In what has been an up and down start to Ohio State's season featuring seven wins (one of them over Kentucky) and five losses (one of those against UT-Arlington) one constant sticks out:
The Buckeyes are undefeated when they tie or win the battle of the backboards.
The lows in this metric have seen the Buckeyes get smoked by Connecticut by 20 points while losing the glass 34-26 and falling to UT-Arlington by five points while giving up a 47-36 advantage on the windows.
Conversely, the Buckeyes battled an athletic Kentucky front line winning the glass 42-40 on the way to a 74-67 upset win and have tied or outrebounded five of their last six opponents as part of a 5-1 record since losing to Virginia back on the first of December.
Despite the recent resurgence on the backboards the Buckeyes still rank just fifth in the B1G in defensive rebounding and ninth on the offensive end generating a +3.3 rebounding margin on the year, good for only eighth place in the league.
Considering Ohio State stands second in the B1G in blocks per game (5.9) thanks to Daniel Giddens (4th, 2.1) and Trevor Thompson (10th, 1.4) and fourth in both scoring defense (63.4 ppg) and field goal percentage defense (38.5%), continued improvement on the glass could mean big things for this team going forward.
So who exactly is doing the heavy lifting on the backboards for Matta's team?
| PLAYER | MIN | TOT REB | RPG | RPM | DREB | DRPM | OREB | ORPM | GAMES LED |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| J. TATE | 337 | 83 | 6.9 | .246 | 61 | .181 | 22 | .065 | 4 |
| M. LOVING | 415 | 74 | 6.2 | .178 | 53 | .128 | 21 | .051 | 4 |
| K. BATES-DIOP | 388 | 72 | 6.0 | .186 | 56 | .144 | 16 | .041 | 3 |
| T. THOMPSON | 199 | 53 | 4.4 | .266 | 36 | .181 | 17 | .085 | 2 |
| D. GIDDENS | 200 | 45 | 4.5 | .225 | 28 | .140 | 17 | .085 | 2 |
| J. LYLE | 347 | 44 | 3.7 | .127 | 36 | .104 | 8 | .023 | 0 |
| TEAM | 2425 | 456 | 38.0 | .188 | 322 | .133 | 134 | .055 | - |
The convenient way to look at rebounding is in a per game snapshot and by that measure, Jae'Sean Tate, Marc Loving and Keita Bates-Diop are all posting over six rips per game. In that metric, Tate is currently seventh in the league with Loving and KBD holding down the 16th and 18 spots, respectively.
The more useful method for understanding a player's impact on the glass is to look at rebounds per minute. In this metric, Thompson is leading the squad at .266 per minute though his rebounds per game register at only 4.4 thanks to just 199 minutes played through 12 games.
Obviously, sharing post minutes with Giddens and/or being in foul trouble has hurt his per game production but when he's on the floor, Thompson is Ohio State's most prolific rebounder, just ahead of Tate and his .246 rebounds per minute.
Tate's .246 as the second-best rebounder on the team is obviously significant based on his position and size. His attitude about defense and rebounding is infectious on a team still learning to develop a killer instinct.
For his part, Giddens has used his B1G-ready frame depsite being a freshman to grab .225 rebounds per minute, good for third on the team, and should also see a lift in his effectiveness if he can cut down on the fouls limiting his minutes.
Loving has stepped up his rebounding so far this year with .178 rebounds per minute after producing boards at a .153 per minute clip as a sophomore. He's even led the team in rebounds in four of 12 games thus far after doing it just six times in 35 games last year.
Bates-Diop is actually trending behind last year when he pulled down .208 rebounds per minute though he has led the team in rebounding in three separate games already this year, something he never accomplished in limited minutes a season ago.
Taking into account the youth of the roster, so many different guys making meaningful contributions to the effort on the glass and the correlation of wins and losses compared to OSU's rebounding success, improvement must continue as Ohio State sits just three days away from the beginning of play in the always-rugged B1G.
