Not nearly enough chatter about PSU hoops on this board. I think the Nits have a decent shot to win their first two in the B10 tourney. Minny then O$U. Then who knows as we would then play Purdue who is definitely beatable. We just cannot win the close games but perhaps our luck changes this week. Regardless of what happens this week I am excited about where Coach Shrews has the program headed. Recruiting is better than ever. Would love to be dancing next March.
Giving Hoops Some Love
- Thread starter ryoder1
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I looked at the bracket and thought the same thing. We blew tires against UMass, @MSU and vs Neb. Otherwise we've been in most games and have a punchers chance to make a run.
While our offense was at times very offensive, the strategy and adjustments by the staff were evident. Our losses were not embarrassing- as they had been for so many years. Bring an infusion of young talent and some time to grow and hopefully some of the Ls become Ws and we move up to a top 6-8 Big Ten standing for awhile.
I attended PSU in the late ‘90s and had the opportunity to see a few respectable seasons with decent crowds . Hope this year is the start of some sort of consistency. I have been waiting my entire life for consistency in our program!
I attended PSU in the late 60s and early 70s. I am still waiting for the consistency you mentioned.
First year coaching how to program with an empty and this is your response. I was there in the late 60s an early 70s as well sat in the stands and never saw any Penn State basketball played.
I am a hoops fan but not a coach so I am sure I am missing some things but we do not generate enough offense which can and has been our downfall. Combine that with an inability to execute well in the clutch and we get what we get in terms of results. In the Illinois, Rutgers and scUM losses (and prob others) we did not get out of the 50s. We only scored 49 against Wisky. In the MD loss we scored 61. This will not get it done.
I think Shrews likes a more deliberate, slower pace but maybe that is not the case? Not sure if he is running a slower pace because of our talent and would run more with a different team? I don't know his offensive philosophy but again I am not a coach.
The good news is we play good defense and hold the opposing team to a low offensive output but we need to generate more offense. Hopefully with a couple more playmakers we start to have a better offense and of course maintain the focus on hard nosed defense.
Coach Shrews is playing a style that works for the roster he has. Better to D-up than try to run an opponent out of the building when you don't have the horses. As he brings in higher end recruits and works the portal I suspect you'll see a team that plays like a NBA team with transition 3's and high-low in the half court.
the most encouraging thing I've seen this season aside from really strong defense is the spacing on offense. At times under Chambers they would be on top of each other and bog down. Too tight spacing makes it easier to defend and cuts down penetration opportunities.
We've been competitive in most games this year because of the style they are playing.
My wife and I went to a sold out BJC in the late 90s. In fact, there were tents outside the BJC for that game ( Mich.state).
That’s back when the school was academically regarded, unlike the absolute mess this admin. Has caused in destroying that respectability.
Yes- and while also not a coach I can see that our offensive rotations have dual purposes...1 is to run clock to keep the scores lower and 2 is to actually free up shooters with an endgame in mind.
Under Pat I agree that things got jumbled and it often felt like we tried to do three handoffs before running a play....which often lead to late clock chucks as opposed to shots.
We have missed many good shots due to our talent level...but the shots have often been there. FWIW I liked how Shrew gave 23 Johnson the green light vs RU until it was apparent that it wasn't his day...then Dallion watched the rest of the game from the bench. Maybe him over Lee for that last odd 3 but still fair to put him on the pine
It'll be interesting to see who comes back and who leaves. Everyone except John, jaheem, Greg and jalanni have another year. On paper the 5 incoming freshman are our best recruiting class ever. We desperately need a transfer big or two.
Imagine what might have been if some of the kids who moved on had stayed. And, if it's true they left because of how Chambers was canned, PSU brought it on themselves.
Is Greg Lee definitely out of eligibility? I was really hoping we had him for another year.
This is great insight and thought that could be the case. I am really excited about what coach Shrews can do with a bit more talent. I love how our D is solid and can keep us in a lot of games. We did not get blown out a lot and had a really good chance to finish with a .500 conf record or even a little better.
Hoping we can put a little run together in the BTT and do some damage. At the very least I would love for us to beat O$U!
The #26 recruiting class in the nation is huge. Any intel on big men portal transfers who could come to PSU? We have Lilley coming in who is 6'10, 3 star national rating 246. Will he be a big contributor as a Freshman?
I'm a big fan but I doubt that PSU wins more than 1 game in the tournament.
Good recruiting but they'll be young next year and they lose Harrar. I don't think they'll be competitive next year unless they can get a decent big man in the portal.
#26 ranking is helped by class size. Still a good class by PSU standards.
But if some stayed them some of the transfers might not have come, so you never know.
I know that only Pickett really did anything but if one of others stayed he might not have come. I do think Brock and Jones and Wheeler over all would be better than Pickett, Cornwall and whoever else though. I would take Lee over Buttrick even considering his all time great game against us
The tourney is a total crapshoot. Heck they could lose tonight, Minny shoots out their butt or whatever. The issue for PSU in this tournament is they would have to string together wins (on back to back to back days) that are all going to be close games against good teams that know how to win and close games much better than us. So essentially bucking a trend we have seen this season where we could not pull out close games for the most part.
They have the 6'10" kid coming in but maybe that is not enough and he is too young to make a significant difference.
Lee> Buttrick but Jones, Wheeler and Brock >> Pickett and Cornwall. Without the transfers, we could be a tournament team with Shrewsberry coaching them.
