Rebounding Issues

[cuseincincy]

I don't want to discount the problems SU is having rebounding this season but I think the media experts are overplaying it a little. The primary benefit of getting a rebound is to possess the basketball so that you can have an attempt to score. Last night SU was outrebounded by 9. That should translate into 9 more opportunites for USF to score. Yet somehow SU was able to take 3 more shots than USF (and 19 more free throws which is at least 9 possesions). We all know why, its the steals, blocked shots and other turnovers SU causes. And by the way excels at and did again last night.
Do I wish SU had better rebounding #'s? sure. But everyone knows a zone is hard to rebound out of defensively, but also because of the zone our opponents tend to take more long shots than usual which result in many long rebounds and we've seen a ton of those this year. Bottom line, as long as SU continues to play tough defense and force steals and blocks the rebounding numbers will have less of an impact.

 

[pfister1]

I don't want to discount the problems SU is having rebounding this season but I think the media experts are overplaying it a little. The primary benefit of getting a rebound is to possess the basketball so that you can have an attempt to score. Last night SU was outrebounded by 9. That shoudl translate into 9 more opportunites for USF to score. Yet somehow SU was able to take 3 more shots than USF. We all know why, its the steals, blocked shots and other turnovers SU causes. And by the way excels at and did again last night.
Do I wish SU had better rebounding #'s? sure. But everyone knows a zone is hard to rebound out of defensively, but also because of the zone our opponents tend to take more long shots than usual which result in many long rebounds and we've seen a ton of those this year. Bottom line, as long as SU continues to play tough defense and force steals and blocks the rebounding numbers will have less of an impact.

I really wonder if its more about effort and mindset with our group. We were horribly outrebounded in the first 1/4 of the game, I believe they showed a graphic with USF with 12 boards to our 2, or some similar imbalance. Over the last 3/4 of the game we outrebounded them based on the numbers and certainly boarded even with them based on the "feel" of the game. The game ended USF 39 - SU 30. Last 3/4 of the game was USF 27 - SU 28.

 

[rstone7727]

Not sure I agree with the "rebounding is tough while in zone" theory. I think it's all about body position and desire. Kris got one offensive board last night that was really impressive when he went into a group of about four USF players and yanked the ball right out of their hands. I almost jumped out of my chair! I thought, finally someone is showing toughness and desire! But outside of that one play there were few others to hang our hat on. During the last half of the season, we have shown very little desire to mix it up and if the rebound doesn't come directly to us, the other team gets it. Hope we do better going forward.

 

[shermstheman]

While I agree that rebounding out of a zone will result in a few less rebounds and I agree that our ability to turnover a team helps to make up for a few less rebounds our rebounding totals are so poor that it will catch up with us. Was it -20 to WVU? -14 to ND?, -10 last night to a middling rebounding team is not good. When we see a good rebounding team in the tourney (and possibly on Saturday at UConn), we might see how important the rebounding issue is.