GRAB THE BALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[GIGAFAN99]

Don't look at it, reach for it, think it's going in, admire its orangeness, or tip it. GRAB IT!

[thebin]

no . Nothing as frustrating as watching your basketball team get HUMILIATED on the boards.

[AltoSaxa]

The players we put out on the floor lack height. Wright, Sapp and Freeman? I know rebounding is position and desire but it also height. We place such a premium on Greg being part of the offensive flow at the top of the key who is left for offensive rebounds? Other then Vaugh our other two bench players (Wattad, Clark) are limited in size. Offensive and defensive rebounding are and will always be the one glaring problem of this team.

[GIGAFAN99]

Jan 3, 2009 14:10:56 GMT -5 AltoSaxa said:

The players we put out on the floor lack height. Wright, Sapp and Freeman? I know rebounding is position and desire but it also height. We place such a premium on Greg being part of the offensive flow at the top of the key who is left for offensive rebounds? Other then Vaugh our other two bench players (Wattad, Clark) are limited in size. Offensive and defensive rebounding are and will always be the one glaring problem of this team.

Pitt's starters: 5'10, 6'3, 6'6, 6'7, 6'8

Georgetown Starters: 6'1, 6'3, 6'5, 6'8, 6'11

The problem is not height.

[Just Cos]

We hit more shots they get fewer defensive rebounds. I can't explain the offensive rebounds. Just hard to watch second and third attempts again and again.

[AltoSaxa]

Thanks for the post Giga ... then maybe our lack of paint play on the offensive side leads to less offensive rebounds. As for defensive rebounds I can't explain

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

We laid a deuce on the court. Rebounding and porous defense will not win a BE championship or even get us a top 4 spot in the BE tournament.

[GIGAFAN99]

Jan 3, 2009 14:25:07 GMT -5 AltoSaxa said:

Thanks for the post Giga ... then maybe our lack of paint play on the offensive side leads to less offensive rebounds. As for defensive rebounds I can't explain

I can't explain the defensive boards either. The offensive boards, we have a lot of cutters so we can get mismatches in the paint when the cutter is not one of our taller guys.

But on defense? It's just poor positioning and effort. There is no reason for it at all.

[RockawayHoya]

Vaughn doesn't ever grab the ball. I have never seen a guy get either stripped or tied up every time on the defensive glass like he does.

That said, you can't single him out for today's effort. No one made any effort to put a body on anybody for 40 minutes.

[thornski]

Random box-score tidbit:

Total Gtown rebounds for the game: 17

Total Rebounds for Blair: 17

Total Pitt O-Rebounds: 18

[happyhoya1979]

Arm bands and head bands are the answer. Pitt could cope and clutch wet balls. We could and did not.

[summersshowers]

happyhoya, i think we've all had enough talk of wet balls for the day.

while we were the taller team, you have to consider the style of play as well. dajuan and austin may size up with biggs and young, but they are both perimeter players. sam young is more of a mid-range guy as well as an opportunistic board-crasher and biggs is a post player. their tendency is to be closer to the basket on both sides of the floor. i think the 2-3 zone hurts our ability to box-out efficiently. in the man-man, it's a matter of fighting through screens so we don't have to switch as much and end up with guards trying to box bigs. and, of course, everyone needs to stick their ass into the guy they're guarding and push them away from the basket. even when dajuan and greg had inside position today, they weren't being physical enough and clearing space underneath, allowing blair and young to just go right over the top for the boards.

[NCHoya]

Our guys just have no instinct for rebounding. I don't care what anyone says about desire and passion, there is a science to rebounding as well, and we stink at it. We are never in position to box out in the zone and I never see guys shielding offensive players from getting second chances. None of our guys have this skill set and we are not dominant enough to have a specialist for just rebounding ala the Bulls in the 90s with Rodman. Bottom-line we have no true power forward.

It is this team's achilles heal, we all know it. The Hoyas, like most teams, are not a perfect, that is our weakness. I hope it improves, but we have to find ways to hide it or lessen its impact because it is not going away.

