WEST LAFAYETTE — Purdue men’s basketball expected to be one of the nation’s best offensive teams and endeavored to become a stronger rebounding team.
Those two factors have synched up in a big way over the first third of the season. The Boilermakers at one point last week ranked as the national leader in offensive rebounding percentage. That’s a dramatic turnaround from last season, when they posted the program’s lowest such percentage since 2017-18.
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“The better shots we generate creates better offensive rebound balance, because people aren’t shocked — people are in offensive rebound position,” P.J. Thompson, Purdue assistant coach who coordinates the offense, said. “If we can keep our focus on generating good shots and getting the ball on the rim, our guys are gonna put themselves in position to go get it. And then, from that, we can generate open 3s on kickouts and things like that.”
Purdue coach Matt Painter brought in Oscar Cluff primarily because his defensive rebounding could aid the critical improvements needed on that end of the court. Mission accomplished. Cluff’s dominance on the boards at South Dakota State translated. The defense rewards itself for stops more often than it did a year ago.
Yet Cluff’s arguably made an even larger rebounding impact at the other end of the floor.
Purdue could end the season as the best offensive rebounding team in the nation. It sat third in offensive rebounding percentage at 42.3% — behind only Tennessee and UCF — through Monday.
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Individually, Cluff ranked second nationally in offensive rebounding percentage at 22.2%. He is on pace to again lead all of Division I in offensive boards despite the bump from the Summit League to the Big Ten.
Yet Cluff’s impact transcends the boards he grabs himself. The impact is felt throughout the lineup, and by one player in particular.
How Oscar Cluff’s addition helped Trey Kaufman-Renn
Purdue’s offensive rebounding percentage of 31.8% last season ranked 123rd nationally. It was one of the potentially game-changing categories in which the Boilermakers — despite their elite shooting and scoring — ranked in the middle of the pack nationally.
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Trey Kaufman-Renn spent much of the season in disadvantageous rebounding situations at center, thanks to Daniel Jacobsen’s early season-ending injury and a lack of other reliable options. Despite significant increases in minutes and usage, both his rebounds per 30 minutes (7.05 to 6.34) and offensive rebounds per 30 minutes (2.71 to 2.54) decreased from the previous season.
That season, though, was spent at the 4, playing off of Zach Edey’s monster-in-the-middle presence.
Cluff is no Edey in many regards. Purely in terms of offensive rebounding production, though, the comparison is closer than you might expect.
Edey posted two of the top eight seasons in Division-I history in terms of total offensive rebounds. If Cluff keeps up his pace (small sample size warning) and if he plays the maximum 39 games, he would amass 173 offensive rebounds —knocking on a top-10 all-time season.
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While Cluff gives up a few inches to Edey, he commands a significant amount of real estate with his wingspan. Kaufman-Renn has used the resulting same-body matchups and freedom to move to nearly double last season’s averages for rebounds per 30 minutes (11.75) and offensive boards per 30 (4.87).
Kaufman-Renn predicted his outcome. Painter wanted to see him actually do it. He now has 11 games worth of proof.
“The shock that hadn’t happened before was the consistency of Trey Kaufman-Renn rebounding,” Painter said. “That’s the difference. He’s the one that’s done it.
“… TK had not rebounded like that, so that’s a credit to him, because I think that could help him professionally.”
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Offensive rebounding give Purdue basketball’s No. 1 offense a bonus
One might assume those extra possessions explain why Purdue employs the most efficient offense in the country per KenPom, No. 4 per Bart Torvik and No. 6 per Haslametrics.
It certainly doesn’t hurt, but those possessions have not necessarily been a bonanza. Purdue’s 148 offensive rebounds led to 150 second-chance points, meaning it scored off about half those extra possessions. About 16% of its scoring comes on second chances.
Of course that doesn’t account for extra fouls accumulated or the general strain it puts on a team to repeatedly play extended possessions. We can speculate about a residual effect in some of these games — the 19 offensive boards at Alabama, for instance, stands out. It’s simply more difficult to quantify.
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The psychological impact is also difficult to measure. Players feel it, though. When a team works for a stop against arguably the best offense in the country and doesn’t reward itself with a rebound, it’s a bummer.
When it happens a dozen or more times per game, the toll begins to accumulate.
“I think about it defensively, and if a team constantly gets offensive rebounds it just demoralizes you,” guard Fletcher Loyer said. “You play really good defense for the whole shot clock and they get a fresh new 20 seconds.
“If we can do that to other teams, especially throughout a long season, it demoralizes them, and we’re gonna keep bashing them.”
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Purdue basketball offensive rebounding stats, ranks, Oscar Cluff wingspan
