Current Jayhawks not rebounding like past Bill Self-coached teams

By Staff     Jan 26, 2018

Kansas center Udoka Azubuike (35) battles with Kansas State forward Xavier Sneed (20) for a rebound during the second half, Saturday, Jan. 13, 2018 at Allen Fieldhouse.

Any time a shot goes up, whether it’s taken by Kansas or an opponent, the players Bill Self is coaching this year aren’t as likely to pull down a rebound as the Jayhawks who came before them.

During KU’s 13-year run of consecutive Big 12 titles under Self, cleaning the glass has been one of the program’s staples.

This season, though, with a limited frontcourt rotation and lineups built around talented perimeter players, the rebounding mastery so often displayed by past Kansas teams has faded.

This week’s loss at Oklahoma marked the ninth consecutive game the Jayhawks were out-rebounded — the longest streak in the Self era.

Kansas has won the battle of the boards in just six of its first 20 games, entering Saturday’s meeting with Texas A&M, the top rebounding team in the SEC. What’s more, most of KU’s six rebounding victories came against weaker competition: +22 vs. Tennessee State, +16 vs. Texas Southern, +11 vs. Oakland, +12 vs. Toledo, +3 vs. Arizona State and +23 vs. Omaha.

Kansas guard Lagerald Vick (2) and Kansas guard Malik Newman (14) compete for a rebound with TCU guard Kenrich Williams (34) during the first half, Saturday, Jan. 6, 2018 at Schollmaier Arena.

Eight games into the Big 12 schedule, the Jayhawks have an average rebounding margin of -7.1 in league play, which ranks ninth overall and is uncharacteristically off-kilter for a Self-coached team.

“I really think so much of it is effort. I think discipline,” the KU coach said when discussing his team’s shortcomings on the glass, after referencing how Oklahoma controlled it in the final minutes of an 85-80 Sooners win on Tuesday, in Norman, Okla.

Seven-foot sophomore center Udoka Azubuike easily qualifies as the Jayhawks’ best rebounder. He averages 7.7 on the season, but hasn’t registered double-digit boards since the Big 12 opener at Texas, when Azubuike gathered a career-best 13.

According to [sports-reference.com][1], Azubuike leads Kansas with a total rebounding percentage (an estimate of the percentage of available rebounds a player secured while on the court) of 15.2% in Big 12 action. Unfortunately for Self, the only other players on the roster capable of making similar impacts on the glass are Mitch Lightfoot and Silvio De Sousa, and their other limitations have impacted their playing time. Sophomore Lightfoot (12.5 TRB%) averages just 11.6 minutes in league games, while mid-year freshman arrival De Sousa (11.8 TRB%) has been given 3.5 minutes in his four appearances.

Azubuike, Lightfoot and De Sousa are the only players on the roster with a TRB% of at least 10% this year. Compare that to just an average rebounding team by recent KU standards, the [2014-15 Jayhawks][2], and you’ll find five rotation players who eclipsed that mark: Cliff Alexander (15.8%), Landen Lucas (14.2%), Perry Ellis (13.5%), Kelly Oubre (13.3%) and Brannen Greene (10.1%).

As a team, KU currently owns a defensive rebounding percentage of 62% in Big 12 play, to go with a 27.5% offensive rebounding percentage — those rank 10th and ninth respectively in the conference. In past years, Kansas routinely finished among the top half (often in the top third) of the league in those same categories.

Self knows he is working with a limited roster as far as rebounding goes. He has said as much recently, referencing the fact he didn’t recruit Svi Mykhailiuk (5.8 TRB% in Big 12 games) or Lagerald Vick (7.0% in Big 12) to be rebounders, but that’s what he is now asking them to do. He did, of course, recruit Billy Preston to rebound and contribute in other ways, but that never came to fruition.

Still, the 15th-year KU coach will do all he can to squeeze as much rebounding as possible out of his guard-heavy rotation. Self said when it comes to defensive rebounding, success or failure often depends on positioning.

“A lot of it is physicality. A lot of it is having a good base,” Self began. “When you’re not very big and you’re blocking out somebody that has a stronger base than you, all it takes is one nudge to displace you and all of a sudden … you’re rebounding only makes and they get the opportunity to rebound misses, because you’re under the basket. There’s a lot things to it.”

However, Self made it clear he won’t let his perimeter players use a size disadvantage as an excuse.

“The biggest thing, and I’ve heard Coach (John) Wooden say this, you want teams to block out, but it’s a lot more important to have guys who go after the ball than it is to block out,” Self said. “And we don’t attack the ball near as well as what we have in years past, but we’re also not near as big.”

The undersized Jayhawks most likely to go compete for rebounds in the fashion described by their coach are Malik Newman (9.1 TRB% in Big 12 games) and Marcus Garrett (8.3% in Big 12). But it will take a more assertive approach by every player in a KU uniform for this team to turn around a weakness in a crucial category.

*– Below is a list of KU’s rebounding success in past Big 12 title-winning seasons under Self. Note: the Big 12 didn’t begin tracking rebounding percentages until the 2009-10 season.*

KU REBOUNDING
NUMBERS
IN BIG 12 PLAY
Rebound
Margin
Per Game
Defensive
Rebound
%-age
Offensive
Rebound
%-age
20017-18 -7.1 (9th) .620 (8th) .275 (9th)
2016-17 +2.8 (2nd) .676 (3rd) .349 (4th)
2015-16 +3.7 (3rd) .656 (6th) .324 (4th)
2014-15 +1.2 (4th) .704 (2nd) .326 (6th)
2013-14 +7.7 (1st) .709 (1st) .388 (3rd)
2012-13 +6.6 (1st) .714 (2nd) .356 (2nd)
2011-12 +5.1 (1st) .731 (1st) .340 (4th)
2010-11 +6.7 (1st) .663 (8th) .401 (1st)
2009-10 +5.6 (1st) .741 (1st) .342 (5th)
2008-09 +8.2 (1st)
2007-08 +10.2 (1st)
2006-07 +9.2 (1st)
2005-06 +5.9 (3rd)
2004-05 +2.1 (5th)

[1]: https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/kansas/2018.html#all_advanced_conf
[2]: https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/kansas/2015.html#all_advanced_conf

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