ST. LOUIS – A video of Baylor’s Taurean Prince describing what a rebound is went viral after the Bears’ loss to Yale in the first-round of the NCAA Tournament. The simple question posed to Prince after the game: “How does Yale outrebound Baylor?”

“You go up and grab the ball off the rim when it comes off and then you grab it with two hands,” Prince said, straight-faced but with more than a hint of sarcasm, “and you come down with it and that’s considered a rebound. So they got more of those than we did.”

That may be how the majority of rebounds come, but the way Syracuse’s Tyler Roberson has asserted himself as a force on the boards this season extends beyond that. Many of Roberson’s rebounds come in scrums, where he doesn’t grasp the ball with two hands at its peak, but rather tips it with one. Then it’s back to two feet on the ground for each player involved and the aerial competition for a ball still in the air ensues.

Roberson’s second jump, the height of his jump to contest for a tipped ball after he’s already jumped once, is what allows him to corral 50-50 balls in the air. He’s totaled 27 rebounds in the 66 minutes he’s played during the NCAA Tournament — averaging a rebound about every two minutes and 27 seconds he’s on the court — and provided a boost on the glass for a Syracuse (21-13, 9-9 Atlantic Coast) team seeded 10th in the Midwest Region, but set for a matchup with No. 11 seed Gonzaga (28-7, 15-3 West Coast) in the Sweet 16 in Chicago on Friday night.

“His second jump, which is I think a rarity, his second jump is as quick and as explosive as his first,” said Dave Boff, Roberson’s coach at Roselle Catholic (New Jersey) High School. “I think that that really helps him get a lot of those second-tip rebounds that a lot of guys don’t get.”

Against Middle Tennessee State in the Round of 32, Roberson grabbed eight rebounds in the first half. On one sequence, he blocked a Reggie Upshaw shot, tipped the ball up in the air before others contested it and eventually came down with the ball secured in his two hands.

Later in the half, MTSU’s Perrin Buford missed a jump shot but followed the ball when it hit off the rim and tipped it up in the air. Roberson skied over Buford near Syracuse’s bench and secured the ball at its peak. He drew a foul while curling his left arm around the ball and untangling his right from Buford’s grasp.

Roberson’s father, Edmon Roberson, said his son’s vertical jump hasn’t been measured since his freshman year of college, but that he boasts a 7-foot-3 wingspan. DraftExpress.com has measured prospects’ wing span-height relationship since 1987. There have been 82 players evaluated during that period that are measured at Roberson’s height of 6 feet 8 inches. Of that sample size, the average wingspan was 7 feet, one-sixth inch, giving Roberson an almost 3-inch advantage over the standard in addition to his second bounce off the ground.

“I think it’s my second jump and also just going after it,” Roberson said. “Coach Boff is definitely right. I think it’s really crucial. It really helps me get a lot rebounds.”

Up next for Roberson and the Syracuse frontcourt is Gonzaga, which boasts 6-foot-11 Domantas Sabonis. The Lithuanian has grabbed 26 rebounds in the Bulldogs’ first two Tournament wins and averages 11.7 on the season. Roberson is more than three rebounds below that at 8.4 boards per game and his inconsistency on the glass, which SU head coach Jim Boeheim has harped, has plagued his average.

By total rebounds per game, Sabonis is the best rebounder Syracuse will face all season. He ranks seventh in the country in that category, but a year ago his wingspan was measured at 6 feet 10.5 inches, according to DraftExpress.

Syracuse will counter the player who anchors the Bulldogs down low with the length of Roberson and Tyler Lydon, and possibly even the bounce of Malachi Richardson. But the Orange’s ability to neutralize one of the country’s best rebounders on the glass may hinge in part on the length of one player’s arms and the capability of his two feet.

“He has a quick jump and if we can’t get it and we can kind of get it up in the air, we’ve got guys that have a lot of quick twitches,” SU assistant coach Adrian Autry said. “They get up off the ground fast, especially Tyler Roberson.”

Published on March 23, 2016 at 9:44 pm

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