"Defense is not over until you get the rebound!"

The importance of rebounding defensively cannot be over emphasized. A rebound on defense is equivalent to a made shot on offense. A team can play tremendous defense and force a bad or rushed shot, but this defensive effort will be wasted if the offense is allowed to rebound the missed shot. For any defensive effort to be successful it must end in a turnover or defensive rebound (defensive stop). Defensive rebounding is a coordinated team effort, and every player must realize that it is just as important to box out and prevent their opponent from getting the rebound as it is to obtain the rebound. Therefore, defensive rebounding is one of those situations in basketball where it's not the number of times you do, but it's the time you do not that counts. This means that the defenders block every offensive player's path to the basket and ball on every shot during a game. This is especially true for the shooter since they know where the ball is going as soon as it leaves their hand. In boxing out players must develop an attitude as well as an instinct for the ball. They must play mentally strong and want the basketball. Basketball is a game of habits. Once proper boxing out techniques are taught, they should become an important ingredient of every drill and every scrimmage throughout the season.

Bobby Knight: "The first thing you have to do defensively is to eliminate cheap points, and nothing is cheaper and more demoralizing to a defense than giving up a point blank putback shot off a missed shot."

Individual Defensive Rebounding Techniques - "Boxing Out"