SEATTLE — Darnell Gant heard the talk.
The fifth-year senior and one of the few interior presences on the University of Washington men’s basketball team had heard enough about how this year’s Huskies didn’t have enough size in the paint to be a good rebounding team. And then he got together his teammates and told them it was time to go out and prove the doubters wrong.
“At the beginning of the season, Darnell made it a point to get the bigs together and tell us we were going to be a good rebounding team,” redshirt freshman Desmond Simmons said. “He took it personal.”
It’s just a small sample size, and against much smaller opponents, but the Huskies have been able to overcome a lack of frontcourt size and dominate the boards. UW (4-1) has outrebounded four of its first five opponents this season and leads the Pacific-12 Conference in rebounds per game (43.0) while ranking fourth in the conference in rebound margin (plus-6.2). The Huskies have used a balanced attack led by 7-footer Aziz N’Diaye (8.0 rebounds per game) and wiry wing Terrence Ross (7.0) on a team that has seven different players averaging 4.0 rebounds per game or more.
The Huskies and Auburn are the only teams among the 74 squads in the six power conferences that have all five starters averaging 4.0 rebounds or more this season.
Gant, a 6-8 forward who is averaging right at 4.0 rebounds this season, said he isn’t surprised by UW’s success on the glass.
“I knew collectively, as a team, we would rebound the ball well,” he said.
He was in the minority. Gant was well aware of the outside perception that the Huskies could have trouble rebounding after losing 6-9 Matthew Bryan-Amaning, gangly wing Justin Holiday and muscular guard Isaiah Thomas — a surprisingly productive rebounder at 3.5 per game last season — from the 2010-11 team. Gant and N’Diaye were the only experienced returnees taller than 6-7, so the Huskies were going to have to rely on their tall wing players to help out on the boards.
“I feel like there’s a lot of pressure on me to rebound the ball,” he said. “But the last few games, the guards and everybody coming off the bench have been doing a good job rebounding.”
The most pleasant surprise on the glass this season has been Ross, a spindly sophomore who averaged just 2.8 boards while coming off the bench last season. The 6-6, 195-pound wing has hit double-digits in rebounds in each of his past two games, including a 13-rebound performance against Houston Baptist on Friday afternoon.
“I knew I was going to have to rebound a lot, so it’s something I put a lot of emphasis on,” he said Tuesday. “The team has put a lot of emphasis on it, and we’ve been able to get it done.”
The most motivated Husky was Gant, who couldn’t ignore the talk about UW’s lack of established inside players and the widespread projection that rebounding could be an issue on this year’s Huskies.
“Yeah, I heard all of it,” he said. “But I feel like we’re doing a good job of making people think otherwise. It motivated us as a team.”
Head coach Lorenzo Romar wasn’t concerned about his team’s rebounding despite a frontcourt that lost 13.2 rebounds per game while returning only N’Diaye and Gant. He was confident even before the season began that a combination of long-armed, aggressive guards like Ross, 6-5 C.J. Wilcox, 6-6 Scott Suggs and 6-5 Tony Wroten Jr. would create a more balanced corps of rebounders on a team that probably won’t have any individuals averaging in double-digits.
On Tuesday, Romar was happy to say those projections have held up.
“Our bigger wings and guards are doing a great job on the backboard,” Romar said. “There’s not a rule that says: only the guys 6-9 and above can rebound.
“At the end of the day, how many rebounds can you get? … So I’m not totally surprised, because I knew we had longer guys with more size this year.”
Romar’s team has measured up on the boards thus far, but most of UW’s opponents have been undersized. The real test will come against teams like Big East power Marquette (on Dec. 6), massive Duke (on Dec. 10) and the schedule of Pacific-12 Conference teams that await the Huskies down the road.
Can UW’s balanced group of rebounders keep it up?
“I think we can,” Gant said. “As a team, we stay focused. We keep our eyes on the prize, and we know that rebounding is the big way for us to get wins. We’ve got to do that, so that’s what needs to be done.”
Notes
Romar said that Suggs, a senior guard, is still on target to return to action for the New York trip that begins Dec. 6 against Marquette. Suggs, who had surgery on his foot just before the season began, doesn’t feel any pain in the injured foot but won’t be available to play at Nevada on Friday night. … Romar showed no signs of concern after Wroten’s seven-turnover performance against Houston Baptist. The coach pointed out that star freshmen like former Kentucky star John Wall typically struggle with turnovers in non-conference play. … Romar is looking for his 200th career win Friday night.
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