What Oklahoma is the worst at also happens to be what Texas A&M is best at.
The Sooners host Texas A&M at 8 p.m. CT on Wednesday at Lloyd Noble Center. The two teams are coming off opposite weekends, as the Aggies hammered Texas in their SEC opener while OU was the one getting hammered by Alabama on Saturday.
In that loss, which was OU's first of the season, the Sooners were out physicaled, especially at the glass. Alabama out-rebounded the Sooners 51-26 with 22 offensive boards compared to OU's eight.
But that has been a consistent problem all season for the Sooners, even through their 13-game winning streak to start things. And while the Sooners struggle to pull in rebounds, it's Texas A&M's speciality.
"Obviously it's an issue with us," OU coach Porter Moser said during Tuesday's press conference. "But we've played some of the top-20 rebounding teams before -- Arizona was in there, Michigan was in there. And we showed our guys when we're not minus-10 or whatever it is on the boards, we've been in halves where we're up one in the rebounding battle.
"And you're gonna go up against -- A&M is literally the best in the country."
The Aggies average more offensive rebounds a game than any other team in the country so far this season at 16.64. Meanwhile, the Sooners average 9.36. That's a lot of extra possessions and chances to score that the Sooners are not getting while the Aggies are.
The Aggies have a plus-11.5 rebound margin this season through 14 games. That compares to OU's minus-0.7 through the same amount of games. So while Texas A&M ranks fifth in the country in rebound margin, the Sooners sit at No. 266.
That battle obviously starts with the big men down low, but Moser on Tuesday also emphasized the importance of guards in the rebound battle. His guards are working on consistently crashing more, while he admitted the Aggies are exceptional in having everyone on the floor routinely crash the boards.
If the Sooners again lose the offensive rebound battle by a large margin, they will likely start SEC play at 0-2. They just can't keep up with teams while giving up that many extra chances. However, even improving in the area could be what puts OU near the top of the SEC.