp focus.
The shot-clock is winding down as the ball is aimlessly passed around with no sense of a game plan.
With five seconds left to get a shot off, the ball is poked and fumbled around before a three-pointer is launched as the shot clock expires. A perfect swish.
That was the scenario that played out for the Long Beach State men’s basketball team in a Dec. 10 loss at San Diego State. Senior Point Guard Mike Caffey bailed the team out with a rainbow three just over the outstretched arm of a defender.
There often comes a point when a team starts becoming too reliant on its best player to everything every night. Head coach Dan Monson and the 49ers are trying to avoid reaching that point.
Caffey is the unquestioned leader of the team. He has started all 21 games so far this season while playing a team-high 31.5 minutes per game. That’s five more than Senior Guard Tyler Lamb, who is second on the team in minutes per game with 25.2. During the team’s brutal six-game road trip in December, Caffey played at least 30 minutes in five of the contests.
Monson has said the minutes load is a concern, and his experience as a coach has taught him it’s better to get ahead of it and find extra rest for Caffey whenever he can. Still, he scoffed at the notion that the team is too reliant on Caffey.
“When great teams like the [Miami] Heat or [Los Angeles] Lakers were winning championships,” Monson said. “Were they too reliant on Kobe or LeBron? When you have the best player, you need to rely on him.”
Then there’s Caffey’s scoring responsibilities. His 17.6 points per game are a career high, but there’s so much more he’s in charge of. He initiates the offense, making sure everyone is in their proper spot. He has to dribble and push the ball in transition to create better scoring opportunities, or reset and find open shots for his teammates.
The load has gotten a little lighter in the last weeks for Caffey. A recent stretch of strong performances from Seniors David Samuels and Tyler Lamb and Sophomore Guard Travis Hammonds have allowed LBSU to alleviate some of the pressure that is typically placed upon Caffey, a leading contender for Big West Conference Player of the year.
With an easier schedule ahead of them and veteran players starting to perform to their capabilities, it’s reasonable to expect a decreased reliance on Caffey moving forward. Even younger players such as Sophomore Guard Travis Hammonds and Freshmen Forwards Temidayo Yussuf and Jack Williams have come off the bench and given the team spark.
It’s common for teams to rely heavily on their best players to win games, and more often than not, they do. It’s what sets those players apart from others. It would be a failure on the coaching staff’s part if it didn’t find a way to maximize a players’ skillset and talent.
With tournament season fast approaching, the 49ers will need more consistency from the guys around Caffey if they want to accomplish what they have failed to do the last three years: reach the NCAA Tournament.