When you aren't playing with a true 5, you have to count on people from the wings to do a better job in not just crashing the boards, but checking out as well. Last night our outside guys accounted for 15 rebounds, and our inside guys only 9. Our outside guys actually kept their counterparts off most of the time, but the inside players had 23 boards, 9 and 14 respectively. In my mind, this is when you use a guy like Borchardt to put a body on someone and keep them off the glass. 6'9" and 255 lbs of solid, is not going to be a good match up for Roby, so getting Borchardt all of 2 minutes is pretty stupid. Palmer had games in which he was very solid on the boards, some of that was going and getting his own miss, but as of late, we aren't seeing that as much as we need with B1G competition. Roby I absolutely give a pass to, as it's his job to keep whoever the 5 he's covering off the boards, but he didn't do that particularly well last night. Copeland would usually be taking up some of that slack, but he's kind of dipped a little over the last 6 games, which could be having to cover some pretty decent 4s himself. Even though he may have been chasing Stevens around part of the time, and helped keep him to a 30% shooting night, he can't come up with only 3 rebounds. But when you play 38 minutes against a guy who runs all over the place, you aren't as quick getting to the ball as you may normally be.
Our substitution is abysmal, and I understand we aren't up to our eyes in talent, but last night was ridiculous. When Watkins wasn't in, and he only played 27 minutes, why on earth didn't we see Heiman and/or Borchardt? When Palmer was flailing around on the offensive end, why do we not give him a seat, let him catch his breath, and suggest some thoughts on spots to look for in the zone? There are times I think some of our poor decisions late in a game are purely related to fatigue. The announcers actually pointed out our lack of player development considering our number of upper classmen likely to be gone next year. How often do you hear people mention that during games? Ever? It's that glaring, folks.
