For a ragtag team scraped together in less than 100 days, key components of a steady unit were bound to fall between the cracks and come back to haunt Penn State men’s basketball eventually.

Rebounding talent emerged as a deficiency in the Nittany Lions’ stat lines in the group’s 83-80 last-minute victory against Ohio State and remained a consistent problem seven days later against Georgia Tech. Rhoades and Co. were outrebounded by the Yellow Jackets 54-32 and registered just eight total rebounds in the first half.

After a locker room reset, the blue and white nearly matched Georgia Tech and recorded 19 second half rebounds compared to Damon Stoudamire’s team’s 21 in the final 20 minutes. While the behind-schedule production under the basket helped Penn State mount a comeback, it aided in its failure to create anything greater than a three-point lead throughout the game.

“We’re undersized in some positions, weight-wise and height-wise sometimes athletically, but you got to fight it,” Rhoades said. “You got to find more. The last two games we found more late, and we were a better team, so we have to find ways for us to rebound 40 minutes.”

Center Qudus Wahab posted four of Penn State’s eight first half rebounds and six of Penn State’s 19 in the latter half for a team-high of 10. Through 11 games this season, Wahab has a career-high of 8.9 average rebounds per game in contrast to 6.4 throughout his last five years of college basketball, but the number consistently falls short of what the Nittany Lions need from the 6’11” big man.

Wahab’s team-high average substantially exceeds 6’8″ Zach Hicks’ 4.1 rebound-per-game output, continuing to wound the group as a whole.

“Watching tape, some of it is we’re getting beat on rotations, and we’re out of rebounding position early,” Rhoades said. “Some of it is just one-on-one rebounding not being tough enough. You and your man, keeping them on your back, and then go get the ball. Some of it is letting other guys think they’re going to go get it, and you don’t get into the fray.”

Miscommunication seemed to play a large role in the team’s small first half rebound volume, which was distinctly solved after halftime. Clary, Puff Johnson, Leo O’Boyle, D’Marco Dunn, and Demetrius Lilley contributed to Penn State’s latter 20-minute rebound quality, though not at the pace or consistency needed to compete with the Yellow Jackets.

While a questionable call from the officials in the final 16 seconds of overtime will be the main character of Penn State’s trip to Madison Square Garden, a lack of harmonious rebounding wins best-supporting actor in the disappointing one-point loss.

“We [only] get so many times to put on this jersey. We [only] get so many times we’re playing Madison Square Garden,” Johnson said. “You just got to take advantage of each and every one of them, and after the last couple of games, I didn’t take advantage of it.”