...because so many things effect it, particularly how the teams are shooting the ball and even where they are making shots from.

Synergy had VT giving up 12 offensive rebounds. To me the concerning thing when you are struggling on the defensive glass is what is the initial action that prompted it- typically you are going to give up an OR because someone is beaten, you help to force the miss and you get caught in a bad size/athleticism matchup or just can't get to the rotation in time. The way to stop those is to shore up why you were in a rotation in the first place and has little to do with actual rebounding.

With all of that said of the OR's VT gave up yesterday the large majority were just poor effort to a man or the ball, or both. The first three all had a good amount to do with Mutts just mailing it in on the boards, N'Guessan had some bad box outs that led to a couple of them. One was a player catching his own airball and two others were a player missing their first attempt and just tipping it back on the rim, one was a wild tip in transition. Haynes and Maddox had a particularly bad one where they both failed to position themselves well and then misjudged the ball on their jump.

The real defensive breakdown plays came in the second half. I don't think the defensive discipline and focus last night was as good as the team brought last year (hard to read too much into that in a game where you are just superior in every way). The first came on a fast break where Cattoor and Maddox (and really everyone) failed to communicate and left a player alone at the rim, he missed his first shot and collected it and was fouled on the second. The second was a great example of what I described above, Maddox plays poor position and is screened on a baseline out of bounds play, Murphy is guarding the inbounder and stunts to the wide open player on his jumper (this is the correct play) - the shot misses off the front of the rim and therefore falls right to the inbounder stepping in and Murphy has given up inside position to help Maddox, everyone else is correctly positioned on the play.