Defensive rebounding and blocking out. LSU is horrible

Thanks Coach.

LSU is outrebounding opponents by almost 5 per game. They have only been outrebounded in 3 games this season (2 of which they won).

Thanks coach. I’ll make sure I work that into the practice plan.

Im no expert but ive been to many coaching conferences in my day and heard many great coaches lecture. One reoccuring theme was that a team cant be good at everything; and the coach needs to decide which things to stress above others. It's impossible to stress everything because it goes against the whole concept of 'stressing" something.

if you stress offensive rebounding, then you will more likely decline in fast-break defense

perhaps these teams are doing just that and we aren't?
hence, giving us more fast break points.

who knows? Im just saying that it's not as simple as it seems sometimes

LSU has never been a good defensive rebounding team under Wade. Yes, even in the 18-19 season when they won the SEC and were a 3 seed. LSU was ranked 254 out of 353 nationally in defensive rebounding %.

It is a flaw of Wade's teams, but one that hasn't killed them. Quite simply, the deficiency is a by-product of they way they defend. LSU defends the ball more than the man so to speak. That is, their major point of emphasis is trying to create deflections/steals. In doing so, they many times are out of position for a box out because they have helped off the man they are guarding or, are out of good defensive position because they have sold out for a steal/deflection rather than just staying in front of the man they are guarding. Sure, it is frustrating to watch teams get several offensive rebounds (particularly because LSU's defense is often so weak missed shots are like gold). But that is how Wade choses to play it.

The good news is that LSU mitigates that flaw by often being a great OFFENSIVE rebounding team themselves. Yes, their opponents get more second shots than you would like...but so does LSU.

While not ideal, it does somewhat balance out. For example: Arkansas rebounded 34% of their missed shots last night and got 21 second chance points. That's not good, AT ALL.

However, LSU rebounded 41% of their missed shots and got 25 second chance points (that's elite). So while they gave up a lot of offensive rebounds, they STILL won the rebounding battle.

If you want to make the comp to Tennessee and Alabama, LSU grabs only ~1% less of ALL available rebounds than Tennessee does on average and 2% MORE than Alabama.

If LSU plays defense with the effort we have seen the past couple of games they are going to win the SEC and maybe get a top 3 seed.

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Defensive rebounding and blocking out. LSU is horrible

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345 schools have played a college basketball game. I would think "Horrible" would be 200 or lower. LSU, in fact, is horrible in defensive rebounding % (289th). However, we are elite (23rd) in offensive rebounding %.

Stats are always skewed. LSU would rather trap, create turnovers, than block out and grind it out

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We’re playing zone this year so finding “your man” isn’t really possible and zones are problematic for rebounding unless you have a true bug which we don’t. It’s not effort or ignorance it’s a style issue. Wade is an analytics guy and to get the truest representation of the numbers you need a high possession rate which is why we play fast and why the zone was implemented. More possessions favor the better team so in his mind getting the possession count as high as we can means a better chance for us. I’m not saying you’re wrong or I disagree with you because Wade’s style isn’t my favorite either but there’s more than one way to skin a cat and I trust our coach. I know it can be difficult to understand why he does some of the things he does but he does have principals and believes in them unshakably it’s just a different approach then maybe you or I would think of first.

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Even though Wade talked about it a lot in the offseason, it doesn't appear they are playing much "zone" (unless you count guys kind of lazily freelancing as a "zone"). They are also playing at one of the slowest tempo and taking the fewest shots per game than they have in 3 seasons. I think it is simply just a matter of (by design) they aren't a particularly "tight" defensive team. When you constantly lose a man you're supposed to be guarding. Or over help. Or get beat off the dribble because you are trying for a deflection rather than just staying in front of your man, you lose your block-out responsibility and leverage.

It's frustrating, but they DO make up for it by crashing the offensive boards. Most people just look at the raw numbers to decide who wins the rebounding battle when in reality REBOUNDING % is that stat to focus on. When you do that you'll often find LSU wins the rebounding battle or the deference between them and the opponent is fairly marginal.

Are you watching the games? or just pulling this out of your arse?

Would you put that in a PowerPoint and email it ti CWW. Really, you think Wade doesn’t game plan for each team. From what I’ve seen of bama they shoot and generally make 3s so your strategy doesn’t hold up.