"Almost" being the operative word....... Back in the day (1969-70) UIowa had perhaps its BEST basketball team ever.....They gave up points but scored more......their "defense" could be questioned but their strength was REBOUNDING! They got the ball off the boards, and scored many a fast break basket. They didn't score a lot of points from a "set offense" their offense/scoring was keyed by their rebounding and outlet passing. (For Ralph you never threw a bounce pass...unless you wanted a seat next to him on the bench.) Ralph like to score points but his scoring was designed of his teams ability to full court press and rebound/fast break.
Iowa's women's defense really is not the issue as much as their inability to rebound the ball and limit their opponents opportunities. And I think "rebounding" is much like "special teams" in football...a lot of it is desire and hustle. You gotta put a body on a body....
You can't put a body on a body when you are out of position due to poor defense. Positioning is the most important part of rebounding. A short and unathletic team that plays sound defense can hold their own just fine on the boards.
Just like the men, the Iowa women did not do a good enough job yesterday of containing the ball, so rebounding position could be maintained, and early work could be done on the boards. Keeping the ball in front of you is the first building block that gets put into a defense. And it's pretty much non-negotiable for every coach in the country that isn't (offensive minded).
Once the ball has penetrated a defense, not only has the whole defense been broken down, but rebounding position has been compromised. You are right, that once in this vulnerable position, without athletes, or players with a special drive to pursue the ball, it's pretty much impossible to catch up.
But Iowa is plenty athletic enough to play solid defense and prevent compromisimg their rebounding position. The blocks of fundamental defense were just never put in place by the the staff to be built upon.
Even teams that automatically front the post, double the post, hard hedge on ball-screens, etc, are momentarily vulnerable while in rotation. This is in spite of them being prepared to know their exact rotation out of the action.
So imagine how helpless a defense is trying to rotate on the fly to make up for their defense being penetrated. All in a split second, 5 players have to correctly execute how much to help, who rotates and to where, how aggressively to close-out, when to switch, etc. Without having the first building block of containing the ball in place, there's no way a defense is going to consistently execute any of these other principles. And one very common result of poor defense is offensive rebounds.
Just not sure offensive coaches can win it all without the defense at least being competent. Good defense just requires too much discipline having been instilled for the steps and the work to not be emphasized. I bet McDermott at Creighton is sure wishing that he had built a more disciplined defense, as the season of his really good team was ended on a silly foul
