SLIPPERY ROCK — The shot goes up. The shot doesn’t fall.

With Slippery Rock University’s men’s basketball team, that doesn’t seem to matter.

The shot will likely land in the hands of a Rock player — and eventually wind up in the basket.

“When you can rebound the ball, it covers up a lot of other things,” SRU coach Kevin Reynolds said.

And his team is rebounding the ball like no other college basketball team is anywhere this season.

The Rock leads all of college basketball with a rebounding differential of plus 16.2. Quinnipiac leads Division I teams at plus 13.3 while New York University paces Division III at plus 13.5.

SRU is averaging 48.8 rebounds per game — most in the nation — and leads the country with 19.9 offensive boards per contest.

“We’re not a good shooting team,” senior forward Frank Holloway admitted. “We need those second and third-chance opportunities, so we pound the glass all the time.”

The Rock ranks 15th in the PSAC with a 41.9 shooting percentage. It’s 12th in 3-point shooting percentage and 14th in free throw shooting percentage.

While SRU has shot better than 45 percent from the floor in but five games all season, it remains in contention for the PSAC West title.

When Reynolds yells “board it!,” after an errant shot, he means it.

“We sell out when it comes to the offensive glass,” senior guard Antonio Butler said. “We put a shot up and only one guy gets back. The other four are moving toward the rim.

“It’s how we play, It’s effective. It wears out the opposition.”

The Rock had 22 offensive rebounds to Indiana’s four in last weekend’s 75-71 upset of the 16th-ranked Crimson Hawks. The 27 second-chance points SRU compiled that night enabled the team to stay in the game against a hot-shooting IUP squad.

“They out-boarded us by 18. I knew they were good, but I wasn’t expecting that,” IUP coach Joe Lombardi said. “That won them the game.”

SRU’s board work isn’t coming from one or two players. While eight Rock players have enjoyed rebounding games of 10 or more this season, Cornelius Brown leads the squad with an average of 7.1 per game.

Nine players average at least 3.6 rebounds per game and every player on the Rock roster averages at least one per game.

“It doesn’t matter who gets it as long as we get it,” sophomore forward Chaquille Pratt said.

“It’s a mind-set, an attitude,” Holloway said. “It’s become a natural reaction we all have anytime a shot goes up.

“Crash the boards.”

Reynolds isn’t surprised at his team’s consistent production in that phase of the game.

“It’s been a point of emphasis with us since I’ve been here,” the seventh-year coach said. “But this group has become adept at it.

“You just have to want the ball. You want ball-getters. In all sports, you love guys who are always around the ball. Troy Polamalu is a ball-getter in football. We’ve got a bunch of those guys here.”