Texas Tech basketball struggling to rebound the ball

The Texas Tech basketball team is struggling to rebound the basketball in Big 12 play which is something that must be addressed if the Red Raiders are to remain in the conference title hunt.

A disturbing trend has developed for the Texas Tech basketball team since Big 12 play opened. In the six games of league play, the Red Raiders are one of the worst rebounding teams in the conference raking ninth out of team teams in rebounding margin.

In those games, Tech is being out-rebounded by an average of 4.8 rebounds per game. In fact, in every Big 12 game thus far, the Red Raiders have lost the battle on the glass.

That includes being out-rebounded by the No. 8 rebounding team in the league, Kansas State and the worst rebounding team Iowa State. And Saturday, Tech’s poor work on the defensive glass was costly.

Baylor recorded twelve offensive rebounds and turned them into twelve second-chance points. That was essentially the difference in the Bears’ 11-point win.

In the non-conference portion of the schedule, Tech padded its rebounding stats against a number mid and low-major schools that were physically overmatched by Tech’s athletes. But against Power 5 schools, Tech has been out-rebounded in eight of nine games with the only exception being Nebraska.

The problem for the Red Raiders is multi-faceted. First of all, Tech’s best rebounding big man, Norense Odiase, is not able to stay on the floor. Of all eight players in Chris Beard’s regular rotation, Odiase is seventh in minutes played at just 16.4 per game.

At 6-foot-8 and 250 pounds, he is perfectly built for rebounding. The problem is that he is not built for a lot more than that. When other teams go to a guard-heavy lineup, he struggles to defend a smaller and more nimble player. Likewise, his extremely limited offensive game means that the already offensively-challenged Red Raiders simply cannot afford to play him heavy minutes in close contests.

More from Wreck'Em Red

His offensive limitations are further complicated by the fact that Tech’s other big man, Tariq Owens, is also lacking the ability to create his own offense meaning that it is difficult to play both he and Odiase together for long stretches.

Being as Owens is the only true rim-protector on the roster, Beard is almost always going to choose to put him on the floor over Odiase. As a result, Odiase has had three rebounds or fewer in four of six conference games thus far.

As for Owens, he has shown a tendency to disappear on the glass despite his freakish athleticism. That was the case in the first half against Baylor when his lack of activity on the boards prompted a frustrated Chris Beard to inset sophomore forward Malik Ondigo into a Big 12 game for the first time this season.

Fortunately, it seemed like Owens got the message as he was far more active in the second half finishing with six total rebounds (four offensive). At times, Owens desire to block shots takes him out of rebounding position leaving Tech’s guards to battle down low.

He needs to be more judicious in deciding when to go after a rejection and when to stay in position and rebound. A 6-foot-10 player that can jump as well as Owens does and who plays almost 30 minutes per game should rank higher than No. 18 in Big 12 games on the glass.

But with one exception, Texas Tech is nowhere to be found atop the individual rebounding stats in Big 12 play. Jarrett Culver is second in the Big 12 averaging 10.0 rebounds per conference game but no other Red Raider is in the top-10 and Owens is the only one in the top 20. Meanwhile, six Big 12 teams have at least three players on that list.

Chris Beard is in a tough situation when it comes to balancing his team’s need for more offense with his desire to compete on the glass. His best offensive lineup is the one that features Culver as the biggest player on the floor playing alongside Brandone Francis, Matt Mooney, Davide Moretti and Kyler Edwards. But aside from Culver, the other four players in the lineup average a combined 10.6 rebounds per contest.

Still, there is no excuse for Texas Tech to be beaten on the boards as often as has been the case in Big 12 play. One of the reasons that their defense has taken a step back in the last two games is that they have given up a combined 17 offensive rebounds which partially neutralized Tech’s work in the half court defensive sets.

Next. 3 Trap games that could derail Tech's title chances. dark

Moving forward, players outside of Jarrett Culver are going to have to help carry the load on the boards if Tech is to have the type of season that we were dreaming of before last week’s two-game skid. Of course, that is what we’ve been saying about the offense as well.

Home/Texas Tech Basketball