JackJumpers to put heavy emphasis on the glass

The Tasmania JackJumpers have done plenty of things well this season but rebounding hasn’t necessarily been one of them and coach Scott Roth knows it has to improve if they want any success in NBL26.

The JackJumpers have still won five of their nine matches this season with six of those outside of Tasmania ahead of a first game at Launceston's The Silverdome for NBL26 this Saturday against the Cairns Taipans.

The biggest area concern for Roth and his team is the rebounding which looks to be a growing problem the longer the season goes, and was again a significant factor in Wednesday's Ignite Cup loss to the Perth Wildcats.

The Wildcats finished that game with 15 offensive rebounds to eight in the eventual 11-point win at MyState Bank Arena with Roth challenging his entire team, not just the big men, to fix their rebounding woes.

Over the course of the last three games of which the JackJumpers have lost to the Wildcats and New Zealand Breakers with a win over the Sydney Kings in between, the rebounding numbers don't make for pretty reading.

The JackJumpers have actually outrebounded their opponents on the defensive glass by three, but their opposition has pulled down 54 offensive boards in the last three games while Tasmania have just had 27.

Giving up 27 extra possessions to your opponents isn’t usually a recipe for success and overall this season, the JackJumpers are ranked second last for defensive rebounds, and last for both offensive rebounds and total boards.

It's something Roth is fully aware of and he makes sure his team knows, but he wants the whole squad to lift and not just big men Will Magnay (6.3 per game) or Josh Bannan, who is ranked fourth in the league in offensive rebounds and third in overall boards at 8.8 a game.

"We will continue to harp on it and it's from all positions, it's not necessarily the two bigs as much," Roth said.

"Generally it's from all positions and like everything in this league after you watch teams, everything kind of goes viral and with us teams are obviously quite aggressive getting to the glass.

"Until we can stand our ground and man up a bit, we'll continue to have this problem and it will cost us."

That cause on the glass won't be helped should captain Magnay be unavailable after appearing to injure his knee that ended his night early on Wednesday against the Wildcats.

However, the prognosis does appear positive with him still a chance to line-up in Launceston on Saturday against the Taipans, but Roth does have some plans in place should he need to live without Magnay for any period of time.

"Right now with Bannan, I think he has the ability to play the five and definitely against second line fives across the league," Roth said.

"Majok (Deng) can obviously swing back and forth there too so that gives us some versatility, but right now Kobe's (Williamson) probably not in the mix very much.

"He hasn’t really practiced that well and we're waiting to see what (Archie) Woodhill ends up doing. We'll see how it goes and if we have to play, we'll play small with (Nick) Marshall at the four."

The JackJumpers now prepare to play at The Silverdome for the first time this season when they play the Taipans on Saturday.

While Roth is looking forward to getting back to Launceston, he does hope the JackJumpers can start to turn around their on-court record there having won two of their eight matches so far in the NBL.

"We've had zero success up in Launnie and the fans deserve better than that from us, but it's been a place we just have not had a lot of success at," Roth said.

"I am looking forward to it and I love it up in the north-west, and I love going up there. I love the drive up there actually and I'm always excited to go up there to see our fans.

"They are tremendous up in that area and that's why I spend so much time up there at the end of the season as much as I can because we're down here so much during the season. I always look forward to going up there."