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Ohio Basketball
Topic:  Boarding

Topic:  Boarding
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FlashGary
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Member Since: 6/18/2013
Location: Long Island, NY
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  Message Not Read  Boarding
   Posted: 11/20/2021 2:53:12 PM 
Kentucky exposed a weakness we have that I hope can be rectified as conference play rolls around--rebounding. When Jason Preston left for the NBA a year sooner than many of us expected, I hoped that Coach Boals would replace him with another guard with length, even a transfer or a grad transfer.

Within his skill set, the 6-4 Preston provided us the luxury of a strong rebounding guard. Paired with 6-3 Lunden McDay, they not only provided length to defend the perimeter and see over opponents' defenses while on offense, Preston, in particular, helped out greatly on the defensive board. Had Preston stayed, I do believe Sears would have started along side him and we'd still have that backcourt rebounding presence.

Now? We have two 6-1 starting guards--Sears and Miles Brown--and 5-11 Tommy Schmock coming off the bench with McDay. Furthermore, rebounding is not 6-5 small forward Ben Roderick's forte. This puts immense pressure on Jason Carter and Ben Vander Blas to be board hogs.

Hopefully we'll get Dwight Wilson back and see IJ Ezuma soon. That will help rectify the situation. Wonder what's happened to Colin Granger? I thought he'd be able to help out here. What about moving Roderick to the two-guard spot? Defense isn't his forte, either.

Soooo, time will tell...

Last Edited: 11/20/2021 3:13:09 PM by FlashGary

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GraffZ06
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  Message Not Read  RE: Boarding
   Posted: 11/20/2021 4:41:41 PM 
Completely agree with all of this.

See my discussion on this very topic, and making similar points, in the Kentucky game thread.
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RSBobcat
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  Message Not Read  RE: Boarding
   Posted: 11/20/2021 5:27:21 PM 
Following some shots might help - KY aggressively followed shots with multiple players and got a lot of O rb's....


RS Bobcat

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OU_Country
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Member Since: 12/6/2005
Location: On the road between Athens and Madison County
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  Message Not Read  RE: Boarding
   Posted: 11/22/2021 11:45:36 AM 
Here's a question though: How many teams are they going to play with UK's size and length that creates a mismatch? I'm thinking there won't be many left on the schedule this season.
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bobcatsquared
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  Message Not Read  RE: Boarding
   Posted: 11/22/2021 1:04:51 PM 
OU_Country wrote:
Here's a question though: How many teams are they going to play with UK's size and length that creates a mismatch? I'm thinking there won't be many left on the schedule this season.


Again, Ohio has a lineup that can match up with mid-major teams, like they'll see in the MAC.

If, on the other hand, you're looking for a lineup that can match up with bigger schools that you'll see in the opening weekend and beyond in the the NCAA tourney in March, Ohio would benefit from an upgrade in frontline manpower.

Last Edited: 11/22/2021 1:05:20 PM by bobcatsquared

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GraffZ06
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  Message Not Read  RE: Boarding
   Posted: 11/22/2021 2:33:17 PM 
OU_Country wrote:
Here's a question though: How many teams are they going to play with UK's size and length that creates a mismatch? I'm thinking there won't be many left on the schedule this season.


There will be in March.

Have to hope for DW3 to get healthy at this point IMO, or it might be a short stay.

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GraffZ06
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  Message Not Read  RE: Boarding
   Posted: 11/22/2021 2:39:42 PM 
bobcatsquared wrote:
OU_Country wrote:
Here's a question though: How many teams are they going to play with UK's size and length that creates a mismatch? I'm thinking there won't be many left on the schedule this season.


Again, Ohio has a lineup that can match up with mid-major teams, like they'll see in the MAC.

If, on the other hand, you're looking for a lineup that can match up with bigger schools that you'll see in the opening weekend and beyond in the the NCAA tourney in March, Ohio would benefit from an upgrade in frontline manpower.


