Starting from the last game and counting backward, we outrebounded... Houston 40-39. Auburn 39-30. Texas Tech 42-35. Maryland 42-20. UConn 40-35. Norfolk State 41-28. Tennessee 39-25. Alabama 43-38. Missouri 32-31. Ole Miss 48-36. Alabama 50-35. Tammy 42-37. Georgia 34-32. LSU 48-33. Oklahoma 36-35. SCe 28-24. Sixteen straight games of outrebounding the opponents. SIXTEEN. That's power basketball ball. That's winning basketball. Unimaginable under the previous regime. Maryland, the 2nd place team in the physical Big 10, was powerless on the boards against us. Mississippi State was the last team to outrebound us, 43-32. We won by 13 points on the road anyway. Our top rebounders will all be back, each a little stronger and more experienced. We do lose two outstanding rebounding guards in Richard and Martin, though.
An excellent post and impressive stats. Your last point is, like everything else about this upcoming season, key to continued success: how well will our new backcourt compliment our front court.
It might be telling to note that that streak of 16 rebound wins coincides exactly with the 16-game return of Micah Handlogten.
Impressive streak. Though I must note as always that total rebounding numbers can be misleading, as they are skewed by total numbers of rebounding opportunities. If one team misses more shots, the other will have more defensive rebounding opportunities. For example, in the Houston game: Houston missed 45 shots. Florida corralled 32 of those (71%), and Houston grabbed 15 of them (33%). (Don’t ask me how 47 rebounds are produced off of 45 misses) Florida missed 32 shots. Houston grabbed 24 of those (75%), and Florida stole repossessed another 8 (25%) So while Florida pulled down more total rebounds, Houston’s rate of rebounding was higher on both the offensive and defensive ends.
Well, yeah, there are going to be variables in every game. But a 16-game streak is not achieved by luck or by fluke.
Oh I didn’t say anything about it being a fluke. Obviously Florida was a great rebounding team. I am only saying that rebounding rate is a superior measure of rebounding prowess because it removes the confounding variable of opportunities, and by that measure, Houston out-rebounded Florida.
Agreed on rebounding rate, but also worth saying that adjusted for competition, it's even more impressive. In that streak, we faced teams ranked 6th nationally in rebounding rate (TAMU), 13th (UConn), 22nd (Houston), 28th (UT), 29th (Bama x2), 38th (Tech), 44th (UGA), 47th (Auburn). Half of those games were against top-50 rebounding teams, who also happened to be in major conferences getting those rates against similarly sized/effective rebounding teams. Shows just how insanely consistent our effort was on the glass. One of Oliver four factors that Golden follows religiously. As to next year, we should be every bit as good. All four of our bigs will get more minutes. Handlogten will have a full year and will be in better game shape. While we lose Richard, Haugh's minutes at the three should offset the numbers there. Lee was an exceptional rebounder for a guard (20% defensive rebounder as starter), and his length and energy should translate at this level. One of the things that really helped last year was our shot volume. Some of that came from elite offensive rebounding, some of it from solid turnover rate (42nd nationally), some of it from pace of play, but we were 8th in the country in shot attempts. That gives us a lot of chances to snag offensive rebounds (5th in rate). Having aggressive guards who could push the ball in transition, get us into early offense, and weren't afraid to put shots up meant more offensive rebounding opportunities and more putbacks or extended possessions. If anything, that's an area of potential concern coming into the year. We need Lee and Fland to be aggressive.
I don't expect Xaivian and Boogie to match the rebounding prowess of Richard and Martin, but I do expect them to hold their own. Plus, I think the Brown Bros. will be good rebounders. They've got strength and size on the perimeter. If Haugh starts at the 3, he'll likely outperform Richard in rebounding. So, when I count 'em up position by position, we'll be better rebounders at 3, possibly 4, of the 5 starting spots. Junior Condon > Sophomore Condon Junior Chinyelu > Sophomore Chinyelu Haugh > Richard Fland < Martin Lee = Clayton Jr. ? Maybe. Lee is taller and was a very good rebounder for a guard in a decent midmajor conference. Clayton is the superior and stronger athlete. Off the bench: Senior Handlogten > Junior Handlogten Isaiah Brown = Aberdeen? A.J. Brown = Aberdeen? By the way, Handlogten might win the starting job over Chinyelu. We're good either way.
