AT's "hype"

[Bradleyguy10]

7-9 boards from these three combined I think BU will be happy.

We're not going to win the MVC with that. I agree with you on the ppg, but if our 3 centers, our BIGGEST guys, combine to only get 7-9 boards/game...then yeah we will be playing a 4 guard system again and end up anywhere between 3-6 in the valley. I want ONE person to step up at center and to play the big minutes and GET rebounds!! One person to average 6-9 rebounds/game by them self, and then you can add in the other 2 with a few rebounds..hopefully 3-5 in the minutes they play. Bottom line our centers have to take care of the rebounds this year and combined for that position we NEED to be getting an average of around 15. Theron will help out, and our guards will add some also, but the bulk needs to be the centers. If we have AT and DC/SS out there at the same time....forget about it.

[Braves4Life]

We're not going to win the MVC with that. I agree with you on the ppg, but if our 3 centers, our BIGGEST guys, combine to only get 7-9 boards/game...

Agreed!

[KillerB]

Are you kidding me.. 7 to 9 rebounds would not be good enough?
Have you looked at the top rebounders in the country.. guys who play 30+ minutes per game? I did a little research.

In the Big 10 the top rebounders:
10.3 / game
8.4
8.2
7.3

ACC
10.5
8.3
8.1
7.9

SEC
10.1
9.3
8.5

Missouri Valley
8.5-Coleman
8.3-Cox
7.9-Clemente
7.1-Falkner

8th-6.4 Salley
9th-6.3 Wilson

If we get 7-9 rebounds out of the center position that would put it near the top of the league. Up that average by one or two if you like for the sub who plays the other 5-10 minues per game. But 7-9 rebounds/game is pretty good out of the center position. If you are thinking more than that you've got your head in the clouds.

[amckillip]

Are you kidding me.. 7 to 9 rebounds would not be good enough?
Have you looked at the top rebounders in the country.. guys who play 30+ minutes per game? I did a little research.

In the Big 10 the top rebounders:
10.3 / game
8.4
8.2
7.3

ACC
10.5
8.3
8.1
7.9

SEC
10.1
9.3
8.5

Missouri Valley
8.5-Coleman
8.3-Cox
7.9-Clemente
7.1-Falkner

8th-6.4 Salley
9th-6.3 Wilson

If we get 7-9 rebounds out of the center position that would put it near the top of the league. Up that average by one or two if you like for the sub who plays the other 5-10 minues per game. But 7-9 rebounds/game is pretty good out of the center position. If you are thinking more than that you've got your head in the clouds.

Huh!?! From the center position? They're not saying one person. Salley got 6 and half from 25 minutes a game, That would be like us going the next 15 minutes with NO REBOUNDS from our big man next year. All the stats you posted were for one person, so I think you might be confused on what exactly is being discussed.

[KillerB]

I didn't go through every Valley school.. but I checked some rebounding stats for last year on Rivals.

They don't list a C for SIU.. they list all as G or F.
The top 4 rebounding Forwads.. Falker, Shaw, Boyle, Fay & Armstrong average 18.7 r/game

Drake.. all players listed as G or F.
Top rebounding Forwards- Cox, Korver Heemskerk & White
average 18.9 r/g

Creighton.. 1 Center listed the rest F or G
Top rebounding F/C-Watts, Lawson (C), Millard & Walker
average 15.9 r/b

ISU-1 center listed the rest F & G
Top rebounding F/C-Slack, Odiakosa, Sampay & Dyer (C)
average 17.6

If our center position grabs 7-10 rebounds per game.. do you think the other forward position can average 7-10 (Wilson 6+ last year). If so does that not have us competitive with the top conference competition from last season?

By the way.. No Iowa looked to be the monster on the boards.. they have 2 C listed who average 14 boards/game and a F at 5.8. But they are the exception in the Valley from what I see.

If our trio averages more than 10/game.. great! But I'm not sure if that is realistic or not. And if they grab 8-10 and the other players do their job on the boards we will be competitive.

[SFP]

You guys are all missing the point. For the most part rebounding is a team effort. If the guards are not boxing out their guy and lets them through no matter where our Center is he still may not get it because the opposition's guard is in a better position. There are exceptions to this rule where there is someone on your team that just loves to rebound and has the knack to get every lose ball. The Bulls had one of those guys! We really need to look at team rebounds and probably totals from the 4-5 position. Regardless, our rebounding was horrific last year and by no means was it MS's fault. Our 1-3 players need to remember that there is no fast break if you can't rebound the ball.

[KillerB]

I'm not missing the point.. in fact I am in complete agreement with you. That is why I say 7-9 out of the center position would be ok. 10-12 would be better.. but it doesn't matter who gets the rebound for the Braves as long as everyone boxes out and someone gets the ball.

