Ad
LOBO BASKETBALL
Lobos finding ways to overcome rebounding issues
UNM is in its toughest six-game stretch of rebounding opponents
Published
Modified
The Lobos aren't the best rebounding team in the country.
They aren't the best rebounding team in the Mountain West.
In fact, they aren't even the best rebounding team in the state.
But Eric Olen's squad is off to an 8-2 start to the season, and part of that success is due to the Lobo's ability to mitigate the damage opposing teams have been able to dole out, despite often getting dominated on the stat sheet in offensive rebounds.
For instance, VCU had 16 second chance points off 17 offensive rebounds in UNM's 81-78 road win over the Rams.
"We've got to do better job on the backboards and glass," Olen said of the VCU game.
But "better" is general. And obvious. And considering 12 of VCU's second chance points came in the first half off 10 offensive rebounds, and just four came in the second half off seven rebounds, it seems as though an adjustment of some sort must have been made.
So the Journal asked Olen for a more specific and complete — even if it's a bit in the weeds — understanding of what leads a team (VCU) to score 1.2 points per offensive rebound in one half, but just 0.6 in the second half.
Had VCU maintained its first-half rate, its second chance points in the second half would have been four points higher — which would have covered the three points they lost by.
Olen said the change has to do with something long before the other team's first shot, or miss, ever takes place.
Ad
"My initial reaction when you ask that question is back to sort of the depth of the drive (the opposing player gets into the paint)," Olen said.
"I felt like specifically in the first half, they had a couple easy ones (second chance baskets) on putbacks. Several of those were when they got so much depth on their penetration. ... We're coming over to help (and) they're still shooting it out of our help. So now we're in rotation, and the the offensive rebound is like a tip-in, point blank layup on the put back versus in the second half, there was fewer of those instances where they get so much depth."
Oversimplified by the Journal, its a lot tougher for a player to score when there is a defender in proper position between the shooter and the basket.
When a team shoots from farther away, they may still get an offensive rebound off a miss, but there's a good chance that their second scoring opportunity will be against a more prepared, set defense.
"You're never going to be perfect on the glass," Olen said.
"But what position are they in when they get the (offensive rebound)? Just like shot selection, not all rebounds are created equal in terms of the opportunity to score again."
Got all that?
The Lobos seem to understand and — even if it took some halftime reminding of that on Wednesday — it came back to them just in time to pull off what is arguably the best true road win in the entire Mountain West so far this season.
And while the Lobos would much prefer to never let opponents get an offensive rebound to begin with, their ability to mitigate the damage done when they do occur seems as important now as any time this season. After all, the team is two games into its toughest six-game stretch of the season in terms of opponent's offensive rebounding prowess.
UNM has been outscored 106-95 in second chance points vs. DI teams this season. The -11 in that stat ranks 234th in the country.
The Lobos, though not content with it, understand they aren't good enough right now to prevent second chance points entirely. But they do have to prevent elite offensive rebounding teams to dominate that stat.
Santa Clara, the team UNM beat last Saturday in the Pit, is ranked No. 6 in the country in offensive rebound rate and the Broncos are averaging 16.6 second chance points per game (10th most nationally).
Against UNM, they grabbed an insanely high 18 offensive rebounds and scored 20 second chance points.
UNM made up for that with a 29-3 fast break edge — often being able to get out and run when the Broncos were overly aggressive on the offensive boards and not getting back on defense.
With VCU, the Rams scored 16 second chance points, more than the 12.4 they're averaging on the season, but it was UNM's ability to lessen the blow in the second half in particular that allowed the Lobos to overcome.
And the challenge isn't going away. Here is the offensive rebound rate ranking (out of 365 Division I teams) of the Lobos current six-game stretch:
- 6 Santa Clara (win)
- 75 VCU (win)
- 57 FGCU (Sunday)
- 77 San Jose State (Dec. 20)
- 110 Boise State (Dec. 30)
- 48 Wyoming (Jan. 3)
