Love in line to surpass 1,000 career rebounds
Some numbers are down, however, so coach keeps prodding.
Loudon Love is almost certain to become the fifirst player to lead Wright State in rebounding four straight years. And his average this season has been hovering around 12 per game, two more than his career-best mark.
Coach Scott Nagy, of course, is thrilled with that production — though he wants to keep pushing Love without getting, well, naggy.
“It’s odd because he’s getting more defensive rebounds this year, and his offffffffffffensive rebounding numbers are down from the previous three years,” he said
Love’s offffffffffffensive-rebound percentage was 39.8%, 42.7% and 31.4% the last three years. This season, it’s 26.9%.
“I’ve been asking him about that, to get him to play with a bettermotor and getmore offffffffffffensive rebounds,” Nagy said. “I just spent (one day lastweek) harping about how he’s not rebounding like he should, and all these articles come out that he’s one of the best rebounders in the country. That didn’t help my cause any.”
The Chicago Tribune ran a feature on the Geneva, Illinois product earlier this week.
Nagy, though, never has to worry about Love becoming too puffffffffffffed up.
“He takes that stuffff to heart,” the coach said of the criticism. “He knows I could sit here and tell these guys everything they’re doing great, which enough people are doing, or I can tell them thingsIthinktheyneedtoimprove on. He’d like to be a better offffffffffffen
sive rebounder.”
Love’s 11.6 rebound average is sixth in the nation, and he’s on pace to obliterate the single-season school record of 10.9. But he concurs with Nagy’s assessment.
“I hope to average over 10 rebounds a game over a weekend typically,” he said. “Being (near) 12 is great, but Iwish itwas more balanced offensively and defensively. I know it’d help our team.
“After offensive rebounds, you get easier looks with layups and stuff — plus, you maybe get the other team in foul trouble.”
Love’s offensive rebound stats could be downbecause he’s shooting 53.6% from the field after hitting 48.8% and 49.8% the last two seasons. The easiest misses for a player to retrieve are his own.
But his teammates also are willing rebounders, which means there are fewer available. The Raiders are 22nd nationally in rebound margin at plus-9.4 per game.
“We’ve just got so much size with Grant Basile, Tanner Holden and Tim Finke, and even our guards will clean up,” Love said.
“I’m happy withwhere it’s at,” he added of his average. “I don’t want it to drop. But I hope I can balance it out a little more.”
Nagy has been prodding
Love in other ways. As the team’s lone senior, the coach expects him to take on more of a leadership role.
Love would agree about the need to speak up, but it doesn’t come naturally to him.
“He’s such a super-likable guy. His teammates love him. But I’d like to see him be a little more ornery about it in terms of demanding things from them,” Nagy said.
“The hard part about it is he’s so hard on himself that sometimes he doesn’t feel like he’s playing like he should, so it’s hardfor him to get on other people. There’s just a balance he’s got to have. I like that he’s hard on himself, but sometimes it’s over the top.”
Love has a school-record 984 rebounds, whichmeans he’ll likely reach 1,000 this weekend during a two-game series with Youngstown State.
He’s also ninth on the alltime scoring list with 1,532 points, 27 behindNo. 8 Mark Vest.
Asked howimportant the rebound milestone is to him, Love replied: “Itmeansa ton. Obviously, I’m not going to stop there. But it definitely means a lot (because) it’s kind of a gritty thing. It’s kind of a lost art. You see guys who are 4 men or 5 men do it when they don’t have a tremendous (scoring) role — or that IS their role — and to be able to do both, to me, is a great thing.”