Chambers definitely brought in some good talent. Hurts seeing Bolton starting for Gonzaga. Brock at Iowa State, Wheeler at OSU, Myreon at Florida.. if all 4 are playing for us we're a tournament team. As long as Shrews gets the talent, we'll be top half of the BIG 10 and tournament bound regularly with an occasional bigger run when things go our way. Watching Shrews keep us competitive with leftover and transfers has been really impressive though some of it could just be because this team is pretty darn old. Just glad we didn't have to start over with conference win seasons for the next few years. Hopefully we get this one tonight and get another shot at OSU tomorrow. These tournaments can get crazy. We have an old group that won't go down easily
Ironically enough, our are losses this year have been by more points than recent years. We have lost a handful of games by mid-teens, and then there is Nebraska and UMass
Purdue, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Rutgers, Ohio State, Illinois all close winnable games. Instead of 0-7 we go 3-4 in those we go to 10-10 in the conference and a 9 seed or better. This program is poised to be an upper half B10 program and in a good year top 3 in the conference.
The Pat departure was difficult for us but overall a yawner for the league. We lost "talent" like Wheeler, Brock and Jones along with 3 guys who transferred to Fordham. None weren't recruited by anyone in the Big Ten out of high school.
Arguably Seth Lundy is likely our only player who may have been welcome at another conference foe out of Roman. Teams we competed very strongly against have top recruits from top programs and many are led by experienced coaches.
Under this scenario we were in most games in the first year of Shrew being a head coach with a slew of transfers of which only one really panned out. The ride may end tomorrow but it has been a good start for sure. Would been nice to win more games but that wasn't in the cards.
As a Flyers fan it has been tough watching both my Fly Guys and PSU find ways to lose games late in contests. They each are "the BEST of the worst teams" in their respective divisions. That doesn't count for much, but for our hoops squad I think we gotta give the AD props for as good of a hire as we could've hoped for. Let's beat OSU tomorrow and see what's next. I'm optimistic better times are ahead...
Funny - you would rather take a higher ranked HS kid over a player who has proven their worth in the B10?? That's laughable. Btw, Myreon Jones was a top 100 recruit committed to tubby Smith at one point. Brock was 1st team all B12 this year. Rasir was top 150, as well.
Have you followed this team even over the past 5 years? CLOSE losses were a staple on Pat's teams. He referenced the KenPom luck factor for a reason
I'm not talking about recruiting transfers and am not an ignoramos- but it is fair to say that our "best" basketball classes would be considered poor by upper echelon schools in our conference.
Myreon was a nice catch when Memphis brought in Penny. He didn't necessarily choose us- it just worked out that we could accommodate him. He was my favorite player of the past few years. Brock of course has talent- but took awhile to develop and work through his transfer. I was at the Palestra vs. Iowa and he was HUGE that afternoon. He likely wishes he stayed at St. Bona b/c he would've been a part of a team that has been very successful. Why did he pick them over us in the first place if he was so highly rated? I don't know the answer.
It is the same old football "Star" argument, except that in a game with only 5-8 players participating on any given night you have less room for errors. Myreon left when the window opened- why I'm not sure- closer to home?, loyal to Pat?, better fit or chance to Dance? In any case he left- as did Brock after some back and forth.
"Projects" like Bolton- who lost us more games than he won for us- need to stick around to pay out. John H is a solid example. We don't get polished players who are ready to contribute on Day 1. Many of the Big Ten teams that we aspire to beat do. THAT is my point.
A solid coach or system (think Wisconsin) can help avoid dips by getting the right pieces while only having one or two superstars. We haven't established a consistent culture yet to attract top talent. The number of missed open shots last night should be a clue in that regard. Shrew has done a lot with a little. Hopefully he can bring in some players which allow him to try new things. Our offense is almost unbearable to watch....but effective with what we have to do to compete.
I agree with this. Brock was not highly-rated coming out of HS, fwiw.
I'm not arguing that our classes were not great - if anything, I'm arguing the opposite. The classes were not special, but the players were better than their HS ratings. To scoff at the talent that we lost, who put up legit numbers in the B10, simply bc they were 3* recruits is just wrong. Once a player starts producing in college, HS star ratings are irrelevant
We agree...my "talent" wasn't entirely to degrade the top 3..
or really any of the guys. We have to take risks in recruiting and typically our recruits have at least one flaw vs the guys they will be lining up against or they would be at Michigan, OSU or MSU.
It happens that we ended up getting Philly guy transfers from places like Binghamton, St. Bonnie's and Southern Miss awhile ago. They are a little more mature, maybe have their grades more in order, but weren't top tier recruits.
We need more game ready players now or a systems that relies on precision and can accommodate a rotation of more mid star type of players.
Pat did have us trending up but couldn't close. Shrew did the same with less this year. Hoping we have a game ready group to couple with solid returnees and at least 1 big who is viable.First year of Carr and Lamar was rough...maybe Lundy and 22 can ease the transition.
In fairness, Chambers would likely not have been able to coach a team with all of those players to the NCAA Tournament. Shrews is a much better coach on game day.
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Let's hang a banner for that. We need more MBB banners in the BJC ;-)
Have it say "Elite 8" in big print, and then Big 10 tournament in fine print. Maybe it will impress some recruits?
What if CoVid and the Woke summer didn’t happen?
PSU would probably be playing for its 3 trip to the NCAA’s this year. The three guys that would have been Chambers freshman class this year are doing pretty good at their new schools.
Oh well, Shrew is good and has a great incoming class but needs a replacement for Big John. Nevertheless next year will probably be a lot like this year unless Lundy, Dread, and Johnson can shoot better.
PSU would probably be playing for its 3 trip to the NCAA’s this year. The three guys that would have been Chambers freshman class this year are doing pretty good at their new schools.
Oh well, Shrew is good and has a great incoming class but needs a replacement for Big John. Nevertheless next year will probably be a lot like this year unless Lundy, Dread, and Johnson can shoot better.
Shrews is a better coach than PC. We are in better hands for our future, imo
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