There has been a lot said about the Cards rebounding after the disappointing loss to Charlotte, so I thought I would dive right in to the rebounding stats because I have nothing to do. And I was curious to see how this team was rebounding. Before I dive too deep into this, I would like to say I got all the stats from statsheet.com.

It's very early to compare this team's rebounding to last years team's rebounding, but guess what, it's happening. Here are last years averages per game, and percentages. National rank and conference rank in parenthesis. 

• Total Rebound Average and Percent: 40.3 (81 National, 10 B.E)  51.4% (101,8)
• Offensive Rebounds and Percent: 12.5 (98,10) 35.2% (92,9)
• Defensive Rebounds and Percent: 25.2 (51,5) 67.6% (163,7)

The numbers for this years squad are as such.

• Total Rebound Average and Percent: 42.1 (81,8) 52.4% (98,10)
• Offensive Rebounds and Percent: 14.6 (46,6) 38.5% (54,7)
• Defensive Rebounds and Percent: 25.6 (88,9) 66.3% (206,10) 

The defensive rebounding percentage hasn't been that awful since the 2006-2007 season. Frankly, that is not going to cut it at all. Giving up 34% of offensive rebounds to opposing teams is going to be killer. Just on the raw offensive rebounding stats, Villanova, West Virginia, Providence, Cincinnati and Seton Hall all crash the offensive glass. Charlotte is a very good offensive rebounding team, and that's how they controlled most of the game. The 49ers missed 38 shots (36 fgs, 2 fts) and got 20 offensive rebounds. Allowing any team to collect more than half their misses is a recipe for losing. 

I know what you are saying now. What about the top 6 rebounders from the past 2 seasons? I say, wait no more. It's top 6 so it could include Preston Knowles. Preston! Last year first. The percent is the percentage of rebounds they got in their minutes on the floor.

1. Earl Clark. 8.7 game. Off 2.757 (9%) Def 5.946 (18.7%)
2. Terrence Williams 8.568 game. Off 1.378 (4.5%) Def 7.189 (22.6%)
3. Samardo Samuels 4.892 game. Off 2.541 (11.4%) Def 2.351 (10.1%)
4. Terrence Jennings 2.879 game. Off 1.606 (15.1%) Def 1.273 (11.4%)
5. Jerry Smith 2.135 game. Off .568 (3%) Def 1.568 (7.9%)
6. Preston Knowles 2.054 game. Off .784 (5.2%) Def 1.27 (8.1%)

It should be noted that defensive rebounds fluctuate when you have dominant defensive rebounders. We had 2, with T-Will and E5 getting 41% of the defensive rebounds while they were on the floor. Terrence Jennings was a rebound machine at the end of last season. Here are the numbers for this year. 

1. Samardo Samuels 6.571 game. Off 3.286 (14.4%) Def 3.286 (14.1%)
2. Jared Swopshire 6.143 game. Off 1.571 (7.4%) Def 4.571 (21.1%)
3. Rock Buckles 5 game. Off 2.143 (17.4%) Def 2.857 (22.7%)
4. Reginald Delk 4 game Off 1.286 (6.8%) Def 2.714 (14.2%)
5. Terrence Jennings 3.286 game Off 1.174 (15.4%) Def 1.571 (15.4%)
6. Preston Knowles 3.2 game Off 1 (4.6%) Def 2.2 (10.3%)

It's rather odd Samardo has the same amount of offensive and defensive rebounds this season. SS has also been wildly inconsistent rebounding this season. Here are his boards for all 7 games: 4, 11, 12, 5, 3, 7, 4. Is it alarming that his best rebounding games were against East Tennessee, Morgan State and Stetson? I think so. It is disappointing that his rebounding percentage is so low. With Williams and Clark gone, he has given more chances to Swop and Buckles. Some of that has to do with style of play, but it would be nice to see him hit the boards more. 

Glad you asked. I won't get too far into advanced stats, but I will throw out some stats right now.

Earl Clark

The Suns are 10-2. Earl hasn't played very much, with inflated minutes in both the blowout losses being his only significant minutes this month. Earl collected a high of 10 points and 8 rebounds on 11/12 against the Lakers. For all the flack we gave Earl for shooting 3s every year, the fact he has not taken an ill advised NBA 3 should be considered a win for the Suns. The Suns play the Hornets tomorrow on TNT, so you can tune in and hope for a blow out. 

Terrence Williams 

With injuries to Devin Harris and Courtney Lee, T-Will has entered the starting line up. But, numbers for T-Will are downright brutal for the 0-11 Nets. Bad enough that ESPN's player rater John Hollinger has labeled poor Terrence one of his early season disappointments. The one thing that T-Will hasn't struggled with, has been his ability to rebound. He has 3 double digit rebounding games, including back to back 12 board games against Philadelphia and Orlando. T-Will has really been struggling with his shooting, going 9-35 the past 3 games. He scored a high of 15 in the Nets season opener. Due to the Nets having an 8 man rotation in a few games, Williams has played 4 positions. There is a comprehensive write up of how he is fairing, and what his best position is, here. 

Here's hoping for more success for the former Card rookies

Cincinnati QB Tony Pike has already been ruled out of next Saturdays game against Louisville, according to Brian Kelly. Since he is the coach, he should know. Zach Collaros, who entered during the second drive of the 3rd quarter, was 4/7 for 72 yards and 1 int against South Florida. More importantly, Collaros ran for 132 yards and both of Cincinnati's second half touchdowns. A few preliminary scouting reports I read off twitter said he was "the white UT Vince Young." And "a right handed Tim Tebow." And passed "like '08 Sam Bradford." Even with such high praise, Kelly won't decide on starting Collaros or Chazz Anderson until later in the week.