When analyzing a team’s success on a basketball court, there’s several categories that correlate to winning and losing.
Great teams usually thrive in more than one category, such as low turnover average and high field goal and three-point percentage. But one statistic that has been most conducive to victories for the LSU men’s basketball team is the category that coach Johnny Jones often characterized as a “war.”
When the Tigers (11-7, 4-2 Southeastern Conference) own the rebounding advantage — or the “war on the boards” — they are 8-1 on the season. When they don’t, which includes LSU’s 71-57 loss to Texas A&M on Tuesday night, they are just 3-6.
LSU is trending in the right direction, having outrebounded its opponents in seven of its last 10 games.
“It’s definitely a team thing,” said sophomore forward Craig Victor II prior to LSU’s win against Arkansas on Jan. 16. “Because when you set an example by doing it — not necessarily by singing it but by action — then that rubs [off] on everybody else on the team. So, it’s definitely a team effort because no one player is grabbing 30-40 rebounds by themselves. If we’re going to outrebound a team, that’s going to take a whole team effort.”
But, even against the Razorbacks, they failed to win the rebounding category, partially leading to a tight contest down the stretch.
In LSU’s first eight games, it was outrebounded six times, leading to a 4-4 overall record. With the No. 4 individual rebounder in the nation, Tiger freshman forward Ben
Simmons, most would have thought LSU would be in good shape on paper.
However, that wasn’t the case in its first eight contests. Without Victor, who is now the second leading rebounder, the Tigers were beaten up inside in the early portion of the season, highlighted by LSU’s 105-98 loss to Houston on Dec. 13.
In that game, the Cougars outrebounded LSU by 13 boards, and Jones was blunt about his team’s rebounding performances up to that point.
“We’ve been struggling with rebounding all season,” Jones said after the Houston loss. “We just haven’t done a good job … It’s an area we got to continue to address. We’re hopeful we can improve because that’s where we’re getting hurt.”
Victor’s inclusion in the starting lineup became the benchmark of the Tigers’ improvement in the frontcourt, but beyond him, uncertainty remains. When the sophomore forward gets into foul trouble — like Tuesday night against the Aggies — Jones turns to sophomore center Elbert Robinson III or sophomore forward Aaron Epps.
Robinson and Epps, though, average less than three rebounds in limited minutes off the bench.
“You just got to have a want for it,” Epps said prior to the Arkansas win. “[Senior guard] Keith [Hornsby] and Craig bring so much energy to the team, so they’ve really helped us there.”
Even more important to winning the rebounding battle is limiting opponents’ second-chance opportunities. Against Texas A&M and against Florida on Jan. 9 — the only contest it won the rebounding battle but lost the game — LSU allowed 15 and 14 second-chance points, respectively.
As Victor will acknowledge, correcting an area like that starts with crashing the glass.
“[If] you can win the battle on the boards, you can win the game,” Victor said before the Arkansas win. “That’s just history with basketball. You give yourself more opportunities and you take away opportunities from the other team.”