This.

And I'd say while other P5 teams we might see in March likely won't be at UK levels of rebounding, we got out-rebounded 43-8 in the last 30 minutes. Even if you take +/-5 to each side for a future opponent, 38-13 is still getting absolutely annihilated on the boards.

I think an "upgrade" is an understatement - though other than DW3 it's not coming from new personnel. Going to need to be something driven into this team with technique, effort and rebounding as a team over the course of the season to get better. It's also true that last year we went 6'4/6'3 with Preston/McDay at the guard spots whereas this year it's 6'1/6'1 with Sears/Brown.

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OUVan
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  Message Not Read  RE: Boarding
   Posted: 11/22/2021 2:43:03 PM 
If we are planning on joining the SEC then we have to worry about our rebounding. We aren't going to run into a team with that kind of athletes again until the round of 32 in the tournament. They have a roster full of tall, athletic players who have amazingly quick ups to go along with really long arms. What they did to us they did to Duke. 19 offensive rebounds for Kentucky in both games which matches the total of offensive rebounds given up by Ohio in the first three games combined. The real issue was their depth. They kept rolling fresh guys out there and we got gassed. Once the legs went the shots stopped dropping and we were a step slow.
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shabamon
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  Message Not Read  RE: Boarding
   Posted: 11/22/2021 2:58:43 PM 
Consider also that most accomplished team in recent memory had relatively small personnel. The Sweet 16 team had really only one true big in Reggie Keely who was really barely 6'8'' and not all that above the rim. Offut played small forward at 6'3''. USF and UNC were gigantic by comparison.

What did that team do so well? They had everyone run on fast breaks, hedge ball screens, double team the corners, force turnovers, bomb away from three. Having ten rotation-ready players helps that style, too. That kind of basketball gives you a fighting chance against everyone in the country. The Jim Christian at Kent State style of playing bigs always in the low post and getting to the line will win you a MAC Championship if you recruit well enough, but you'll never beat a USF, UNC, Georgetown, or Kentucky type game because they'll always have the guys that can do your style better.
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GroverBall
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  Message Not Read  RE: Boarding
   Posted: 11/22/2021 3:10:56 PM 
OUVan wrote:
If we are planning on joining the SEC then we have to worry about our rebounding. We aren't going to run into a team with that kind of athletes again until the round of 32 in the tournament. They have a roster full of tall, athletic players who have amazingly quick ups to go along with really long arms. What they did to us they did to Duke. 19 offensive rebounds for Kentucky in both games which matches the total of offensive rebounds given up by Ohio in the first three games combined. The real issue was their depth. They kept rolling fresh guys out there and we got gassed. Once the legs went the shots stopped dropping and we were a step slow.


Agree with Van although we'll see the SEC again next week. I just want to see that hitting the boards is a focus tonight, Friday and especially next week against LSU and their 6'11" freshman and athletic 6'8" sophomore who's getting 9+ boards per game so far.
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The Optimist
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  Message Not Read  RE: Boarding
   Posted: 11/22/2021 4:32:31 PM 
Good point about Preston. Sears has been phenomenal this season and I think he's made the argument thus far he could actually be a better *scorer* than Preston, but rebounding is a clear area where Preston was better than Sears. Not even a knock on Sears as much as a credit to Preston and it really exemplifies their style differences.

Obviously, Wilson is the most talented rebounder on this roster, so his return will be huge... However, even if he can't return this season I'm optimistic we will improve in this department. We're never going to be a great (or even good) rebounding team... Just not our style with this roster makeup... However, as Clayton and Towns gain experience or Ezuma gets experience we will have better lineup options to make adjustments when we need to beef up on the boards.


I've seen crazier things happen.

