…it will be interesting to see how it grows and develops this season. They sorely need offensive firepower, individually or collectively, in that second unit to get the most out of Mike’s system. There will not be the scoring at guard that we had last year but it looks like the defensive intensity and assist production there will be greater. With Gafford to erase any mistakes, they can be tough on teams pressing for most of the game. Gafford is great on the boards but I am still amazed that no one goes to the basket to rebound when Gafford shoots from mid-range. Almost every time, when a shot goes up, 3+/- defenders go to rebound and no other Razorbacks make any moves toward the basket. They just watch the shot and drift back on defense. I don’t mind the “we don’t block out, we go for steals instead” defense that Nolan perfected, but how about “stealing” some offensive rebounds occasionally?
double ditto on the rebounds. I just don’t get it. A lot of times there were 3 Indiana guys hustling for the rebound and not a single Arkansas guy even made a move toward the basket. I’m glad we won. But I just don’t get it.
You answered your own question. CMA has always emphasized transition defense over crashing the offensive boards. If you crash the glass and don’t get it, you give up more easy transition baskets with your defense outnumbered. It’s a philosophy choice with different coaches covering the full spectrum of tradeoffs. There is no accepted right philosophy.
If you crash the glass and don’t get it you are rarely alone. I am not asking for us to outnumber them under the offensive boards and give them an easy 3 on 1 fast break. I am asking for one guy, maybe two, to go against their three or four to try and get an offensive board when Gafford shoots. Lenzie Howell did it well. Why can’t Adrio, Chaney, and Joe do it occasionally?
Chaney and Gabe are actually getting offensive boards at a high rate, about the same as Portis did. Both Gafford and Bailey are offensive rebounding at a much slower rate than they did last year. It may have to do with not wanting to risk fouls with the minutes they are being asked to play at present. This team has been particularly bad on the offensive glass because the starting frontline is getting so few, but we have rarely been better than average on the offensive glass. The exception was 2014-2015, and it was mainly about the bigs = Portis, Kingsley, and Thompson. Having a bully wing like Qualls helped that season. I doubt Joe is physically capable of being a great offensive rebounder at his current weight. Jones might do more. You will probably see more offensive rebounds when the second unit allows Gafford to be more aggressive.
Strange timing on these posts about our “offensive rebounding” woes. Even though Indiana had 8 more total rebounds than the Hogs, we had 9 offensive rebounds to their 8. Our offensive rebounding in the first 2 games was poor, but against the Hoosiers, we showed much improvement. Granted, most of that was from Gafford.
Poor blocking out on the defensive end leads to the opponents’ big numbers of offensive boards. We actually did a good job of blocking out in the Indiana game, as evidenced by their low number of offensive boards.
[quote=“HarleyHawgidson”]
Strange timing on these posts about our “offensive rebounding” woes.
[/quote]The Hogs played a pretty fair team in Indiana this week. This was the Hogs third game; playing against a mature team, featuring an exceedingly talented SF (a likely top 10 NBA pick). I was not surprised that Bailey appeared to struggle against Indiana, on the other hand, he had no turnorvers, no foul problems, a steal and an assist, yet only 4 points.
He was not terrible, just average. But average against the team that Sagarin ranked as #6 in the country.