When Isaiah Ihnen fell to the floor in pain on December 14 in the second half of Liberty’s game against North Carolina A&T, there were immediate fears over the severity of the 6’9” forward’s injury. The Minnesota transfer, who joined the Flames this past summer, had missed two previous seasons due to knee injuries so the concern was valid.
A few weeks later, after missing a couple of games, head coach Ritchie McKay announced that Ihnen would miss the rest of the season due to the injury suffered. There was an immediate dejection for the Flames. It’s not just finding a replacement for the 10.4 points and 4.3 rebounds per game Ihnen was providing through his first 11 games at Liberty. More than that, his departure puts a damper on the Liberty roster from a depth standpoint.
The Flames were 10-1 with Ihnen in the lineup but have gone 4-3 in his absence while trying to navigate its way without the Minnesota transfer. The team was also 3-1 in games decided by five points or fewer with a healthy Ihnen and have lost all three decided by five or fewer without him, with all three of those coming in conference.
In Ihnen’s absence, McKay has utilized primarily a six-man rotation of Colin Porter, Kaden Metheny, Taelon Peter, Jayvon Maughmer, Zach Cleveland, and Owen Aquino. No other player has received more than six minutes of game action in a single conference game in the first four CUSA contests prior to Gabriel McKay getting 10 minutes in Thursday night’s loss to UTEP. It has meant a significantly heavier workload for those top six. Minutes have increased for all, and the Flames have four of the top 12 players in minutes played in conference games. Only Sam Houston has more than one in that same list of 12, with two players.
“I trust our bench,” said McKay. “I think they can be more productive, but I don’t worry about the minutes. If you ask them, they’d want to play 40 minutes a game.”
McKay has given several players opportunities throughout the non-conference and even in the first several conference games, but no one has stepped up to the point where McKay trusts them with more minutes. Brett Decker, Gabriel McKay, Zander Yates, Curtis Blair, and Kai Yu have all gotten game action in conference games. Even Will Gibson’s redshirt was burned to give him an opportunity. McKay is trying to push some buttons and give guys opportunities.
“I’m going to play the minutes that I think guys need to play for us to win the game, but I’m very well aware that the more guys off the bench play the better opportunity we have to program develop and get those guys some rest for end of games,” said McKay. “That being said, I’m not going to sacrifice what I think is the best opportunity for us to win to play guys minutes so that we can develop for the future.”
The increased burden on the six guys in the rotation could lead to them wearing down over the course of the season. We just saw Colin Porter exit the Louisiana Tech game and miss most of the second half due to an injury. He also sat out practice this past week to try to recover and be ready for the games.
“This is an admission from last year, I think we wore Colin down, Colin and Kaden last year,” McKay continued. “But we have more behind them this year. I don’t think they have the same taxation and they are a year older.”
With the addition of Aquino, Maughmer, and Peter through the transfer portal, the Flames added some key veterans that have played basketball at a high level previously. They can also help shoulder the burden carried by the returners Porter, Metheny, and Cleveland.
Coming off the bench and virtually the team’s sixth starter at this point, Taelon Peter has seen his role increase significantly since the Ihnen injury. He’s averaging a team-best 19 points per game in the six games Ihnen has missed, including 33 points at Louisiana Tech when he played a season high 32 minutes. That is up considerably from when he was averaging 7.36 points per game with Ihnen in the lineup.
McKay will have to determine the best course for his team over the next several weeks. Playing in a one-bid league, three days in March are the most important, and Liberty has to make sure it is moving in a direction to be at its peak when the team travels to Huntsville, Alabama. That may mean letting the bench handle a few more minutes each night during the regular season, especially when there is no real advantage given to regular season success in the CUSA where all teams play on a neutral site. It’s something McKay struggles with himself.
“In a perfect world, absolutely,” McKay said of letting his bench have a larger role. “But when the referees are there and you can smell the popcorn and the game is going to be decided in the subsequent minutes, you are thinking about winning the game.”
The Flames have lost two conference games after blowing large second half leads. In the league opener at home against Western Kentucky, Liberty led by as many as 16 in the second half before falling, 71-70. At Louisiana Tech, the Liberty lead was as high as nine in the second half before giving way to the Bulldogs on their home floor. Could this be due to the thin lineup and heavy minute load the top six are playing?
“It’s not the way we would want it or desire it, but everybody is going through something right now,” said McKay. “It’s college basketball. In a perfect world, I’d love to give those guys opportunities. For this age group, they turn the page fairly quickly. Once they see it go in, maybe they break through or do something that adds value to the given possession. I think eventually that will happen.”
