Oh, that front court...

[Fishy]

...is going to be a problem. Outside of Brimah's flashier bits and Daniels' currently well-hidden potential, the front court is a grease fire.

Daniels, Nolan, Brimah, Facey, Olander and Tolkesdorf combined for three rebounds. Three.

That's like 41' worth of front court vertical and they managed three rebounds - that's a Boatright's worth of rebounds, but with the care and feeding of 35 additional feet.

Shabazz had 11 rebounds which is equivalent to like 150' of rebounding in just a tiny lil six-foot container. In terms of output, he's a nuclear power plant compared to the flea-market toaster that is our front court.

Terrence Samuels had three rebounds in five freaking minutes - the same total as our front court needed sixty-plus minutes and six players to grab.

Two conclusions...

1) Our collection of tall oafs had best get their s--- together. The basketball is not made of lava - you can grab it without bursting into flames.

2) Shabazz Napier is the most valuable player in the country.

UConn is deep, but they'd be lost at sea without Bazz.

 

[OklahomaUconn]

Announcers in the game said that if guards are getting more rebounds than bigs that its because the bigs are boxing out and guards coming under neath to grab the board...even so yea these numbers suck for our big men

 

[Gurleyman]

...is going to be a problem. Outside of Brimah's flashier bits and Daniels' currently well-hidden potential, the front court is a grease fire.

Daniels, Nolan, Brimah, Facey, Olander and Tolkesdorf combined for three rebounds. Three.

That's like 41' worth of front court vertical and they managed three rebounds - that's a Boatright's worth of rebounds, but with the care and feeding of 35 additional feet.

Shabazz had 11 rebounds which is equivalent to like 150' of rebounding in just a tiny lil six-foot container. In terms of output, he's a nuclear power plant compared to the flea-market toaster that is our front court.

Terrence Samuels had three rebounds in five freaking minutes - the same total as our front court needed sixty-plus minutes and six players to grab.

Two conclusions...

1) Our collection of tall oafs had best get their s--- together. The basketball is not made of lava - you can grab it without bursting into flames.

2) Shabazz Napier is the most valuable player in the country.

UConn is deep, but they'd be lost at sea without Bazz.

Last year, we couldn't rebound and gave up layups on he glass. Now we still give up rebounds, but we have a good chance to block the put back. So that's progress.

Really the issue is mostly that DD isn't pulling his weight yet (and Giffey has been more 2 than 4). Brimah is a better shot blocker than a rebounder at this point and isn't going to be a double-double guy, but gives us an element we haven't had and is still adjusting to all the jostling that goes on down low. Next time Facey gets a little burn, it would behoove him to snark up every rebound he can - that's his ticket to more burn.

 

[Hoophound]

Announcers in the game said that if guards are getting more rebounds than bigs that its because the bigs are boxing out and guards coming under neath to grab the board...even so yea these numbers suck for our big men

Interesting perspective. Frankly, it's possible. Kids don't box out anymore, they rebound by going up and getting the ball. If we are actually. boxing out, maybe the announcers are right.

I always found that when I boxed out, I had trouble getting the ball. I focused so much on keeping my man from getting boards that I was unable to grab it! If our bigs are really focused more on blocking out than rebounding, quick guards will sneak in and grab the ball.

 

[imno1]

Announcers in the game said that if guards are getting more rebounds than bigs that its because the bigs are boxing out and guards coming under neath to grab the board...even so yea these numbers suck for our big men

Explain the 20+ offensive rebounds Yale took down. Who were our guys boxing out, Each other?

 

[OklahomaUconn]

Explain the 20+ offensive rebounds Yale took down. Who were our guys boxing out, Each other?

Lol ...maybe only 1 big boxing out?...how do u explain 11 boards by napier?

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The confusion up front was palpable. We played a little too much 3 guard, but that is no excuse for what went on tonight.

 

[SubbaBub]

If you are over 6-10, just by holding on to the rebounds that bounce off your hands, you should get more than 3.

 

[B1GEast]

I'm not worried, KO will get them ready.

 

[Fishy]

Explain the 20+ offensive rebounds Yale took down. Who were our guys boxing out, Each other?

Exactly - it's delusional.

The front court wasn't boxing anyone out - they gave up 22 offensive rebounds. They gave up 21 second-chance points while managing to tally up all of one second-chance point of their own.

The idea that they were doing anything effective on the boards is absurd.

 

[whaler11]

On the bright side Yale would hold their own in the AAC this year.

 

[joober jones]

If he could just keep out of foul trouble, Nolan would have better rebounding numbers.

 

[jibsey]

KO was pissed at the end of game interview, very unhappy. He knew the rebounding numbers without looking at the box score.

 

[Chief00]

It is true, even on the other team's foul shots the rebound doesn't happen automatically. Not enough strong guys. Amida to his credit does battle but numbers don't lie. Frankly if everyone played the same minutes it would be Bazz and then Samuel as our rebound leaders. Nolan was a disappointment tonight.

