Penn State Men's Basketball vs NC State tonight 7:15 ESPNU

[Breeze90]

Tough news on JoeMo last night but PSU looks to bounce back with a win in Raleigh tonight.

NC State beat Arizona last week so should be a great game.

 

[Ranger Dan]

NC State beat Arizona last week so should be a great game.

And then both NC State and Arizona lost their next game... and then Arizona lost yet another game...

I would be disappointed at this point if the boys in blue don't win tonight in Raleigh.

 

[Nitwit]

Away games are always tough going, but hopefully they can pull one out. Their defense so far has been very good, and if they can keep their turnovers down, they have a good shot, no pun intended.

 

[UncleLar]

And then both NC State and Arizona lost their next game... and then Arizona lost yet another game...

I would be disappointed at this point if the boys in blue don't win tonight in Raleigh.

Arizona dropped from #2 in the rankings to not ranked in just one week (only the second team ever to have that happen and the other was from a preseason ranking).

 

[bdgan]

I think this is a pretty important game, especially after losing to A&M. This is PSU's only chance for a meaningful OOC win.

 

[Ranger Dan]

I think this is a pretty important game, especially after losing to A&M. This is PSU's only chance for a meaningful OOC win.

You are correct about this being the only shot at a meaningful OOC win, but beating Texas A & M was not really a realistic expectation. It is a credit to the team and to coach Chambers that we were able to stay in the game for as long as we did.

 

[Ranger Dan]

I would be disappointed at this point if the boys in blue don't win tonight in Raleigh.

I said that I would be disappointed if Penn State lost... and I certainly am. Their on ball defense and rebounding was great at times. They couldn’t make a layup in the first half, and couldn’t defend their three point shot. To be fair, I’m not sure I would have expected their center to be hitting threes at that rate. I guess Penn State will have to win a ton of games in conference now...

 

[bdgan]

I said that I would be disappointed if Penn State lost... and I certainly am. Their on ball defense and rebounding was great at times. They couldn’t make a layup in the first half, and couldn’t defend their three point shot. To be fair, I’m not sure I would have expected their center to be hitting threes at that rate. I guess Penn State will have to win a ton of games in conference now...

That was a poor effort. Poor defense, poor blocking out, too many lazy fouls, 18 turnovers, not getting on the floor for loose balls....

 

[RochLion]

Terrible shot selection. Just toss the ball up and pray.

 

[BobPSU92]

At least we're turning the corner with the influx of talent like we've never seen in Happy Valley growing up before our eyes.

Next year is the year.

 

[Ranger Dan]

That was a poor effort. Poor defense, poor blocking out, too many lazy fouls, 18 turnovers, not getting on the floor for loose balls....

Yes, the effort was in spurts, but it seemed as if the defense took about 10 minutes off in the second half. How many freaking layups did Watkins and Carr miss, just themselves. At least draw the foul if you aren't going to make the layup...

I'm not making excuses, but we've seem then put forth effort, and defend the three, and make layups, etc. so it means that these things don't seem to be systemic issues and could be corrected.

It's just unfortunate that they weren't able to capitalize on the one winnable game against a solid OOC opponent. There is no shame in losing to a high major team on the road, but I'm sure it won't boost our RPI or KenPom as much as if we won last night.

BTW, as of this morning, Penn State is ranked 39th in KenPom and 131 in RPI.

For comparison sake, here are the rankings of other Big Ten teams in KenPom and RPI:

MSU: KP-6, RPI-95
Pur: KP-13, RPI-44
Minn: KP-26, RPI-48
Wisky: KP-32, RPI-100
MD: KP-36, RPI-104
Mich: KP-44, RPI-69
PSU: KP-39, RPI-131
NW: KP-51, RPI-113
Iowa: KP-72, RPI-234
tOSU: KP-76, RPI-97
Ind: KP-80, RPI-177
Neb: KP-103, RPI-105
Ill: KP-109, RPI-172
Rut: KP-112, RPI-162

 

[UncleLar]

I said that I would be disappointed if Penn State lost... and I certainly am. Their on ball defense and rebounding was great at times. They couldn’t make a layup in the first half, and couldn’t defend their three point shot. To be fair, I’m not sure I would have expected their center to be hitting threes at that rate. I guess Penn State will have to win a ton of games in conference now...

