Pac-12 Basketball: Biggest question for each team entering 2020-21 season

Stanford – Can the Cardinal improve on the boards?

While Stanford does lose their best player, Tyrell Terry to the NBA, the biggest question mark for a Cardinal team that won 20 games but finished 9-9 in the Pac-12 last season isn’t how to make up for the loss of Terry it is, how do they improve on the glass, as they were one of the worst rebounding teams in the conference, and in terms of the offensive glass, one of the worst in college basketball.

They finished the season with a -1.7 rebounding margin, and even though they had nine guys bring down at least two per game, they still only snatched 32 per contest which ranked them 314th in the country. Their defensive rebounding statistics were middle of the road nationally, including a 72% defensive-rebound percentage, but with a top-40 team in field-goal percentage defense, those numbers should be better. On the offensive end, they ranked 339th in the country in offensive boards per game (6.88) and their 22% offensive rebounding rate was 328th best.

The good news for head coach Jerod Haase is that all those rebounders except Terry return and he has the addition of five-star 6’7 small forward Ziaire Williams along with power forwards Max Murrell and Brandon Angel who all have the ability to crash the glass. Williams should go a long way in filling the shoes of Terry and with a more concerted effort on the glass at both ends, the Cardinal should be heading in the right direction.