LSU women’s basketball coach Nikki Caldwell’s connection to the University of Tennessee and legendary coach Pat Summitt is undeniable. Caldwell won a national championship as a player and two titles as an assistant coach under Summitt while at Tennessee. 
Though her passion on the floor resembles Summitt’s iconic style, Caldwell has developed her own coaching philosophy. Instead of separating the game into halves, Caldwell breaks down the game into 10 four-minute segments, placing more responsibility on the bench to help carry the Lady Tigers. 
Caldwell’s different approach emerged in her three-year tenure at UCLA from 2008-2011.  
“When I first started coaching at UCLA, I started structuring my practices where everything was in four-minute segments,” Caldwell said. “If we were doing a layup drill, it was for four minutes … Everything was consistent with the timeouts in a game, but within those four minutes, I wanted to break the game down and really talk about one possession at a time.”
Caldwell’s perspective provides a simple goal for her players no matter their roles or their minutes played — win the segment. 
Each segment is a building block. Caldwell said if the Lady Tigers win three out of the five segments of each half, they typically win the game. 
The starters are responsible for setting the tone of the game from the tipoff to the 16-minute mark. When the starters struggle to establish shutdown defense and an offensive rhythm, the responsibility to raise the level of play falls to the bench.
In LSU’s 58-57 loss to Ole Miss on Feb. 26, the Rebels outscored the Lady Tigers’ starters, 12-2, in the first four minutes. 
After Ole Miss outscored LSU 22-3 in two segments in the first half, the Lady Tigers’ bench helped cut the Rebels’ lead to four points with a 9-0 run in the last four minutes of the half. 
In Caldwell’s eyes, the Lady Tigers have a new set of starters for each segment, making the bench players vital to creating and maintaining momentum.
“It also puts an accountability factor on when you are getting ready to go back there on the floor. You’re starting for us,” Caldwell said. “You may be at the 16-minute mark, and you are a starter for us. Or you may be at the eight-minute mark when you are in, and you are a starter for us. You have to get us off to a good start.”
Senior guard DaShawn Harden, junior guard Akilah Bethel and freshman guard Jenna Deemer have been the main weapons for the Lady Tigers off the bench this season.
Harden has brought to the defense with steals and sparked the offense with a team-leading 43 treys. Though she notched 12 starts, Harden led the Lady Tigers’ bench with 24.7 minutes per game.
When Bethel comes off the bench, she brings athleticism and energy to the Tigers on both ends. Bethel averages 4.4 boards and 5.1 points in her 20 minutes per game. Against Mississippi State on Jan. 15, Bethel’s presence at the top of LSU’s full court press forced a key turnover late in the game to spark LSU to its first win against a ranked team in 2015. 
Though Harden tallied the most 3-pointers, Deemer led the Lady Tigers in 3-point percentage with 37.5. Against Ole Miss on Jan. 29, Deemer scored a career-high 22 points on 7-for-10 shooting. LSU posted a 6-1 record when Deemer scores more than 10 points. 
When Caldwell gets a high-level of production from the bench, her strategy of breaking the game into segments often pays off.  
“It’s just common for anyone in any sport to feel like because they are not starting, they are not important,” said senior forward Sheila Boykin. “But at the end of the day, who is going to hold it down if a starter goes down or if a starter isn’t on their A game? Who’s going to come in and either elevate or maintain what’s going on in the game?”
You can reach Morgan Prewitt on Twitter @kmprewitt_TDR.