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For Scott Roehl, it all seems to come back to intensity.

The Southwest Minnesota State University forward is pacing the Mustangs in scoring, averaging nearly 15 points per game. His 7.7 rebounds per game also lead SMSU.

And, according to a couple of people close to the program, so does his intensity.

"He's competitive in practice. He's competitive in the game," said SMSU forward Kevin Andrews, "and it really brings up the rest of the team, just to really make you work hard and earn your minutes while you're out there on the floor."

"Every day he comes ready to work and he kind of provides that edge for our team," Mustangs assistant coach Nate Kaeding added.

That edge, Andrews believes, is critical to the team.

"It holds you accountable for your own game and how you're performing, with him and his intensity that he brings, just in his emotion for the game," Andrews said. "It really gets your blood going and you want to get fueled and fired up for the games, too."

Roehl is connecting on about half of his field goals and has scored in double figures in all but one of the games he's played in this season. But the 6-foot-7 Roehl isn't defined solely by his offense.

"Rebounding, that's what I love to do," he said. "I think that's what my main mindset is on both ends of the floor."

Roehl especially emphasizes the offensive end of the floor. He is currently second on the team with 19 offensive rebounds, despite missing the first three games of the year.

"I think offensive rebounding is probably my favorite thing to do," Roehl said. "Just keep possessions alive and everything and hard work on the offensive glass."

His method to hauling in rebounds? It's far from complex.

"A lot of it's luck," Roehl said. "But you can kind of tell where a ball's going to come off. Half the time it's going to come off on the weak side, so you can just get good position. But, I mean, if you get inside position on your guy, that's step one of it."

And Kaeding's philosophy on the crashing the boards? It comes back to intensity.

"I like to say that's about 90 percent of rebounding, is how bad you want the ball," Kaeding said. "...There's very little technique to rebounding compared to just your will and relentlessness."

While Roehl said he has always been a rebounder, Kaeding gives his offensive game praise, too. And after Roehl averaged 5.5 points per game as a sophomore, Kaeding said the coaching staff expected to see his scoring rise with his playing time this season. Roehl played 15.3 minutes per game in 2008-09, but has been on the floor close to 26 minutes each night this season. He hit a season-high with 22 points in a loss to Division I opponent South Dakota State University on Dec. 8, and scored 19 points on Dec. 17 in a victory over the University of Minnesota, Morris.

"He's turned himself into a pretty well-rounded player," Kaeding said. "He can score with his back to the basket. He's got very good footwork in the paint."

Andrews said Roehl is "dangerous" from 15 feet and in. Roehl knocks down his share of mid-range jump shots, but he's most comfortable deep in the post.

"I like the block a lot more than the perimeter," Roehl said, "so just jump hooks and face-up jump shots is kind of what I like to go to."

Around the age of four or five, Roehl started playing basketball, first on a goal in the family driveway with his father, Bruce Roehl. His dad didn't give him advice on specific rebounding techniques so much as simple motivation. Take one look at Roehl playing a college game now, and it looks as though his father's words resonated well after they were first spoken.

"He doesn't really tell me how to rebound," Roehl said, "but it's just like, 'Go in there and just battle and work hard.' Those are some words he always told me."