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Andrew Ruck
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  Message Not Read  RE: Boarding
   Posted: 11/23/2021 8:42:48 AM 
I still can't get over 53-17. Mindblowing disparity that is impossible to explain away but I am going to try to. A lot of it was caused by really poor shooting on our end during that awful stretch. More of it was caused by bricks by UK that were flying right back to Washington and other guards. Still more was a handful of Tshiebwe and other forwards missing easy layups that came right back into their hands. Don't get me wrong there was plenty of rebounds where we were just out-muscled and out-sized but it just seemed like the perfect storm of a lot of bounces not going in our favor as well.


Andrew Ruck
B.B.A. 2003

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OU_Country
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  Message Not Read  RE: Boarding
   Posted: 11/23/2021 11:17:36 AM 
The Optimist wrote:
Good point about Preston. Sears has been phenomenal this season and I think he's made the argument thus far he could actually be a better *scorer* than Preston, but rebounding is a clear area where Preston was better than Sears. Not even a knock on Sears as much as a credit to Preston and it really exemplifies their style differences.

Obviously, Wilson is the most talented rebounder on this roster, so his return will be huge... However, even if he can't return this season I'm optimistic we will improve in this department. We're never going to be a great (or even good) rebounding team... Just not our style with this roster makeup... However, as Clayton and Towns gain experience or Ezuma gets experience we will have better lineup options to make adjustments when we need to beef up on the boards.


Good points all around here. Even if we don't see Wilson play, the others, over the course of the season will probably step up their level of play, and there's no shortage of potential in the three you mention.

Re: Sears vs Preston, it's interesting to reflect on what you mention here about Preston. I never really thought closely about it during the season, but he was one heck of a stat sheet stuffer, always a threat for a triple-double, but rarely scoring what I would call "a lot of points".

I always wanted to see more of he and Sears on the floor together.
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Ryan Carey
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  Message Not Read  RE: Boarding
   Posted: 11/23/2021 11:28:12 AM 
I agree with Ruck, saw a lot of long rebounds that our tired legs had no chance of getting to...it was bad in general, but those made the numbers even more horrific.


Ryan M. Carey
BBA 2001

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bobcatsquared
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  Message Not Read  RE: Boarding
   Posted: 11/23/2021 12:51:25 PM 
Re: Preston's rebounding: I always thought that Teyvion Kirk was the best offensive rebounding pg in the MAC and that Preston was the best defensive rebounding pg in the MAC.
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FlashGary
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  Message Not Read  RE: Boarding
   Posted: 11/24/2021 12:51:14 AM 
bobcatsquared wrote:
OU_Country wrote:
Here's a question though: How many teams are they going to play with UK's size and length that creates a mismatch? I'm thinking there won't be many left on the schedule this season.


Again, Ohio has a lineup that can match up with mid-major teams, like they'll see in the MAC.

If, on the other hand, you're looking for a lineup that can match up with bigger schools that you'll see in the opening weekend and beyond in the the NCAA tourney in March, Ohio would benefit from an upgrade in frontline manpower.


To me, you nailed it bobcatsquared. This has been my mantra going back to my days in Athens many, many moons ago: if you have a lineup that can matchup with the bigger schools, the MAC should fall to you in the process. And your chances of doing damage in The Big Dance greatly increase.
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Jeff McKinney
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  Message Not Read  RE: Boarding
   Posted: 11/24/2021 1:18:49 AM 
We've got two players on our bench who will help with that--Wilson and Ezuma.

When Akron had Zeke, did that help them advance in the NCAA tournament?

OTOH, Chattanooga got a transfer big from Kansas who may make all the difference for them. But the odds are stacked against mid majors getting guys like that.
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bobcat 2000
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  Message Not Read  RE: Boarding
   Posted: 11/25/2021 5:54:22 PM 
i wonder how kentucky would do against gonzaga? im glad we probably wont have to play gonzaga. think oscar tsheibwe was tough on boards? cant even imagine what it,d be like to battle drew timee down low.if we had to play gonzaga wed lose by at least 30
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