Also, we just struggle against Pitt. Jamie Dixon has us figured out and I want no part of them. Blair kills us, we just match-up horrible against them.

[hoyalove4ever]

Jan 3, 2009 20:24:33 GMT -5 NCHoya said:

Our guys just have no instinct for rebounding. I don't care what anyone says about desire and passion, there is a science to rebounding as well, and we stink at it. We are never in position to box out in the zone and I never see guys shielding offensive players from getting second chances. None of our guys have this skill set and we are not dominant enough to have a specialist for just rebounding ala the Bulls in the 90s with Rodman. Bottom-line we have no true power forward.

It is this team's achilles heal, we all know it. The Hoyas, like most teams, are not a perfect, that is our weakness. I hope it improves, but we have to find ways to hide it or lessen its impact because it is not going away.

Also, we just struggle against Pitt. Jamie Dixon has us figured out and I want no part of them. Blair kills us, we just match-up horrible against them.

Good points. I would add that we need to adopt "Wed Unseld" style rebounding: box your man the heck out, and THEN go and get the ball. Boxing out is not optional. Our guys go after the ball at times, but they rarely box out in the proper physical manner. They need to bend their knees and put their backside into someone on every play.

[NCHoya]

I would also like to see some contact at least on the put-backs, as someone said on another thread those second chances were uncontested at times. At least foul the guy and make him earn it and know that we will contest it. Again, our guys just do not come with that attitude. Not a criticism, but just a fact.

[gujake]

Hard to tell without looking at the tape, but it certainly looks to me like we never have as many guys around the basket as the other team. It's definitely a positioning problem in my opinion, not a technique or height problem.

[socalhoya6]

Some of the guys- Greg- would also benefit from a little more time in the weight room. In my opinion, and I could certainly be incorrect, Monroe just isn't strong enough to go toe to toe with a guy like Blair. He could put on at least ten more pounds of muscle and maintain his agility.

[hoyaalf]

The coach, may we keep him forever, recruits the kids.

The coach, may his Pops, leave him be, runs practice.

The coach, may he supplant Phog Allen in the Hall of Fame, teaches rebounding in practice.

Any dis-agreements as to where the responsibility lies?

[SirSaxa]

Jan 3, 2009 21:45:32 GMT -5 socalhoya6 said:

Some of the guys- Greg- would also benefit from a little more time in the weight room. In my opinion, and I could certainly be incorrect, Monroe just isn't strong enough to go toe to toe with a guy like Blair. He could put on at least ten more pounds of muscle and maintain his agility.

Monroe is only 18 and he already has put on 25 Lbs since HS. He will be 18 all season. Even for a freshman, he is really young.

But can you imagine how good he will be in a year or two?
Especially if can get some big cats in here to play with him.

[jerseyhoya34]

Jan 3, 2009 14:14:50 GMT -5 GIGAFAN99 said:

Jan 3, 2009 14:10:56 GMT -5 AltoSaxa said:

The players we put out on the floor lack height. Wright, Sapp and Freeman? I know rebounding is position and desire but it also height. We place such a premium on Greg being part of the offensive flow at the top of the key who is left for offensive rebounds? Other then Vaugh our other two bench players (Wattad, Clark) are limited in size. Offensive and defensive rebounding are and will always be the one glaring problem of this team.

Pitt's starters: 5'10, 6'3, 6'6, 6'7, 6'8

Georgetown Starters: 6'1, 6'3, 6'5, 6'8, 6'11

The problem is not height.

I think that's fair, but, at the same time, our post guys play small. Monroe is a short 6'11" and is someone we'd probably want as a "point forward" - Jeff Green role - in ideal circumstances, where Blair is 6'8" but plays as if he is 6'11" due to wingspan and his approach to the game. Similarly, Dajuan is 6'8" - just like Blair - but he's a perimeter player and could be 6'6" like Sam Young and it would not make too much of a difference in his game IMO.

So height may be a problem in that our guys don't use it to their advantage, for better or for worse.