ESPN: Minnesota is the best offensive rebounding team in the nation

In its recent Big Ten Power rankings:

4. Minnesota. Ladies and gentlemen, the best offensive rebounding team in the country … the Minnesota Gophers? It's true: Minnesota is rebounding 49.1 percent of their own misses, the highest mark in the country. My colleague Myron Medcalf wrote an excellent piece after Minnesota's win over South Dakota State (whose star guard, Nate Wolters, sat out with injury), about Tubby Smith's sudden mood change. The occasionally grumpy coach is growing a mustache and joking with reporters and allowing media into his locker room, and why not? Compared to recent seasons, coaching this team must really deliver on the dopamine.

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation

Go Gophers!!

Here's an excerpt from an article from last week re: Minnesota being great on the offensive boards and not good on the defensive boards ... not just this season, but throughout Tubby's time... I would be curious as to people's thoughts on the reasons for this... how much is by design vs. technique vs. effort vs. other factors in your view?

Minnesota Rebounding: Gophers Only Cleaning One Side of the Glass

In recent years, Minnesota teams have excelled at blocking shots and offensive rebounding. Contrary to what you might expect, however, the defensive rebounding of the Gophers has ranged from mediocre to poor when compared to the rest of the Big Ten and other D1 teams. So far in 2012-13, these trends have continued.

According to StatSheet.com, Minnesota’s offensive rebounding percentage this year is second best in the nation and tops in the Big Ten. On the defensive boards, the Gophers are dead last in the Big Ten and one of the worst in the nation at 329.

Minnesota’s performance on the defensive glass isn’t skewed by a game or two. In fact, the team’s defensive rebounding percentage has been better than the national average in only one game this year (Toledo).

As illustrated in the tables below, during Tubby’s years as head coach the team’s offensive rebounding percentage has been impressive while their defensive rebounding percentage has been relatively poor.

Gopher Warrior said:

Here's an excerpt from an article from last week re: Minnesota being great on the offensive boards and not good on the defensive boards ... not just this season, but throughout Tubby's time... I would be curious as to people's thoughts on the reasons for this... how much is by design vs. technique vs. effort vs. other factors in your view?

As illustrated in the tables below, during Tubby’s years as head coach the team’s offensive rebounding percentage has been impressive while their defensive rebounding percentage has been relatively poor.

Click to expand...

Defensive rebounding usually has more to do with size, boxing out, and not going for block shots and leaving your man open. We have had athletic guys who excel at offensive rebounding. We usually don't play two physical players at once. We try and block everything, and when we miss there is an offensive rebound. I would also say the ball-line defense encourages lots of 3 pters and those misses tend to bounce further from the basket.

Way to crap all over the good news Bleed posted, GW. Congrats to the Gophs on the O Rebounding. Great accomplishment.

As to the defensive rebounding concern, I'd be interested in how the ball line defense scheme plays into this. In the past we've had to play too much zone defense due to match up issues and injuries. Zone D makes blocking out more difficult. I wonder if ball line D, where defenders are sagging, has a negative impact on defensive rebounding too.

The numbers should improve as we play less zone this year.

Tubtastic said:

Way to crap all over the good news Bleed posted, GW. Congrats to the Gophs on the O Rebounding. Great accomplishment.

As to the defensive rebounding concern, I'd be interested in how the ball line defense scheme plays into this. In the past we've had to play too much zone defense due to match up issues and injuries. Zone D makes blocking out more difficult. I wonder if ball line D, where defenders are sagging, has a negative impact on defensive rebounding too.

The numbers should improve as we play less zone this year.

Click to expand...

I would imagine the ball line D and all the trapping makes it more difficult to box out.

We also seem to think of rebounding as 'strength under the basket', but since the advent of the 3 pt shot, many long rebounds are the result of quickness and awareness of perimeter players.

Tubby has a more active, off the defensive end to run more to the offensive end type of team this year. When that is the type of play we have that excites the fans more, a team has to give up something, and that is some rebounding on the defensive boards. Take notice, that when we come off the D boards with the ball, we almost always have a 2 on 1 or 3 on 2 break coming.

To do that, experts, ya gotta give up something, and that something is a slight decrease in D rebounding advantage. I say keep it up, and keep winning with that philosophy. The guys are having fun, they are loving running and playing this way, and Tubby is allowing them to do that.

It appears to me that some of you do not understand what you do when you try fast break off the defensive boards. Luck of the bounce has a lot to do with it.

Keep doing what you are doing, Gophers. I, for one, am enjoying the pressure game Tubby's MEN are doing.

The Gophers go for the block most of the time which prevents them from getting good position for the defensive rebound.