Total rebounds, rebounding margin and defensive rebounds.
The San Diego State women’s basketball team was last in the Mountain West Conference in all three categories last season.
If you were to ask head coach Beth Burns last season who she’d like to recruit, she probably would have said a window washer, because SDSU simply couldn’t clean glass.
In the off-season, Burns must have received an endorsement from Windex, because the Aztecs are much more aggressive on boards this season.
But don’t let the stats fool you. SDSU may only be averaging four more rebounds a game from last year (37 this year from 33 last year), but the team has a new-found focus in the post.
“Without question, we’re a better rebounding team than a year ago,” Burns said. “But we still have a long way to go in that area.”
The Aztecs (2-3) will have a chance to see how they match-up against an elite frontcourt team at 1 p.m. Sunday, when they take on Wichita State (2-1) in Cox Arena.
And forget staying grounded – if SDSU wants to avoid getting shocked by the Shockers, the team needs to dominate in the air.
“(Wichita State) poses a huge challenge; they have a fantastic inside game,” Burns said. “It’s difficult to guard them without the double-team. And everybody can shoot. You have to pick your poison.”
The Shockers dominance in the post has helped them score 72.8 points per game this season. Meanwhile, the Aztecs average only 53.2 points a game.
If SDSU wants a chance against Wichita State, it needs to provide more opportunities for its offense to score.
“We’ve got to get more offensive boards to help our offense,” Burns said. “And we’ve got to turn the ball over at a lower rate. We need to take care of the ball and get easier points.”
If the drought of rebounds were the Aztecs’ Achilles’ heel last season, turnovers have left SDSU limping this season, as the team averages 22.6 a game. Over a third of those turnovers have been caused by freshman Quenese Davis, who averages 7.3 a game.
But Burns is quick to deflect blame from her star point guard.
“In fairness to Quenese, it’s not her fault that four people got hurt, and that she’s had to play 40 minutes (per game) as a freshman,” Burns said. “A lot of (her turnovers) are because she has no rest or no opportunity for me to take her out the game and help her.
“We need to get more help around her, and we need to get her some rest.”
And this Sunday, the biggest help needs to come in the form of rebounds.
