Ole Miss Looking for Rebounds

The biggest question mark before the season began was who would fill the large rebounding gap left by departed career rebounding leader Murphy Holloway. So far, that question remains unanswered. The Rebels are losing the battle for balls that clang off the rim, and head coach Andy Kennedy is looking for solutions.

From the Clarion Ledger:

“We’ve done everything short of challenging their manhood to go in there and get a rebound,” Kennedy said. 

Ole Miss (8-3) was outrebounded by four during a loss to Mercer on Sunday, and it allowed the Bears to grab 15 offensive rebounds. In a game that went down to the final shot, grabbing one of those could have made the difference. It’s a season-long problem: opponents are grabbing 35.5 percent of available offensive rebounds against Ole Miss, ranking the Rebels 293rd nationally in that category.

Kennedy benched Jones in favor of Anthony Perez for that game, hoping it would shake things up. But it was freshman Sebastian Saiz who came off the bench and grabbed 11 boards in 20 minutes. His offensive game is still developing, but both Saiz’s traditional stats (six rebounds a night) and advanced analytics (team-high offensive and defensive rebounding percentages) suggest he may be in line for more minutes going forward (he’s averaging 18.7 as of now).

“Saiz gets 11 in 20 minutes, did a lot of really good things and kept a lot of balls alive on the offensive glass,” Kennedy said.

Click here to read the rest of Hugh Kellenberger's story.

Ole Miss plays again December 30 at Western Kentucky.