The Alabama student section is clearly excited about what the Tide and Arkansas can teach us about defensive rebounding.

This week while researching a piece on Arizona for Insider, I happened to notice that a) the Wildcats aren’t very good at defensive rebounding, and b) it hasn’t seemed to matter very much. Sean Miller’s team has far and away the best defense in the Pac-12, and possibly even the best D in the country.

This odd juxtaposition of facts led me to fling something reckless out on Twitter (it’s true!):

Does defensive rebounding matter? Arizona holding Pac-12 to 0.86 points per trip, No. 10 in league play in DR%. See also Cuse 2012.

— John Gasaway (@JohnGasaway) January 22, 2014

If only I’d held my fire, so to speak. Soon I was on to different questions entirely, or so I thought, when I came across this:  Continue reading →

James H. Smart helped start the Big Ten, possibly because he was tired of Purdue being called a mid-major.

Yesterday at Insider I ranked my top five mid-majors, and in response I heard back from some readers who felt that the hardiest of hoops perennials — what’s a mid-major? — perhaps merits rehashing in this era of wanton realignment. Fair enough. What’s a mid-major?

A mid-major is a team from any conference except the ACC, American, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-12, or SEC.  Continue reading →