ISU outrebounds Cincinnati and UNLV

[mitten1975]

Rebounds were a concern for me at the first of the year. I think this team has proven it can rebound. I am wondering if they are a team that will be consistent in playing a fast paced game. They allowed 80 pts to these two teams and were only able to muster 70 in each game. I don't really see that we have pt. guards talented enough to go that fast pace. I am wondering whether we ought to slow it down and concentrate on the defense holding down opposing good team's point total. We can always run off turnovers. This is completely hypothetical in order to change the focus on particular players to what the team is capable of. I don't have any bones to pick.

 

[ajk4st8]

I feel a lot better knowing that it is just the offense that needs to come around for this team to be quite successful. Rebounding and defensive intensity has been pretty good from everyone.

 

[acgclone]

Really the only concern for me is that we look lost at times on offense. That isn't too dissimilar to last year, IMO. We are still figuring things out, and I feel like last weekend will help us "make it click" on O.

 

[mitten1975]

Still, those teams scored 80 between them. I am not sure we can expect to score more than 80 on a good team that plays decent defense. Therefore the point would be to hold them to a lower score. I think we still have a ways to go on defense, and we need to do something to frustrate opposing teams offense.

 

[Cyclonetrombone]

Well we had Cinci beat... what was it like 57% from the charity stripe? We lost by 12 and we missed like 18 or 19 ft didn't we? UNLV was just ridiculous as far as FT distribution... did we seriously play that aggressively to give them 36 ft and us to only get 9?

FT has been a problem for ISU for as long back as I can remember... FT for basketball and XP for football... two parts of the game that should be the easiest parts. I can understand Tyrus missing a few, he looked gassed when he got to the line a few times. But we were bad at fts all game long.

 

[mitten1975]

These games were very close. UNLV must have had a tremendous home court advantage or we decided it was impossible to score inside if your name wasn't Clyburn. I wish I could have seen that game.

 

[DistrictCyclone]

Why were you ever concerned about rebounds this year? We've been in the top 5 nationally for rebounds all season long...

 

[CLONECONES]

ISU is #2 in NCAAB for rebounds a game

 

[mitten1975]

I think it was because we only out-rebounded Campbell by 2. Also we weren't that great against Minnesota State on the glass. I think after that game or the Campbell game, Hoiberg was concerned with rebounds, and we never really replaced White with anyone that was a great rebounder. Since then, Clyburn has shown to be a great offensive rebounder. I felt both Booker and Gibson needed to be better rebounders. I also thought they needed to be better on interior defense.

I still think our defense has problems. I have noticed that teams that think defense, often play better offense because they are less worried about the offensive end and let the offense materialize from the defense. I am just noting that 80 pts is too many to give up to beat many good teams.

 

[Cyclonepride]

I agree that defense and rebounding are good, but defensively, they could be even better by stopping the dribble in transition (and that would be aided by not turning it over and allowing the other team to get out and run).

I wonder if Fred doesn't just let them freewheel a bit early in the season to show where they are naturally strong or weak, and then teach around the weaknesses and gameplan around the strengths?

 

[bos]

We would probably have more rebounds if we let our offense get into position before chucking the ball up for a brick.

 

[St810s]

ISU is #2 in NCAAB for rebounds a game

What's funny is Cincinnati is #1 in rebounds/game. And we outrebounded them in our game vs them.

 

[Clones21]

If we rebound well in the Big 12 we will be sitting well.

 

[mitten1975]

What's funny is Cincinnati is #1 in rebounds/game. And we outrebounded them in our game vs them.

I think we are capable of being very strong inside. Not only that, we have shooters that can put the ball in if they are open. I don't think this needs to be a fast break team, except when they have an opportunity like on a turnover. I think we need to concentrate on stopping the other team especially in transition. I agree with the comment that Hoiberg is watching to see where the strengths and weaknesses are so that he can set up the strategy around that. Those were two great teams to play to see where those strengths and weaknesses are. What is good about a Hoiberg team, he charges every player with the task of rebounding. I think that is why we rebound so well. That Cincinnati team was really big. We out-hustled them, but I think they did better in transition than we did.

 

[Cyclonic1]

I feel a lot better knowing that it is just the offense that needs to come around for this team to be quite successful. Rebounding and defensive intensity has been pretty good from everyone.

This week ought to be very interesting in practice as we had enough offensive flaws exposed to give Fred and crew
plenty to work on. IMO how we play against BYU will tell a lot about the character of this team.

 

[DistrictCyclone]

We would probably have more rebounds if we let our offense get into position before chucking the ball up for a brick.

Amen. I expect this to improve, but it's been pretty bad. Those CBS announcers were very critical of our shot selection.

 

[gocubs2118]

This is why you can't question how much effort this team is playing with. Putting up monster rebounding numbers like this is all about effort and energy, something this team hasn't been lacking so far.

If they can find the offense and continue with this kind of rebounding, this team will be in the upper half of the conference this year.

 

[heitclone]

The frontcourt is holding their own, the guards need to pick it up. Scotty and Chris Allen were big holes to fill.

 

[kucyclone]

Rebounds per game is not really the ideal stat to measure a team's rebounding strength. But regardless, we're rebounding quite well. The formula, so far, for our success on the glass, per KenPom, has basically been the 1, 2, 4, and 5 spots rebounding about average, and the 3 spot (Clyburn/Ejim, mostly) rebounding at an elite level. Of course, you don't really need fancy advanced statistics to see that.

Our current rate of offensive rebounding (getting 42% of our misses) will surely decline as the season goes on, though.

And keep in mind that, despite playing a couple of top 25 teams, we've still played one of the easier schedules in the country, and that we're also playing a pretty fast pace, both of which are going to artificially inflate raw rebounding numbers at least a little.

The best rebounding team in the country, so far? Larry Eustachy's Colorado State team.

 

[DistrictCyclone]

The best rebounding team in the country, so far? Larry Eustachy's Colorado State team.

I saw that CSU got a vote each in the Coaches' and AP polls. Good for them.