One of Boston University men’s basketball coach Joe Jones’ frequent points of discussion in interviews all season long has been rebounding, or more accurately, the Terriers’ lack of it. Jones said repeatedly that he did not place enough emphasis on rebounding at the beginning of the season up until the Terriers lost to Quinnipiac University on New Year’s Eve 59-53.
Quinnipiac is one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the nation, second to only the University of Pittsburgh, by grabbing 42.8 percent of its own shots off the glass. On the defensive end, the Bobcats are also successful, snagging the ball 72.9 percent of the time, 19th best in the country.
The Bobcats outrebounded the Terriers (11-12, 7-2 America East) in their win, earning five more offensive rebounds than BU, and scored nine of their 59 points on second-chance opportunities.
Since the Quinnipiac game, the Terriers have placed more of a focus on rebounding, and it has shown. On the season, BU is allowing its opponents to rebound their own shots 33.5 percent of the time (224th in the country). But in conference play, the Terriers have decreased that number to 29.9 percent (fourth in the conference).
The numbers also show that the rebounding improvement has carried over to offensive boards, to a lesser extent. Overall on the season, BU gets an offensive rebound on 31.2 percent of its shots (216th in the country). Against America East opponents only, the Terriers are getting the ball 31.5 percent of the time (fourth in the conference).
Even though BU was out-rebounded by eight against Stony Brook University last Friday, Jones was optimistic about his team’s progress on the boards.
“We were doing a much better job rebounding the ball on the defensive end,” Jones said. “I think we’ve done a much better job overall.”
Thomas’ numbers reveal an offensive threat
Traditional statistics do not peg redshirt freshman Malik Thomas as much more than an average player.
In 210 minutes spread across 16 games, Thomas is shooting 46.4 percent overall from the field and 39.4 percent beyond the arc, putting him right in the middle of the Terriers’ stats sheet. His 3.1 rebounds per game are nothing spectacular, but a welcome contribution on a team struggling to find the glass. Also, his five assists, seven blocks and three steals in 16 games are not exactly incredible statistics.
But, looking at Thomas’ performance another way reveals a different player. Ken Pomeroy’s advanced statistics website push Thomas forward as one of BU’s secret offensive weapons.
Offensive rating is a statistic that takes into account points produced in a player’s number of individual possessions. Thomas’ offensive rating of 106.3 is third on the team behind sophomore forward Travis Robinson (109.6) and sophomore guard D.J. Irving (108.9).
Thomas’ true shooting percentage – which takes into account free throw shooting, 2-pointers as well as 3-pointers in a complex formula – is second on the team at 56.5 percent, behind Robinson’s 56.9. And his effective field goal percentage – which is a modified version of field goal percentage that places more weight on made 3-pointers- is first by nearly two percentage points, at 55.8 percent.
In non-shooting statistics, Thomas continues to look good. His defensive rebounding percentage, which is how many rebounds he grabs out of total possible rebounds, is 21.8 percent. He has the lowest turnover rate on the team at 14.4 percent and his block percentage of 3.8 is second only to senior forward Patrick Hazel.
Thomas has a relatively high percentage of possessions (20.4 percent, third on the team behind Irving and senior guard Darryl Partin) and shots (24.6 percent, behind only Partin) when he is on the court, even as a bench player.
Still, with his efficiency and shooting numbers relatively high, Thomas has the potential to be a key member of the BU offense.
BracketBusters snub
The team discovered Monday evening it will face off against Loyola University (Maryland) on the road in the annual ESPN BracketBusters event on Feb. 18.
After beating Canisius College 70-62 last year at Agganis Arena as part of BracketBusters, the Terriers will travel to Maryland on Feb. 18 to play the Greyhounds (16-5) for the first time since 1996.
In the four games BU has played as part of BrackBusters, which is put on by ESPN yearly to showcase teams who might make their way into the NCAA Tournament, the Terriers have not lost.
Loyola will play a regular season game at BU next year as part of the agreement.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
