National Rebounding Records

[All4SU]

I was in the car yesterday while the Kansas/ UNC game was on, and a comment was made by the announcer that caught my ear. Unfortunately, I didn't catch all of it, so I don't know if I heard him right. He was discussing one of the players (on Kansas?) and said that he has more career rebounds than anyone in the history of college basketball except Bill Russell. Am I wrong, or didn't Derrick Coleman set the NCAA record for career rebounds? Bill Russell would only have played three years in college. What am I missing?

 

[HyattsCuse]

http://basketball.about.com/od/players/tp/career-rebounding.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NCAA_Division_I_men's_basketball_career_rebounding_leaders

I know from the NC State game, Robinson was moving up the Kansas rebounding leaders. He was a few short of someone for I think 2nd place in Kansas history. I don't think he's close in terms of the NCAA records.

 

[pfister1]

I think what you hear was that Thomas Robinson had more career rebounds than any other player in Kansas history not named Wilt Chamberlain. My son and I were in the car and hear that he was behind Chamberlain and though they mentioned Robinson's total they didn't mention Chamberlain's and we both wondered how many he had.

 

[All4SU]

I think what you hear was that Thomas Robinson had more career rebounds than any other player in Kansas history not named Wilt Chamberlain. My son and I were in the car and hear that he was behind Chamberlain and though they mentioned Robinson's total they didn't mention Chamberlain's and we both wondered how many he had.

That could be it. Time to break down and get the hearing aid, I guess. Dammit!

 

[domestu]

LaSalle's Tom Gola holds the Division I record for career rebounds with 2,201.

The NCAA has a seperate category for career rebounds after 1973. Derrick Coleman had 1,537 rebounds at Syracuse and was the leader in this stat from 1990 until 1997 when Tim Duncan topped him. Coleman ranks 2nd in career rebounds among Division I players since 1973 and is 21st all-time.

Wilt Chamberlain only played two season with the varsity at Kansas. Freshmen were ineligible and he jumped to the Harlem Globetrotters his senior season. Danny Manning is the career rebounding leader at Kansas.

 

[pfister1]

LaSalle's Tom Gola holds the Division I record for career rebounds with 2,201.

The NCAA has a seperate category for career rebounds after 1973. Derrick Coleman had 1,537 rebounds at Syracuse and was the leader in this stat from 1990 until 1997 when Tim Duncan topped him. Coleman ranks 21st in career rebounds when you include players before 1973.

Wilt Chamberlain only played two season with the varsity at Kansas. Freshmen were ineligible and he jumped to the Harlem Globetrotters his senior season. Danny Manning is the career rebounding leader at Kansas.

I didn't hear it correctly either then. They must have been talking about the Kansas single season record.

Before this season it was:

Wilt Chamberlain 510
Drew Gooden 423
Clyde Lovellette 410


Thomas Robinson has 438 boards this season according to ESPN, including 9 against UNC and 15 against NC State.

 

[SWC75]

LaSalle's Tom Gola holds the Division I record for career rebounds with 2,201.

The NCAA has a seperate category for career rebounds after 1973. Derrick Coleman had 1,537 rebounds at Syracuse and was the leader in this stat from 1990 until 1997 when Tim Duncan topped him. Coleman ranks 2nd in career rebounds among Division I players since 1973 and is 21st all-time.

Wilt Chamberlain only played two season with the varsity at Kansas. Freshmen were ineligible and he jumped to the Harlem Globetrotters his senior season. Danny Manning is the career rebounding leader at Kansas.

They separated the records in 1973 because freshmen were then eligible and they wanted to 'protect' players who had had only three years to play by giivng them their own set of records. But, as regards rebounds, it actually protected the four year players because there's far fewer missed shots than there ever used to be, (the players are better, more offense comes off of fast breaks, the foul shooting rules were changed so there were fewer attempts, etc.), so the overall records tend to still be held by the pre-1973 players.

 

[domestu]

They separated the records in 1973 because freshmen were then eligible and they wanted to 'protect' players who had had only three years to play by giivng them their own set of records. But, as regards rebounds, it actually protected the four year players because there's far fewer missed shots than there ever used to be, (the players are better, more offense comes off of fast breaks, the foul shooting rules were changed so there were fewer attempts, etc.), so the overall records tend to still be held by the pre-1973 players.

The college hoops game has undergone many changes since the 1950s but there are also far fewer big men who concentrate on rebounding today. Players were only eligible for three years prior to 1973 and teams played a lot less games in the old days than they do now but they focused so much more on rebounding back then. Kevin Love is a throwback to the way big men used to play.

I don't know if we will ever see college players challenge the post-1973 career rebounding numbers of Coleman and Duncan again because of the tendency of the best players to turn pro early.

Today's college game has also changed in ways that inhibit scoring and rebounding. There are a lot more plodding low scoring contests in the Big East today than there used to be in the 1980s. Almost every team in this year's Big East Tournament played zone defenses and most of the games were very low scoring affairs.