Just How Bad Are We At Rebounding?

[RockawayHoya]

Channeling my inner-Hoya Prospectus here (I really did love that website):

I've definitely caught myself at times while watching Hoya games this season thinking to myself, "Man, I don't really think I've seen a team get beat on the glass worse than this squad." If at any point you've had a similar thought, well there's probably a good reason for that.

15 games into the season (not insubstantial given we are now basically halfway through the season), by the numbers Georgetown is the worst defensive rebounding team in the country. Dead last. Filter for opponent offensive rebounding percentage and see for yourself:

www.sports-reference.com/cbb/seasons/2017-advanced-opponent-stats.html

We give up an offensive board on 40.6% of our opponent's misses. That is just mind boggling to me. What was interesting was that UCLA (349th) and Gonzaga (340th) also ranked near the bottom of D-1 in this category. The difference is those teams have elite offenses to mask this deficiency. We don't.

I'll save you the clicks, but if you wanted to compare these number/rankings versus recent previous seasons, here are the results:

'16-'17: 40.6% opponent's ORB%, 351st
'15-'16: 30.8% opponent's ORB%, 232nd
'14-'15: 32.9% opponent's ORB%, 238th
'13-'14: 34.3% opponent's ORB%, 282nd
'12-'13: 35.0% opponent's ORB%, 285th (side note: interesting to see Porter's team do so poorly here)

Takeaway: We've never been particularly good at keeping teams off the offensive glass. But we are really bad this year. Like historically bad. IMO this is the number one problem we currently have to correct, and for a variety of reasons (level of effort, fundamentals of boxing out, lack of aggressive frontcourt players, etc.) I don't see it getting corrected in time, unfortunately. If you're a fan of the program, you should be embarrassed by this. I know I am.

[HoyaRejuveNation85]

Rockaway, thanks for giving numbers to what our eyes see. It's ludicrous. Watching smaller teams routinely outrebound us generally and do it on their own offensive glass to boot is crushing. We aren't a good defensive team either, which makes the impact of this rebounding deficiency even worse. Even when we play good defense and force a poor shot (rare), we often give the ball right back. The team and coaching staff have to know this, so the failure to improve on such horrid numbers is mind-boggling. It's coaching and then effort and pride for the team. That's within our control. Get it done, Hoyas. Make everyone accountable.

[hoopsmccan]

Jan 6, 2017 14:09:02 GMT -5 RockawayHoya said:

Channeling my inner-Hoya Prospectus here (I really did love that website):

I've definitely caught myself at times while watching Hoya games this season thinking to myself, "Man, I don't really think I've seen a team get beat on the glass worse than this squad." If at any point you've had a similar thought, well there's probably a good reason for that.

15 games into the season (not insubstantial given we are now basically halfway through the season), by the numbers Georgetown is the worst defensive rebounding team in the country. Dead last. Filter for opponent offensive rebounding percentage and see for yourself:

I prefer saying it this way -  we are the best team at giving up offensive rebounds in the country. Number #1. That feels better.

hm

[centercourt400s]

So this leaves us with five possibilities:

1) Coaches don't place enough emphasis on the importance of rebounding and thus players don't try hard enough
2) Coaches emphasize rebounding but don't teach it properly
3) Coaches emphasize rebounding and teach properly but players do not try hard enough to succeed
4) Coaches emphasize rebounding and teach properly and players try, but they fail to execute proper technique
5) Every team in the country has better rebounders than Georgetown

From my view, 3 or 4 seem most likely but maybe 1 is partly to blame as well.

[Bigs"R"Us]

Our front court players are slow footed and/or vertically challenged. Hayes, Govan and Derrickson never seem to dunk the ball and often give up rebounds to quicker smaller players. Agau has some semblance of bounce. We need to recruit athletic players that get after it.

[njhoya78]

I may have seen a team that boxes out more poorly than the Hoyas, but a specific example fails me.

[FrazierFanatic]

Jan 6, 2017 15:20:09 GMT -5 centercourt400s said:

So this leaves us with five possibilities:

1) Coaches don't place enough emphasis on the importance of rebounding and thus players don't try hard enough
2) Coaches emphasize rebounding but don't teach it properly
3) Coaches emphasize rebounding and teach properly but players do not try hard enough to succeed
4) Coaches emphasize rebounding and teach properly and players try, but they fail to execute proper technique
5) Every team in the country has better rebounders than Georgetown

From my view, 3 or 4 seem most likely but maybe 1 is partly to blame as well.

I would bet 2 more than 1. There have been statements over the years about having to rebound better, so the coach and staff must be emphasizing it - but our technique and awareness are very weak.

[GIGAFAN99]

We should scrap the drill in practice where everyone has to freeze like a statue until the ball hits the rim.

[DanMcQ]

Jan 6, 2017 18:12:49 GMT -5 GIGAFAN99 said:

We should scrap the drill in practice where everyone has to freeze like a statue until the ball hits the rim.

But mannequins are all the rage on the interwebz.

[prhoya]

Jan 6, 2017 18:12:49 GMT -5 GIGAFAN99 said:

We should scrap the drill in practice where everyone has to freeze like a statue until the ball hits the rim.