XUFan09 wrote:Hall2012 wrote:The thing I'd like to see more out of from Patton is rebounding. I realize the offensive boards won't be there for him as much because Creighton makes basically all their shots, but to be a truly dominant big he need to start to clean up better on the defensive end. Not that 6.4 rebounds per game is by any means bad, but I'd expect a guy his size, where he's almost always the tallest man on the court, to be a double double machine.
His defensive rebounding rate is 20.7% of opponents' misses, putting him at #6 in the Big East. That's really good. Not elite, but really good. The problem with using rebounds per game is that it's a raw statistic. Patton only plays 25 minutes per game and his team doesn't force a lot of misses (no more than the D1 average), so there are fewer total rebounding opportunities for him than for some other players.
Patton's minutes are on the rise, though, so we should see the raw rebounding numbers go up to.
I think another factor in support of your point is that Creighton takes a lot of 3's. When those shots miss, the ball tends to kick out for long rebounds, so a big man under the basket is not in good position to get those rebounds.
I made the same assumption you did about his numbers improving with increased minutes, but the evidence isn't there to support it. For example, he's averaged 31 mph over his past 4 games (ORU, AZ State, SHU, Villanova), but his rebounds average has remained at 6.5 rpg. There were 3 games earlier in the season when he played about 30 minutes per game in each, but his rebounds average was 6.0 for those 3 games (Wiscy, Ole Miss, Buffalo). I think the problem with my assumption that his rebound numbers would improve with increased playing time is that I didn't account for the fact that he'll be facing a higher level of competition in conference player than most of what he saw in pre-conference play. Coincidentally, the 7 games in which he's already played around 30 minutes have mostly been against teams from power conferences, so they're probably a good indication of what we can expect going forward unless he elevates his game, which is certainly possible.