“I’ve started to come into every game telling myself, ‘Just play hard and good things will happen.’ When the shot goes up, I just run to the rim and go for the ball. Most teams don’t really expect somebody to play as hard as I do,” he said.
Opponents are committed to keeping preseason Horizon League player of the year Brandon Noel off the glass (and their efforts have been somewhat successful), but the 6-6, 220-pound Imariagbe has been taking advantage of his good hands and natural strength.
The fifth-year transfer from Houston Christian had 12 rebounds to go with six points while playing less than half of the game (19.6 minutes) in a 74-51 win over Green Bay last week. He leads the team with 28 offensive boards and has the third-highest overall average (4.0) despite playing the seventh-most minutes per game (13.6).
In his lone season in Division I, he averaged 11.4 points and 8.5 rebounds for the Southland Conference school.
He had a 26-point, 21-rebound game against Division-II Champion Christian. He had 11 double-doubles overall, including an 11-point, 12-rebound game against Texas and 12-point, 12-rebound outing against SMU.
As coach Clint Sargent said, “He’s a proven rebounder.”
The Raiders are in need of players willing to attack the glass. Going into the Green Bay game, they had a minus-0.1 rebound margin.
That may not sound alarming, but they didn’t have a season where they were out-rebounded by their opponents in eight years under Scott Nagy.
They were plus-2.2 per game last season and finished sixth nationally with a plus-9.3 rebound margin in 2021-22 when Loudon Love was leading the charge.
“We’ve been a good defensive rebounding team. We’ve been a very poor offensive rebounding team — very poor. That’s another reason why Andrea is now playing,” Sargent said.
The Raiders pulled 6-foot-6 freshman Andrea Holden out of the redshirt ranks against Green Bay, and he had 11 points and seven rebounds in 21.5 minutes. He was named the league’s freshman of the week on Monday.
“It’s something we emphasize as one of our three markers,” Sargent said, meaning a renewed emphasis on hustle plays, including winning 50-50 balls, taking charges and collecting offensive rebounds.
“We’re just trying to get back to creating some momentum when shots aren’t going in, with getting extra possessions from offensive rebounds.”
The Raiders (8-8, 2-3) have 126 offensive rebounds this season, while their opponents have 152.
Until beating Green Bay on the offensive glass, 9-4, last week, they went a span of nine games with having fewer offensive boards than their foes seven times and tying twice.
The 41-29 overall rebound edge against the Phoenix put their season mark at plus-0.7 per game, which is still only ninth in the league.
“We work on it. We talk about it. We’re just not seeing it show up,” Sargent said. “A lot of it is dependent on personnel. Obviously, Mike can do it. Andrea can do that. Brandon, with all that’s on his plate, it’s been a little hot and cold.
“But it absolutely correlates to winning. If you’re defensive rebounding, if you’re winning that battle, that means you’re getting stops.”
THURSDAY’S GAME
Oakland at Wright State, 7 p.m., ESPN+, 101.5, 1410
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