UH currently sits at 24-3 for the season and leads the Big 12 at 11-3. How has this happened? How does a team lose two first-round draft picks and another veteran starter to the portal, move from the 7th best conference to the best conference in the country, and not skip a beat?
the daily #206 | 2/26/2024 | Archives
My first reaction was that I had no clue. But, if I had to give one big reason why, it’s offensive rebounding. On the surface, you can see that UH is currently averaging 14.4 rebounds per game compared to 12.8 last year.
Some of that can be explained away, as UH is shooting 43.5% from the floor this year compared to 45.8 last year. Simple, more misses mean more opportunities to get offensive rebound
Digging into the numbers, it goes deeper than that. It isn’t the overall rebounding numbers nor the offensive rebounding % (54.1% this year compared to 55.1% last year). Specifically, it comes down to the guards getting more rebounds and more of the guards contributing to offensive rebounds.
Just look at the raw numbers for total rebounds:
Offensive rebounding from guards
| 2022-23 | 2023-24 | |
|---|---|---|
| Mark | 46 | |
| Arceneaux | 30 | 23 |
| Sharp | 20 | 30 |
| Shead | 20 | 23 |
| Sasser | 13 | |
| R. Walker | 7 | 26 |
| Dunn | 22 | |
| Cryer | 18 | |
| Wilson | 21 | |
| Total | 136 | 163 |
| Average | 3.68 | 6.04 |
Currently, UH has 5 guards with more offensive rebounds in 27 games than all but two guards from last year’s team in 37 games. The pattern becomes clearer when you look at individual offensive rebound percentage:
Offensive Rebounding %
| 2022-23 | 2023-24 | |
|---|---|---|
| Arceneaux | 7.4 | 12.3 |
| R. Walker | 5.4 | 10.6 |
| Wilson | 6.6 | |
| Dunn | 4.9 | |
| Sharp | 4.5 | 4.4 |
| Shead | 1.9 | 3.0 |
| Cryer | 2.3 | |
| Mark | 4.9 | |
| Sasser | 1.4 | |
The guards are rebounding at a higher rate than last year, allowing UH to make up for the lower shooting percentage with more offensive rebounds. The improvement in the low end of guard rotation is a major improvement.
The biggest differentiator to me is that even with the starters out, the backups in the rotation are an improvement on the offensive glass. It is good to have depth, but quality depth is most important. But that’s where the loss of Arceneaux and Ramon Walker will be felt most – offensive glass.
For UH to compete in the Big 12, the team had to improve on its strengths. And they’ve done that. The loss of Terrance Arceneaux hurt guard depth and, especially, offensive rebounding. Ramon Walker’s season-ending injury is sure to hurt as well, but now Mylik Wilson and Damian Dunn will be asked to get to the offensive glass even more.
