Crashing the glass has sparked recent bench surge from CU Buffs’ Luke O’Brien
By the numbers, Nique Clifford is the No.2 rebounder on the Colorado men’s basketball team.
The sophomore from Colorado Springs figures to be a consistent glass-crasher for the Buffs for the remainder of the season and beyond, and if Jabari Walker returns for a third season at CU next year, he more than likely once again will set the pace for the Buffs on the boards.
Yet the best nose for rebounding ball on the team might belong to another sophomore Luke O’Brien.
With the Buffaloes’ roster thinned appreciably for the stretch run, getting consistent production from role players like O’Brien is likely to become more critical for the Buffs during the final seven games of the regular season, a run that begins Saturday at home against Utah (6 p.m., Pac-12 Network).
The sophomore from Columbine High School has improved steadily this season in his jack-of-all-trades role off the bench for CU. Even without Walker’s lanky 6-foot-9 frame, or Clifford’s raw leaping ability, O’Brien’s steady play of late has been fueled by his ability to crash the glass.
“I feel like I’m just kind of playing my role,” O’Brien said. “Sometimes I have limited minutes, but when I’m on the floor I just want to do what’s best for the team. I think offensive rebounding is just really undervalued in today’s game, and I feel like giving my team an extra possession is huge. I just love doing it.”
Through the season’s first 13 games, O’Brien averaged just 1.9 rebounds per contest. That early stretch bottomed out when he played just two minutes in a home win against Washington State on Jan. 6.
In the 10 games since, O’Brien has averaged 3.7 rebounds per game while grabbing 18 of his 25 offensive rebounds this season during that span. During the first 13 games, O’Brien posted more than three rebounds just once, recording seven against Duquesne on Nov. 20. In the past 10 games, O’Brien has topped three rebounds in five games and is coming off a career-best eight rebounds during Saturday’s home win against Oregon State.
“He’s starting to feel it,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said. “He’s going and getting it, and he’s gotten some out of his area and really made some big-time hustle plays. It’s not about just going for it, it’s about getting it. There was one he probably shot a tough two, but he got his own rebound and kicked it out for a three.”
With the Buffs’ rotation no longer including Lawson Lovering and Elijah Parquet, both of whom have recently suffered season-ending injuries, bench players like O’Brien, KJ Simpson and Julian Hammond can no longer afford efforts like the two-minute, unproductive cameo that sparked O’Brien’s resurgence a month ago.
“Our roles have increased a lot,” O’Brien said. “Eli and Lawson were big parts of this team. It sucks they can’t play the rest of the season, but it’s next-man-up mentality. Me, KJ (Simpson), Julian (Hammond), we’ve just got to be able to make the time count even more, because we’re more involved. We can’t let the starters down when we come into the game. We can’t let that energy drop off. We’ve been doing a good job of that, but we’ve got to keep building on it.”
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