Jaren Wilkey/BYU Photo

“Why is BYU’s Lauren Gustin such a great rebounder?”

It doesn’t seem like a difficult question to answer, but it is.

You may as well ask if mankind invented math or discovered it, or why a pizza box is square when the pizza is round.

Gustin credits her teammates and points to her aggressiveness and desire. Her coaches talk about her conditioning, relentless effort and competitiveness. Others mention her positioning and anticipation.

So which is it?

Courtesy BYU Athletics

Every basketball player possesses those qualities, at least to some degree. What makes Gustin such an elite rebounder is that she combines all of those qualities together over and over again, for nearly 40 minutes every single game.

Climbing to the top

Gustin’s rebounding numbers are so far beyond the norm in college basketball it appears they were created by playing a video game on the easiest possible setting.

It’s no wonder BYU coach Amber Whiting has often referred to Gustin as “my own personal cheat code.”

Gustin leads the NCAA with 310 rebounds (16.3 per game) this season. She’s in a battle with LSU’s Angel Reese (296 rebounds, 15.6 per game) to hold onto that top spot. Gustin has recorded double-digit rebounds in all 20 games  and has six 20-plus rebounding efforts.

The Cougars will play the 2023-24 season in the Big 12 and Gustin (962 rebounds and counting) could approach the incredible career rebounding numbers posted by former first team All-American Tina Gunn Robison, who played from 1976 to 1980 and collected 1,482 boards.

Courtesy BYU Photo

BYU had a seven-game winning streak snapped on Saturday by Santa Clara. Gustin averaged 16.1 points and 20.3 rebounds per game during that eight-game stretch.

The country is taking notice: On Tuesday, Gustin was named to the 15-player watch list for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year award.

Who can explain why Gustin is the best rebounder in the country?

Every day in practice

BYU women’s basketball assistant coach Morgan Bailey knows a thing or two about rebounding. The former WCC Player of the Year had a 22-rebound game against Utah State in 2014 and is listed in the career top ten all-time for the Cougars in that category.

“”Lauren is just a special person in that you don’t have to motivate her,” Bailey said. “She brings it every single day. She knows what she’s good at and so I don’t think Lauren tries to be something she’s not. Lauren knows exactly who she is and sticks with it and she is the best at it.

Jaren Wilkey/BYU Photo

“What I see with Lo every day in practice is just grit, like just going after the win no matter what drill it is we are doing. Even if it’s a ball-handling drill, Lo is going to go as hard as she can at it and get mad at herself if she doesn’t do well.”

The old ball coach

Courtney Leishman coached the BYU women’s basketball team from 1977 to 1989, amassing 219 wins after taking over for the legendary Elaine Michaelis. Leishman has a unique connection to Gustin and her assault on the school’s rebounding records: He not only coached Robison but also Gustin’s mother, Scarlett Overly, from 1987 to 1989.

Leishman found out Overly had a daughter playing high school basketball and started attending her games. Gustin helped lead Mesquite High School in Arizona to a state championship (a teammate of former Cougar standout Shaylee Gonzales, now at Texas) and in 2018, averaged 29 points and 17 rebounds as Salem Hills claimed a 4A state title in Utah.

As Leishman tells it, BYU wasn’t interested in offering Gustin a scholarship. He told then-Cougar coach Jeff Judkins, “You need to get Lauren to BYU. She’ll be the best player you’ve ever coached.”

Gustin ended up committing to Idaho but stayed only a few months in Moscow, opting to transfer to Salt Lake Community College where she averaged 19.1 points and 13.1 rebounds before coming to Provo to play for Judkins.

Matthew Norton/BYU Photo

The next time Leishman saw Judkins, the old BYU coach told him, “She’s the best player I’ve ever coached.”

Leishman said of Gustin: “She likes the challenge. She likes the competitiveness. It’s the little things you’ve got to teach them. How to use your body and the angle of the backboard and all that stuff. When you do that, it creates your position. She gets down the floor and gets in position.”

As for Robison, Leishman had a front row seat to the Cougars all-time leading rebounder.

“She was really smart and knew exactly where to be to get a rebound,” said Leishman, who attends most BYU women’s basketball home games. “She knew right where to play, and that was around the basket. You never had to tell her anything twice. And she was a great scorer. She scored 56 points one night in Las Vegas. They couldn’t stop her. The other coach was yelling at her and calling her names. The more he yelled the madder she got and the better she played.”

The record holder

The 6-foot-5 Robison was a first-team Kodak All-American her senior season in 1980, leading the country in scoring (31.2 points per game) and finishing fourth in rebounding (14.9 per game). Robison was inducted into the BYU Sports Hall of Fame in 1990.

Rebeca Fuentes/BYU Photo

She now lives in Syracuse, Utah, busy with her 11 grandchildren and her job as an engineer for Northrup Grummon, an aerospace and defense company that builds rockets.

So, in essence, BYU’s all-time leading rebounder is a rocket scientist.

“My height was definitely an asset,” Robison said. “And in my opinion another one was desire. Something else I was thinking about that was helpful was anticipation. Knowing the trajectory and flight of the ball, how it was going to come off the backboard, you learned that through playing a lot. And spent an enormous amount of time working to become a better basketball player.”

There was no 3-point line during Robison’s era of college basketball.

“Our best shots were the closest to the basket, and now that’s not always the case,” she said. “It’s a very different way to attack on offense now. I got a lot of points 12-15 feet from the basket. It was a lot less abusive than being underneath the basket all the time. I lived in the key. I think there are better athletes today because of the nutrition, weight lifting and things like that. Not necessarily better basketball players but better athletes.”

Jaren Wilkey/BYU Photo

Robison said she was drafted by a professional league after her collegiate career was over and had some conversations about playing in Australia. The US boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympics in Russia, so there were no opportunities there.

“When I finished up, I was done,” she said. “I had a nice run. I had my degree and I was already married, so it was time to move on with my life.”

Robison said she’s watched clips of Gustin on TV and the internet, as well as reading about her accomplishments.

“I’ve really enjoyed seeing how well she’s done,” Robison said. “She’s a super-strong young lady and really goes after the ball. She’s really does a good job of getting players on her back and screening out. I wish her well. Records are made to be broken, so go do it.”

Every rebound

Listed at 6-1, Gustin isn’t quite the level of scorer as Robison, so she creates many of her points by being the most ferocious rebounder in the country.

“Growing up, I felt like I was always being physical,” Gustin said recently on BYU Sports Nation. “Having two older brothers (her brother Porter played linebacker in the NFL), right from the start, I always liked being physical. As I got older, I wasn’t always the tallest kid on the court. I got tall quick, then kind of stopped growing. I had to come up with different strategies and advantages because I wasn’t the tallest anymore. So I decided I was going to bring the intensity on the rebound side of things. My mindset is that I’m going for every single board.”

That strategy is working.

“It’s all about effort, just going in every single time the ball goes up,” Gustin said. “It’s just a matter of going going to the boards no matter what, whether it’s offense or defense and just looking to crash, no matter what.”

All the rebounds are mine

BYU forward Lauren Gustin is making a run at several school rebounding records. Here is a list of records she is approaching.

Marriott Center single-game rebounding

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