Iowa's Biggest Strength: Rebounding

The one thing I've been really impressed with from the Hawkeyes men's basketball team so far this year has been their rebounding. So, here are a few graphs to show you what I mean.

The first graph shows the percentage of defensive rebounds Iowa has pulled down every game. The white line is the NCAA average. As you can see, for the most part this year Iowa has been above that white line in almost every game. Especially, around late November when Cole seemed to be recovered from the injured foot. Also, you can see that the only game in which they lost the defensive rebounding battle, was Long Beach State.

Now, Offensive Rebounds:

We have the same thing for offensive rebounds too. Long Beach State is the only team to crash the offensive boards harder than the Hawkeyes. Iowa is also above the white line in offensive rebounding in just about every game so far this season too.

I am becoming more impressed with this team's rebounding, especially after what they did against Ohio State. I wondered if their rebounding would decline once they got into the tougher competition of the Big 10. I know it's only two games in, but so far they are showing that their rebounding skill is for real.