Which Lobos are making their team better when they're on the court?

Donovan Dent is having a Player of the Year-type season for the Lobos.

And Nelly Junior Joseph is emerging as the best center in the Mountain West.

UNM coach Richard Pitino doesn’t need much help in deciding to play those guys big minutes.

But for everyone else, especially ones not asked to do much scoring, how does a coaching staff decide a player’s value to the team?

The plus/minus stat (+/-) is a statistic that measures only one thing: How a team’s score improves, or doesn’t, for every second a player is on the court.

For several years the stat has been a mainstay on NBA and college basketball postgame box scores, though coaches have differing opinions on its value. Plus/minus can be deceiving if it’s based on a small sample size.

“I don’t look at it on the year as much as in the game. Because it’s on the box score, I’ll look at it,” Pitino said, but it’s only one small factor in how he determines if a player is actually helping the team when on the court.

“Honestly, the bench guys, it’s more of do you look like a bench guy out there? Are you nervous? Are you scared to take a shot? Are you not as comfortable in the flow of the offense? Are you guarding? Little things like that. Because most of our bench guys, C.J. (Noland) is different because he’s got experience. Kade (Dotson) is very, very inexperienced. Jovan (Milicevic) is very inexperienced. Even (Ibrahima Sacko), Atiki (Ally Atiki) had a little bit of experience at BYU. So it’s more like, do you belong in the game? That’s what I look at.”

So what do the Lobos’ plus/minus numbers look like this season? Are the Lobos we all assume are helping the team really helping? Are our favorite reserves killing it as much as we think when they get in the game?

Let’s take a look:

Lobos overall plus/minus stats through 21 games:

+164 Donovan Dent

+160 Mustapha Amzil

+151 Filip Borovicanin

+144 Nelly Junior Joseph

+125 Tru Washington

+97 C.J. Noland

+85 Atiki Ally Atiki

+81 Kayde Dotson

+73 Jovan Milicevic

+59 Braden Appelhans

+17 Quinton Webb

+4 Ibrahima Sacko

Lobos +/- per minute played:

+0.448 Kayde Dotson

+0.441 Atiki Ally Atiki

+0.427 Jovan Milicevic

+0.414 Quinton Webb

+0.344 Filip Borovicanin

+0.256 Mustapha Amzil

+0.251 Braden Appelhans

+0.238 Tru Washington

+0.232 Nelly Junior Joseph

+0.231 Donovan Dent

+0.228 C.J. Noland

+0.049 Ibrahima Sacko

So what does it all mean for Pitino and the Lobos?

“I do look at plus/minus in the game, but that can be deceiving,” Pitino said. “I’m not anti plus/minus. I like it, but it’s more of a feel throughout the course of the game.”

TRU RISING: One Lobo who has been playing better of late is Tru Washington.

The 6-foot-4 shooting guard is averaging 10.4 points, 2.4 assists and 1.8 steals while shooting 48.8% from the field, all while consistently defending the top player on the opposing team.

His value is not lost on his teammates.

“Tru’s been amazing for us,” Dent told the Journal after Saturday’s win over UNLV. “He picks it up on the defensive end like no other player on our team. I told him before the game, ‘You may not get all the recognition from the media, all that may go to me and Nelly, but you are the most important player on the team just with what you bring on the court.’ He has high energy, guards the ball, can knock down a trey whenever we need it.”