Winning Teams Commit to Rebounding

Rebounding isn’t the most glorified aspect of basketball, but it’s certainly one of the most important parts. A rebound can end the opposition’s drive. It can also start or revive a possession for your own team. It usually takes a good deal of effort to properly “box out” an opponent. However, this effort is well worth the energy expended. The team that grabs more rebounds can often be directly correlated to the team that scores more points.

Despite this commonality, plenty of young athletes are more interested in scoring than rebounding. Because they simply don’t have a strong understanding of the game, they prefer the more stylish parts of basketball. However, coaches can help certain players learn the importance of rebounds through valuable practice time, discussions and tutorials through team websites.

A path to playing time

Western Michigan coach Steve Hawkins fully admits that his team isn’t the best at rebounding. While the Broncos are off to an 8-4 start, they have nonetheless lacked a strong, team-wide effort on the glass, according to MLive.

Mario Matasovic, a sophomore power forward, has taken advantage of this situation by hustling in practice and proving his abilities as a rebounder. By outworking his teammates, Matasovic has earned himself some valuable playing time. In a recent 70-56 victory over New Hampshire, he logged five points, three rebounds and three steals over 10 minutes.

“His athleticism, especially when it comes to rebounding, is something that we need,” Steve Hawkins told the news source. “Rebounding has been an issue for us. It’s no secret. Mario had been doing a better job in practice than a lot of our guys in terms of going up and snatching rebounds in traffic.”

Maryland overcomes occasional scoring woes with rebounding

The Maryland Terps have a talented team capable of scoring with the finest opposition in college basketball. However, when the shots just don’t seem to be dropping, the team compensates by working for rebounds, The Baltimore Sun reported. The Terps’ rebounding has been good enough to catch the eye of Illinois coach John Groce.

“You go through stretches as a team maybe where you don’t make shots all the time. And you look at their Big Ten stats in the first two games where they didn’t make some shots. It happens to all of us,” Groce told the news source. “But they found ways to win because of their defense and their rebounding and their togetherness.”