Huskies Can't Rebound if They Can't Rebound

The University of Washington basketball team recently won a couple of games. It no longer has one of the nation's worst win-loss records.

In past weeks, Mike Hopkins' guys have shot better. They've peeled off that nagging label as the Pac-12's most inaccurate crew.

They've made gradual inroads with their zone defense. Blocked shots. Stolen passes.

Yet as they take on Oregon State in Corvallis on Thursday night, the Huskies (3-12 overall, 2-8 Pac-12) have a precarious situation that has no resolution in sight.

They can't rebound.

Won't rebound.

Wouldn't know a rebound if it hit them in the face.

With likely just 10 games left to play, this UW team is on an embarrassing and irreversible pace to become the worst rebounding team in school history.

The Huskies are getting outrebounded by 9.6 per game — and the existing program standard for rebounding ineptitude is barely half that at minus-4.4 during the 1968-69 season.

This 2020-21 UW team currently ranks 335th in the nation in rebounding out of 340 teams.

Only Air Force, Long Beach State, Coppin State, Chicago State and Mississippi Valley are less effective at chasing down misses shots.

"We have to do a better job defensive rebounding and we can't put them on the foul line," Hopkins said of Oregon State (8-7, 4-5). "That's just non-negotiable."

Instead, what won't happen is finding someone willing to regularly mix it up, block out and snatch the ball out of the air.

The Huskies have been outrebounded in 12 of their 15 games.

Baylor crushed them on the boards 50-19 in the season opener.

At midseason, Arizona outmuscled them 58-30.

Last Sunday, Washington State won the backboard battle against the UW without much drama, 48-28.

It's rarely been close for the Huskies regarding a stat built on hustle and toughness.

Former elite UW rebounders Jon Brockman and Bobby Jones are somewhere far away from this carnage, covering their eyes.

This Hopkins team is incredibly soft.

Disturbingly bruise-free.

The Huskies start 6-foot-11 Nate Roberts and 6-9 Hameir Wright up front. They're the only players on the roster to open all 15 games. They're not small.

Roberts has led the UW in rebounding 10 times outright, and shared this distinction on one other occasion, but he's finished in double figures just once — he had 10 against Montana.

Wright has topped the Huskies just once this season in rebounding. He came up with 7 against UCLA. He's had multiple games of 1 and even zero. And now he's battling a thumb injury that will make him less effective, if that's at all possible.

Rebounding has been a season-long problem that Hopkins keeps saying needs immediate attention.

Yet night after night, no one steps up.

No one hits the boards with any authority.

Hopkins should consider holding rebounding-only practices.

Brockman was such a fearsome rebounding presence in 2006-07 — when the Huskies tied the school record of plus-8.9 boards per game, matching the 1952-53 Final Four team — he used to knock out teeth of anyone who got in his way with flailing elbows.

Opponents or teammates.

Roberts averages a team-best 6.8 rebounds a game, but he can't stop fouling and stay on the floor.

Wright, who grabs a second-best 4.3 an outing, might not play against the Beavers because of his injury.

Since neither one of these UW players scores much — just 5.6 and 5.5 points per game, respectively — make one or both of them concentrate solely on rebounding.

This team can't win unless it does.

Here's the season-long sorry rebounding story, with the Husky total listed first and their few nightly rebounding victories in bold face:

UW's 2020-21 Rebounding

Baylor, 19-51

Cal State-Riverside, 33-49

Utah, 43-44

Seattle U, 42-29

Oregon, 30-40

Montana, 35-34

Colorado, 28-43

Arizona, 30-58

Stanford, 31-47

California, 32-24

USC, 31-41

UCLA, 30-41

Colorado, 30-34

Utah, 28-32

WSU, 28-48

Follow Dan Raley of Husky Maven on Twitter: @DanRaley1 and @HuskyMaven

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