Penn State 1 point favorites at RAC
- Thread starter NewJerseyHawk
- Start date
He planted that foot, and the sneaker didn't get traction on the court, so it slid out in front of him. The edge of the sneaker then did catch a dry patch of floor and caught some traction, which both twisted his foot inward and stopped the movement of the foot forward. He was already falling at that point and his momentum was carrying him down and a bit forward, so when his foot caught some traction it hyperextended his knee a bit.
It wasn't kneecap related, thankfully, but almost certainly led to some inflammation/swelling/pain after the game.
In addition to going small, also playing a lot more 1-3-1 3/4 court D. It’s not an overly aggressive version, but is slowing teams down and forcing them to start their offense at 18-19 instead of 25-26.
Also, just generally shooting the ball a little better to open up driving lanes. Stevens couldn’t made a 3 the first few months, but is keeping guys honest shooting ~35% the past month+. Dread is finding his form, and Bolton got past a shooting slump. I don’t even think the looks are that much better, but the ball is going in and shooting with a bit more confidence.
If not for the Wake Forest shot that literally rolled around the rim before falling off. It really looked like it was going in. If so, then that probably would have been one of the biggest upset this year.
As for us being an underdog, I kind of like it. It keeps the kids from getting too confident going in, with something to prove. How many times over the years have we been expected to win and laid an egg? Too many to count. I want our kids focused with a chip on their shoulders. Now let's go out and play a complete game and get our 8th conference win!
Around the end of the losing streak, Chambers elected to press (1-2-2) from the start of the game and it resulted in some easier points after turnovers that seemed to give the team more confidence. On Synergy, Penn State is ranked excellent in transition offense and pretty poor in every other offensive category. In the last half of the season, when the half-court offense gets bad, they run a lot of weave with the goal of getting Stevens going downhill toward the bucket.
Bolton is finishing better at the rim and Wheeler is penetrating (as he has all year) but finding open people (he had a tendency to get stuck earlier). Dread is looking to shoot more quickly. If Watkins has bounce - his energy has varied game to game - it can seem like he gets every defensive rebound.
There isn’t a specific telling stat over the last eight games - Penn State’s just been playing better all-around. Since playing Rutgers last, Penn State has been averaging 1.08 ppp, but that includes two poor defensive performances by Nebraska (1.44 ppp) and Maryland (1.13). Best games were probably the 1.14 ppp in the Michigan win and the 1.25 ppp in the overtime loss to Purdue.
Against Wisconsin, it seemed that Penn State had run out of gas a bit, but the guys still fought pretty hard. Officiating was ghastly both ways, but a couple of timely bad calls stuck a fork in PSU at the end.
If they have bounced back, they should put up a good fight tonight.
In game results since Feb. 1, Bart Torvik has Penn State the sixth-best team in the country. Haslametrics has Penn State ranked 30th on the season, despite its awful record.
Penn State is something of an analytics darling, but the terrible record and general mediocrity fatigue has even Penn Staters who pay attention skeptical. I’m not - they have been playing well. They might still be low in the tank - the Big 10 has been brutal, and even historically bottom-feeding teams can have trouble getting geared up for other traditional bottom-feeders. That last factor should be a wash, though.
Looking forward to a good one tonight and only decided at the last minute not to make the 9-hour drive to NJ.
Thanks for the writeup, tjb, very informative.
This is going to be a WAR. Penn State might be playing the best of any B1G team over the past several weeks, and they have beaten teams on the road, so they probably won't be too intimidated by the RAC crowd (famous last words!).
This is going to be a WAR. Penn State might be playing the best of any B1G team over the past several weeks, and they have beaten teams on the road, so they probably won't be too intimidated by the RAC crowd (famous last words!).
This is why we can't have nice things! We don't handle success very well.
at least tjb can be happy...PSU played really hard again and just ran out of gas. unfortunately for us we couldnt cash in on that last possession
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