Can we stay with WVU on the boards?

[Mr. Neutral]

Georgia had a 31-29 rebounding edge over X, with only a 7-6 offensive board edge.

Purdue had a 37-34 rebounding edge, but with a much larger 13-5 offensive rebounding edge. That was certainly one reason Purdue had 17 more FG attempts than X did.

Now we've got WVU, which killed Duke on the boards 45-19, with an 18-5 offensive rebounding edge.

X also got killed on the boards last year against OSU, 45-28.

We need Brown to step up big, both in terms of his D on Alexander (assuming that's the matchup) and to have a big rebounding game like he did with the 16 against BYU last year.

If WVU is pounding X on the boards, it will be a long night, with likely a bad end.

[AlabamaMuskie]

Mr. N, if you can count on one thing for tomorrow night it is that WVU will pound the boards.

The questions are...

will we also pound the boards?

will we get hot from behind the arc?

will we contain Alexander?

will we continue to get to the foul line much more often than the other team?

It believe that if we can do any two of the above, we will win regardless of the fact that WVU will pound the boards.

[Mr. Neutral]

X is way overdue for a hot night from the 3-pt. line, but I'd rather not match baskets with WVU, so I'd hope that our emphasis tomorrow is on rebounding. Our board should read "Box out! Box out! Box out!".

[finalfourorbust]

After reading Mr Neutrals post I now realize that we have no chance. We have nothing going for us.

[Mr. Neutral]

finalfour, I simply asked a question based on historical facts. I'm hoping the answer is "yes, we can" (does this mean I owe the Obama campaign some money?), and I'm guessing that the coaching staff is drilling in this point to the team. I certainly hope so.

Of course we've got a chance. Not much of one, though, if WVU waxes us on the glass like they did Duke.

[Biff Tannen]

I think a major factor may actually be the officiating, if they call tight down low and X can get to the line a lot (i.e. UGA and Purdue) then X should win handedly but if not then it should be fairly close.
However, what I do not want to see is a shootout, if it gets that way I think WVU will have their way. I don't think it will be that way though, X-74 WVU-67.

[X-84]

WVU beat Duke by six with that rebounding margin and Duke shooting HORRIBLY from behind the arc. Rebounding will be important as always but I cannot and won't make the connection that losing the boards will equal losing the game.

[Mr. Neutral]

We could lose on the boards, as we did against UGA and Purdue, and still win the game.

My concern is winning if we get KILLED on the boards, as happened to Duke, and to us last year against OSU.

You may be right, X-84, but that kind of rebounding margin would worry me. Duke shot terribly from the floor (38%) AND the arc (23%), and only kept it close because of a 24-19 FT advantage.

Plus, WVU pulled a Xavier and came back from 5 down at the half to outscore Duke by 11 in the 2nd half.

Maybe we'll win easily, I don't know.

[brownlavender]

For one Duke is not a good rebounding team at all. They have no big man and play basically a 4 guard scheme. Wva is a fairly long team as is X. The battle on the boards is important but not as important as just playing our D. Alexander scores a lot of points but his shooting percentages have been fairly low in the tourney. If we contain Alexander on his drives and force him to shoot jumpers all day he is an average shooter at best. Their other 2 guards are very good with the ball and not turning the ball over so we have to man up well and force bad shots. The key to this game is our D if we D up well we win

[X-it]

WVU beat Duke by six with that rebounding margin and Duke shooting HORRIBLY from behind the arc. Rebounding will be important as always but I cannot and won't make the connection that losing the boards will equal losing the game.

Duke was at the line 12 times in the first half to WVUs 1. While they shot poorly from 3, the shot well from the line. Even with fouling at the end, Duke visited the line 10 more times than WVU did. Duke also made it a 6 point game by scoring 12 points in the last minute, including a couple of really late meaningless points.

That said, rebounding is important, but far from the most important.