I just went through the box score. Penn State attempted 34 LAYUPS - they made just 14. That's a 38.2% shooting percentage. Compare that with NC State's 62.5% shooting percentage FROM BEYOND THE 3-PT LINE.

Let that sink in for a moment. From the three point line, NC State shot almost twice as well as we did trying to make layups. Even more incredulously, coming into the game NC State was one of the worst three point shooting teams in the country.

 

[Ranger Dan]

I just went through the box score. Penn State attempted 34 LAYUPS - they made just 14. That's a 38.2% shooting percentage. Compare that with NC State's 62.5% shooting percentage FROM BEYOND THE 3-PT LINE.

Let that sink in for a moment. From the three point line, NC State shot almost twice as well as we did trying to make layups. Even more incredulously, coming into the game NC State was one of the worst three point shooting teams in the country.

Right, and I can't believe that their Turkish Center had shot three pointers like that before... maybe it was in his arsenal, but I find it hard to believe that he is always this accurate.

We are going to make a higher percentage of our layups and teams aren't always going to shoot 3's this well against us. I don't see this as a doom and gloom for how well the team can compete against good teams, but this was an important game to get some OOC boost to our RPI and KP.

 

[Cowbell Man]

I just went through the box score. Penn State attempted 34 LAYUPS - they made just 14. That's a 38.2% shooting percentage. Compare that with NC State's 62.5% shooting percentage FROM BEYOND THE 3-PT LINE.

Let that sink in for a moment. From the three point line, NC State shot almost twice as well as we did trying to make layups. Even more incredulously, coming into the game NC State was one of the worst three point shooting teams in the country.

The only reason you would seek out that layup data is because it was appalling to watch. First game I’ve watched in years and if making a layup is a challenge I’ll go back to where my season ticket money goes......both wrestling and hockey.

Wow.

 

[bdgan]

I just went through the box score. Penn State attempted 34 LAYUPS - they made just 14. That's a 38.2% shooting percentage. Compare that with NC State's 62.5% shooting percentage FROM BEYOND THE 3-PT LINE.

Let that sink in for a moment. From the three point line, NC State shot almost twice as well as we did trying to make layups. Even more incredulously, coming into the game NC State was one of the worst three point shooting teams in the country.

That's a truly amazing stat. The only thing I would say is that it's not bad luck, that NC Stae was hot and PSU was cold.

PSU missed a lot of layups because they were intimidated by NC State's size and athleticism. As a result the players lost their composure.

You could say that NC State was unusually hot when they made a couple of very long 3s early, but PSU did a poor job closing out on shooters as the game went on. There's nore to it than running into a team that got unusually hot.

 

[UncleLar]

That's a truly amazing stat. The only thing I would say is that it's not bad luck, that NC Stae was hot and PSU was cold.

PSU missed a lot of layups because they were intimidated by NC State's size and athleticism. As a result the players lost their composure.

You could say that NC State was unusually hot when they made a couple of very long 3s early, but PSU did a poor job closing out on shooters as the game went on. There's nore to it than running into a team that got unusually hot.

We were bigger (and dare I say more athletic) than them at every position.

Starting lineups:

Shep Garner 6'2" 196 lbs vs Beverly Braxson 6'0" 180 lbs
Josh Reaves 6'4" 210 lbs vs Markhell Johnson 6'1" 165 lbs
Tony Carr 6'5" 204 lbs vs Allerick Freeman 6'3" 210 lbs
Lamar Stevens 6'8" 226 lbs vs Torin Dorn 6'5" 210 lbs
Mike Watkins 6'9" 254 vs Leonard Freeman 6'8" 256

On average NC State gave up 2.2" and 13.8 lbs.

If there was any intimidating going on, it should have been by us.

 

[bdgan]

If there was any intimidating going on, it should have been by us.

Things that "should have" happened in that game didn't happen.