Butler Basketball: Keys to success in bubble battle with St. John’s

1. Win the battle on the glass.

St. John’s is statistically not a good rebounding team. Through their 11 conferences games, the Red Storm rank dead-last in the Big East in both defensive and offensive rebounding rate and they are averaging a -6.3 margin per game in boards. This is primarily due to the fact that St. John’s runs a small lineup but they also do not attack the glass with a ton of ferocity. The Red Storm are also just 3-5 in conference games when they have been outrebounded.

These statistics bode well for Butler, who is also a poor rebounding team that struggles against those teams that eat up missed shots. In fact, Butler is ranked seventh in offensive rebounding rate and fifth in defensive rebounding rate in the Big East. And while neither team in this matchup rebounds the ball extremely, the battle on the glass might prove to be pivotal to success for the winning team. During the last meeting between these two teams, Butler exhibited a +4 margin on the boards and came away victorious.

In my opinion, the most important rebounders for the Dawgs in this matchup will be Jordan Tucker and Sean McDermott. These two might not be the tallest players on the roster but they are superb rebounders in their own right. Starting with McDermott, the junior wing recorded a career-high 12 boards in Butler’s win over SJU last month as he was seemingly always in the right place. Tucker, on the other hand, might have only snagged six rebounds in that win but he is currently the top defensive rebounder in the Big East (25.9%).