 

[selles]

I'm not worried, KO will get them ready.

Good post. Fishy's quite right that they have to get better but our two main guys are a soph who barely played last year and a frosh so...you'd anticipate them getting better. Too much gnashing of the teeth for 2 games in.

 

[Gurleyman]

Exactly - it's delusional.

The front court wasn't boxing anyone out - they gave up 22 offensive rebounds. They gave up 21 second-chance points while managing to tally up all of one second-chance point of their own.

The idea that they were doing anything effective on the boards is absurd.

We only missed 20 shots - and five of them were open perimeter jumpers by our four man which obviously means we didn't have much in the way of numbers attacking the offensive glass on those plays. Our offensive rebounding was a non-issue.

The other end was a problem, but as is the case when you give up 22 offensive rebounds, there are different reasons for some of them. Six or seven were off our 13 blocks (a couple of which went o/b, which counts as a team rebound). A couple were long rebounds off of bricks. Probably 10-12 were just getting outworked under the basket, which is way too many against the likes of Yale. Most of those were our bigs just not blocking out (their PF had 8 offensive boards). But a couple were our bigs doing a good job, but other guys crashing in and keeping the ball alive. Yale stopped balancing the floor and just sent everyone to the glass in the last 10 minutes. If we could have just gobbled a couple of those up, we would have had a fun fast break drill and forced them to stop doing that (we finally did late, but by then it was just garbage time).

We have a lot of work to do, yes - but last year felt like a hopeless cause based on personnel. This year we need some youngins to grow up a little, learn better technique and get a little tougher. There's more potential - even just battling against each other in practice is at least a more productive drill. Last year, we couldn't simulate a DI front line in practice.

 

[HuskyJJ]

Our bigs need more weight. They get pushed around like leaves down low

 

[huskyharry]

Yale was best in the Ivy at rebounding margin last year and they returned a lot of their players. Yale did shoot an awful % which gave them many more rebounding opportunities but as Coach Ollie said it is a problem that they have to work on. Other than TO, who didn't play a ton, our bigs are all on the thin side and are pushed out of the way by more muscular players.
Rebounding is clearly our weakness but we've known that for a long time.

 

[Ts5034]

Our bigs need more weight. They get pushed around like leaves down low

Yes i agree that our bigs are stick men. If we had a Jeff Adrien, there would be no rebounding issues. Its not too late to have guys like Brimah, Nolan, Facey, and even Olander hitting the weight room hard to bulk up for the tournament.

 

[mauconnfan]

The announcers are dopes, no one boxes out except Brimah who at least attempts to sometime........I will temper my hopes on the prediction thread for wins as i did not add "crappy rebounding" to the end which will put them on the bubble.......this was truly discouraging. It's too early to harp on it but to look that bad against a smaller Yale team is not good, not good at all.

I wouldn't want to be in practice today and Shabazz may be the only one who doesn't need to be in on the drills......the bigs have a LONG way to go. Too early to tell but scary enough to think Detroit may tell us more quickly!!!

 

[Dmike]

Our bigs need more weight. They get pushed around like leaves down low

Exactly, I am far more concerned about our waist size than our length down low. Our bigs should be relegated to eating a pancake instead of running laps every time they get beat in the box out drill. That'll fatten up 'cause you know Shabazz will beat them to 2 out of 3 of those caroms every time.

 

[Dogdeacon]

I really don't understand how anyone can play basketball without boxing out. Especially when playing man-to-man defense. After your man gets his 2nd or 3rd rebound a light bulb has to pop up.

Its even more fun to box out and have an easy rebound come to you while a frustrated opponent must cool their heels.

 

[GlastonTim]

Is it something that isn't taught to these kids in pee wee basketball?

 

[Storrsbred]

The announcers are dopes, no one boxes out except Brimah who at least attempts to sometime........I will temper my hopes on the prediction thread for wins as i did not add "crappy rebounding" to the end which will put them on the bubble.......this was truly discouraging. It's too early to harp on it but to look that bad against a smaller Yale team is not good, not good at all.

I wouldn't want to be in practice today and Shabazz may be the only one who doesn't need to be in on the drills......the bigs have a LONG way to go. Too early to tell but scary enough to think Detroit may tell us more quickly!!!

While the announcers may be dopes, they attributed that statement to Larry Brown. Not saying this is not an issue, it is huge. Just saying where the statement came from.

 

[Gurleyman]

Sometimes it isn't as simple as "nobody is boxing out":

1) Shot blockers take themselves out of the play for the rebound. Brimah right now has the mindset of contesting everything - he has to learn the nuances of when to stay at home. It'll take time.

2) If guards don't contain penetration, boxing out assignments are lost as defensive help is forced to rotate and players are left open. We haven't been all that great this year at containing the ball.

3) You are only as strong as your weakest link. If three guys block out perfectly, and the fourth doesn't, than that fourth opponent is often going to have a red carpet to the basketball, since your three guys are going to be engaged with an opponent and won't be able to go get the ball as quickly.