As Northwestern has inched closer and closer to its first-ever berth in the NCAA Tournament, there has been one thing holding the Wildcats back – rebounding.
NU is the worst rebounding team in the Big Ten, a fact coach Bill Carmody seems to have gotten used to.
“We clearly got beat badly off the boards (against Minnesota),” Carmody said. “But that’s been our MO for a number of years. Could we be better at it yet? Yeah, but I don’t know. It’s rough. I don’t think there are any drills you can do.”
Despite grabbing 20 fewer rebounds than Minnesota in Saturday’s 64-53 win, NU (16-10, 6-8 Big Ten) was able to convert 19 Golden Gophers turnovers into 24 points. Carmody said having more turnovers and fewer rebounds is one of the consequences of using his 1-3-1 zone defense instead of man-to-man defense.
“If you play man, maybe you can do a little bit better boxing out than you can in zone, so you’ll give up some (turnovers),” Carmody said. “You’ll have some dunks and crazy emotional things against the 1-3-1 zone, but we just try to tell our guys that’s going to happen every once in a while.”
Rebounding in any zone defense can be a challenging endeavor because the players are assigned to cover a zone and not a specific person. Reggie Hearn said in the 1-3-1, it can get chaotic trying to find a man to put a body on.
“It’s definitely a little tougher than it is in man-to-man because in man-to-man you’re usually right next to your man and box him out,” the junior guard said. “With the 1-3-1, it’s kind of hectic. It’s often (our) guys are not near one of the other team’s players.”
Hearn said there have been some communication issues on the floor as to who is boxing out which man. Freshman guard Dave Sobolewski is usually the only one near the basket when the shot goes up, so the players closer to the top of the zone need to scramble and find a man and not just run to the hoop.
Hearn said everyone on the team has been guilty at some point of going for the ball instead of the man in these situations, which he said has caused them to be unable to corral some of the longer rebounds.
Causing turnovers will be hard for NU on Tuesday against No. 11 Michigan. The Wolverines (20-7, 10-4) turned the ball over only 7 times in their 66-64 victory over the Cats on Jan. 11. Michigan is also coming off an upset of then-No. 6 Ohio State at home in which the Wolverines turned the ball over only eight times.
The Wolverines had four more rebounds than the Cats when the two schools met in Ann Arbor, Mich., in January. NU let Michigan grab 17 offensive rebounds that led to 13 second-chance points as the Wolverines stormed back from a 7-point halftime deficit to win in overtime.
“It’s all going to come down to effort,” Hearn said. “We’ve all been through the boxing-out drills. We’ve heard the coaches ranting about boxing out and getting the boards.”
Carmody said he does not think the rebounding woes have come from a lack of effort because the team has done so many things right throughout the game.
“The effort is probably from the neck up as much as anything,” Carmody said. “You just got to (box out) every time, but it’s not like we haven’t said it before and emphasized it in practice.”
