The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Analysis: Crashing The Boards Leads To Success For UAB
3/20/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Steve Irvine, UABSports.com
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- There are ways to demonstrate UAB's progression to becoming an outstanding rebounding team.
Freshman William Lee becoming healthy and getting in proper playing shape certainly helped. The relentless effort and progression made by Tyler Madison is positive and so is the willingness for other guards to get dirty in the paint. Freshman Chris Cokley's quick growth is helpful and sophomore Tosin Mehinti not only takes up space but he's what UAB associate head coach Rob Ehsan calls a "great box out guy."
Those things are just what part of what makes rebounding a strength for the No. 14 seed Blazers heading into Saturday's NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament third round game against No. 11 seed UCLA at KFC Yum! Arena. Perhaps the main thing is something that can't necessarily be seen or charted.
"You don't have to always be the highest jumper or the most athletic person to get rebounds," said Madison, a 6-foot-4, 225-pound sophomore, who had nine offensive rebounds in Thursday's 60-59 win over No. 3 seed Iowa State. "It's just hard work. If you're down there and get in position and the ball will just come to you if you're in the right spot. It's just having the heart to go down there and get rebounds."
Stats do help chart a rollercoaster season on the boards for a UAB team that is the youngest NCAA Tournament participant. During non-conference play, which ended with UAB holding a 4-9 record, the Blazers were outrebounded nine times, including 40-24 by Jackson State. Over the next 22 games, the Blazers won the battle of the boards 18 times, including a 52-37 advantage over Iowa State and comfortable margins in Conference USA Tournament wins over Louisiana Tech (plus-8) and Middle Tennessee (plus-11). That's a plus-34 advantage over the past three games.
"I don't know if we did it better than what we're doing, we've had some big-time rebounding games, but that was a huge point of emphasis with this team," UAB head coach Jerod Haase after Thursday's win over Iowa State. "We felt like, to be able to have a chance in this game, we'd have to dominate the boards, dominate the offensive boards especially. So when the shots went up and Tyler Madison, who was the prime of example of crashing and getting in there and fighting for the boards. It's been a focus all year."
While it has been a focus all year, the Blazers didn't start excelling at rebounding until mid-year. UCLA grabbed 46 rebounds in the win over the Blazers in the Battle 4 Atlantis and North Carolina grabbed 44 rebounds in a non-conference win. Haase and his staff felt that had to stop for the Blazers to have success in conference play.
"We told them flat out, we need to get a lot tougher," said UAB Associate Head Coach Jeff Wulbrun. "We need to play this game a lot more physical than we're playing - whether that's hard and aggressive screens, whether that's good box outs, finding a body every time, whether it's hard cuts. These things are an element of toughness and physicality. This doesn't work unless the guys decide we are going to be determined to do this."
The message continued throughout the remainder of the season.
"At some point in every game preparation, we talk about `If we're the most physical team and toughest team, we'll be successful,'" Wulbrun said.
It also helped that Lee, a 6-foot-9 freshman, recovered from knee problems. At times, Lee has dominated the boards. He had five consecutive games with double digits at one point and added another on Thursday with 12 rebounds. He's averaging nearly nine rebounds per game over the past 11 games.
"He has such good hands and length and he has a knack for getting defensive rebounds," said Ehsan.
Lee always has plenty of help. Seven different players have either led or tied for the lead in rebounds during a game, including 6-foot-2, 170-pound sophomore Hakeem Baxter and leading scorer Robert Brown. Lee leads the way with 11 and Mehinti has done it 10 times.
"I think it's a team effort," Ehsan said. "The guards do a pretty good job of rebounding. (Baxter) has a good nose for the ball, which is not a coaching thing, and he's pretty athletic. I think Tosin is a great box out guy, I've always said that. C.J. (Washington) has always had a knack for getting rebounds. Rob Brown has gotten a whole lot better. Cokley, he just has great hands to be honest. Anything that touches Chris' hands he usually gets, which is rare for big guys to have such great hands."
The Blazers will need everyone to contribute on Saturday against UCLA, which had a plus-nine advantage in the teams' first meeting.
"We just got to attack them and be the more physical team with Tyler Madison attacking the glass the way he did (Thursday)," said point guard Denzell Watts. "As long as we're as physical as we were with Iowa State and even more physical, we'll be alright."