[Stryker]

[QUOTE=SanFranciscoPete;91902]You guys are all missing the point. For the most part rebounding is a team effort. If the guards are not boxing out their guy and lets them through no matter where our Center is he still may not get it because the opposition's guard is in a better position. There are exceptions to this rule where there is someone on your team that just loves to rebound and has the knack to get every lose ball. The Bulls had one of those guys! We really need to look at team rebounds and probably totals from the 4-5 position. Regardless, our rebounding was horrific last year and by no means was it MS's fault. Our 1-3 players need to remember that there is no fast break if you can't rebound the ball.[/QUOT

I don't have the numbers with me now, but I believe that we did rebound better last year than in 06-07, and we weren't out-rebounded in many games. However, it is a part of the game that we need to improve upon to have a better season.

[bugregshu]

In our non-conference schedule last year, we were only outrebounded 2 times (Michigan State, UWM) out of 13 games

In our conference schedule last year, we were outrebounded 10 times out of 18 games

So we were outrebounded 12 of our 31 regular season games

[ph]

Sorry Squirrel I have to disagree bigtime. First IF he would have been THAT good JL would have NOT RS'd him. I'm afraid he was to thin, weak......I agree I saw some good things to build on but NOT during the season. He needed time to build strength and to add polish to his game.

I agree he has the tools but no way he would have ousted MS in the middle. JMHO.

I also don't see him starting this year. My hope is DC has improved enough and that those two, along with SS, can bring us a unique 3 headed monster. If we can get 14-16 ppg and 7-9 boards from these three combined I think BU will be happy.

If we believe what Jim said on his show last year: essentially AT started the year with an incredible raw skillset, but had no foundation (footwork) So, AT was not the best option at the beginning of the year. They (coaching staff) took the RS opportunity to work intensively on his footwork, After several months, AT got his "foundation" and by the beginning of 2008 became the described "2nd best offensive big man JL ever coached" By the end of the season I think AT was our best big man.
On the same page, had AT not been redshirted, his development would be farther behind. I think this year will start to be telling what Merfield can accomplish with our bigs in practice

[SFP]

It just seemed like last year when we needed a rebound or the other team needed it we would come out empty. I hope WE, AT, DC and SS can increase our productivity in that area. I believe last year SS and MS did all they could in terms of their ability to rebound, TW for his size really excelled and the rest of the team looked like they did not like to do the dirty work of banging and rebounding. IMHO

But they sure loved to fast break and shoot!

[Bradleyguy10]

KillerB you aren't going to convince me that our 3 biggest players should average 3 rebounds/game.

To win the MVC and to actually make some kind of "splash", and to not have a repeat of the last two years....I want one person to avg. 7 rebounds/game and the other two when they get in there for 10 minutes each (or w/e it may be) to get about 3 a game, each. That's at least 13 almost double your lower expectation of 7. I'm not saying we WILL get that...I'm saying that if we want to be significantly better than last year...that's what we need.

[shaunguth]

FWIW....Here are last year's season totals when averaging everyone's numbers per 40 minutes:

Rebounds
11.6 - Matt Salley
10.7 - David Collins
9.2 - Sam Singh
8.9 - Rashad Austin
8.3 - Theron Wilson
7.9 - Will Egolf
4.8 - Andrew Warren
4.2 - Daniel Ruffin
4.2 - Jeremy Crouch
2.9 - Tyrone Cole-Scott
2.6 - Sam Maniscalco

[KillerB]

KillerB you aren't going to convince me that our 3 biggest players should average 3 rebounds/game.

To win the MVC and to actually make some kind of "splash", and to not have a repeat of the last two years....I want one person to avg. 7 rebounds/game and the other two when they get in there for 10 minutes each (or w/e it may be) to get about 3 a game, each. That's at least 13 almost double your lower expectation of 7. I'm not saying we WILL get that...I'm saying that if we want to be significantly better than last year...that's what we need.

Sorry.. That may be what you want, but your expectations for any those players are way too high. 7 rebounds in 20 minutes of play? Tyler Hansbrough for example, averaged 10/game (by the way 2 rebounds higher than his first 2 years) in 33 minutes of play. That averages out to about 12.1/game. Yet you think one of our players should be able to in effect average 14 per game (7/20 minutes). And I think we can all agree that Hansbrough is a little better than the guys we are putting on the floor.

And don't get me wrong, I'd love to see the guys meet your expectations. It's just not realistic and it's not going to happen. Not to mention if one of those guys turns into that big a rebounder.. the other guys are not going to see the court much.

[KillerB]

KillerB you aren't going to convince me that our 3 biggest players should average 3 rebounds/game.

To win the MVC and to actually make some kind of "splash", and to not have a repeat of the last two years....I want one person to avg. 7 rebounds/game and the other two when they get in there for 10 minutes each (or w/e it may be) to get about 3 a game, each. That's at least 13 almost double your lower expectation of 7. I'm not saying we WILL get that...I'm saying that if we want to be significantly better than last year...that's what we need.

Since I just picked Hansbrough at random.. I thought I'd check up on the top rebounder in the country last year. M. Beasley averaged 12.4 boards/game in 31.5 minutes of play. That extrapolates out to 15.7 rebounds in 40 minutes. 7 rebounds in 20 minutes.. so again you think one or our guys in pretty much going to come close to matching Beasley.

I say again.. I hope one of the players does what you want.. but I think your expectations are Pie In The Sky!