Shack’s 7 keys for a BIG 2021-2022 season for Rutgers basketball: “REBOUNDING!!!”

[Scarlet Shack]

Hey guys

Everyone knows that I think this is OUR year in men’s basketball . I’ll be a little elusive for now on what exactly thsr is until I throw down my “official prediction “

Whether or not you think that’s the case ...I have identified 7 keys to this season for this to be OUR year in hoops.

Key #2: Rebounding!!!!

Coach Pike has talked about this offseason ...we must become a better rebounding team

Now ...to be fair to the 2020-2021 edition ...we really played a three guard set ...and never replaced Akwasi at the forward spot . I really don’t like labeling players who a position tag, but we really had only three pure forward in the front court last year in Myles, Ron and cliff.

We replace Myles with cliff...and cliff back up spot goes to Agee. We added Hyatt ...a potential better rebounder up front

A healthy Caleb and Paul will allow them to rebound very well from the two and three spots

We’ve talked about this all off season...the question is can we parlay that length and renewed good health to a roster of becoming a very good rebounding team ...?

The answer to this question and to what degrees coujd be the difference in 3-4 games this year ...and essentially being a bubble team to a 3-4 seed

This is a huge piece of the puzzle .....and the answer is going to have a direct correlation to how good of a season we have ....

 

[GRU23]

Hyatt will be huge for this key point.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

I think last year we had lineups that were fine rebounding. Jacob did not rebound and Paul had very poor defensive rebounding metrics. Caleb rebounded almost like a “power forward”.

I think the key to defensive rebounding isn’t necessary being a great rebounding team, but getting enough rebounding to keep certain lineups on the floor.

i really hope Caleb has a good offensive year. His contribution most of last year came to us on the defensive end and hustle. If Caleb isn’t a PLuS offensive player next year our defensive rebounding as a team might determine whether the lineup has a Jones type or Caleb in a slot.

Hopefully Caleb is a good offensive player and Jones rebounds like a “power forward” so the above is not applicable to our team.

 

[RUChoppin]

Rebounding fell off for almost everyone last year, as players were deferring rebounding more to the center spot.

Centers accounted for:
344 of 1245 total rebounds in 2019-20 (27.6%)... Johnson had 245
344 of 988 total rebounds in 2020-21 (34.8%)... Johnson had 239

Is it possible the team as a whole was fighting less for boards and was just letting Johnson clean up the glass?

YOY change on rebounds/40 for returning players last year not named Johnson:
+0.5 - McConnell
-0.3 - Baker
-0.6 - Mulcahy
-0.8 - Mathis
-0.9 - Harper
-2.5 - Young

Hopefully this year we'll see more guys fighting for boards. I'd say our leading rebounder will be Omoruyi... but I'm hoping right behind him are Harper, Hyatt, Agee, and McConnell.

More rebounding out of our guards, too - Young disappeared on the glass last year, collecting half as many boards per minute as he did the year prior. Remains to be seen what sort of rebounding Jones/Miller will bring.

 

[Degaz-RU]

I think the team got enamored with it’s offensive prowess early in the year last year, and they lost the “eye of the tiger” in rebounding, and they never really got it back.

This year, Pike has publicly stated that they are focusing on getting back their rebounding mojo, and I believe that everyone will be crashing the boards. I would bet that the team learned a lesson from the way an undersized Houston team destroyed them on the glass with just sheer effort.

With Cliff, Agee, Harper, McConnell, Hyatt, and Mulcahy, I believe this will be a “plus” rebounding team.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

We went from 65th to 244th in DREB% last year.

Good news is that our defense (which includes defensive rebounding) was ranked #20 in adjusted defensive efficiency according to Bart with the bad rebounding. So if we can improve DREB we can afford a little hit elsewhere defensively