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Here are a few other metrics that may give a better reading on how the PL teams rebounded last year. I have only included PL games, since there were huge differences in the strength of ooc schedules.
Two problems with looking just at total rebounds are (a) number of rebounds is very dependent on the pace of play; and (b) it is dependent on how many shot are missed at each end. Fast pace of play = more total rebounds. More misses at your own end = more offensive rebounds. More misses by your opponent = more defensive rebounds. Also more steals = less rebounds.
To put things on a level playing field, here are the pct of available offensive rebounds that each team got last year (national average = 32.2%), followed by by the pct of available defensive rebounds that each team got.
Navy 32.2%
Lehigh 31.5%
Bucknell 29.2%
Holy Cross 28.9%
American 27.7%
Army 25.2%
Colgate 24.3%
Lafayette 22.7%
And here are each team’s pct of available defensive rebounds (national average = 67.8%):
Bucknell 77.9%
American 73.9%
Lehigh 72.7%
Holy Cross 72.1%
Navy 71.6%
Colgate 70.7%
Lafayette 70.3%
Army 67.7%
Putting the two together, it looks like this:
Bucknell 107.1
Lehigh 104.2
Navy 103.8
American 101.6
Holy Cross 101.0
Colgate 95.0
Lafayette 93.0
Army 92.9
One thing that is very clear is that the PL is very oriented towards defensive rebounding. Offensive rebounding ranges from average to awful, while defensive rebounding ranges from exceptional to average.
One other way to look at rebounding – although somewhat flawed – is rebounding margin. For PL-only games last year, it looked like this:
REBOUNDING MARGIN G Team Avg. Opp. Avg. Margin
1. Bucknell 14 511 36.5 402 28.7 +7.8
2. American 14 471 33.6 434 31.0 +2.6
3. Lehigh 14 494 35.3 461 32.9 +2.4
4. Holy Cross 14 493 35.2 465 33.2 +2.0
5. Navy 14 426 30.4 436 31.1 -0.7
6. Colgate 14 418 29.9 467 33.4 -3.5
7. Army 14 420 30.0 494 35.3 -5.3
8. Lafayette 14 402 28.7 476 34.0 -5.3