This is interesting

From Daniel Lyght's Twitter account: "Fresno State mens hoops lead the WAC in bench points. Dogs haven't had a bench in recent seasons, so their 24.2 points per game is big plus"

PTW would say generally yes. It certainly pays off when a starter or some of the starters aren't enjoying productive games -- a successful bench offers viable options. However, this can also indicate -- as we noted -- that said starters intermittently aren't pulling their respective weight, leading to the questions of therefore who should be starting and who should be enjoying more of the available minutes? 

But, all in all, coaches certainly prefer having others to turn to.