What a month of March for Penn State basketball
Basketball GAME THREAD: Penn State vs. Texas in round two of the 2023 NCAA Tournament
- Thread starter Richie O
- Start date
And Funk had two wide open threes from the top of they key at the end and missed both. That sealed our fate
I’m not sure we can get back next year, but if we can lock in Shrews I think we will be better than most think. Clary, Mahaffey, and Njie all got better…if we get some production out of the incoming freshmen, we could be competitive…then the following year I could see us getting back.
Agree that those three will be decent players next year. Need to use the portal to get to other contributors similar to at least Funk and winter.
Realistically, probably need three guys from the portal two shooters and a post
They need to use the portal like Pitt did this past season. If they don’t, next season will be bad. If they do and do it wisely, then they can build on this season.
We played tough but didn't take advantage of our opportunities. UT deserved to win. In the end our weakness inside was the glaring difference.
Jalen had a rough one but played his heart out. The offensive foul on him late lost a possession and made him vulnerable on D where he gave up a dribble drive. Turnover out of the timeout was dagger. Really, really unfortunate.
Great season and run. We'll see where the program goes in the next week or so. Frustrating loss...but a win would've been icing on the cake.
My bracket died with Purdue, State out gives me no immediate family circle teams left. One of my cousins married a former Princeton JV player who was a manager for their 96 team. Mitch Henderson is his best friend and best man at the wedding. Who'da thunk that they are my remaining rooting interest?
Go Tigers! (And THANK YOU LIONS!)
Jalen had a rough one but played his heart out. The offensive foul on him late lost a possession and made him vulnerable on D where he gave up a dribble drive. Turnover out of the timeout was dagger. Really, really unfortunate.
Great season and run. We'll see where the program goes in the next week or so. Frustrating loss...but a win would've been icing on the cake.
My bracket died with Purdue, State out gives me no immediate family circle teams left. One of my cousins married a former Princeton JV player who was a manager for their 96 team. Mitch Henderson is his best friend and best man at the wedding. Who'da thunk that they are my remaining rooting interest?
Go Tigers! (And THANK YOU LIONS!)
Two philly area guards that they could get are the battle kid from temple and Jameer Nelson‘s son from Delaware.
Maybe they could even get the big kid from pitt who’s leaving.
yes, they need to use the portal again, and they should be able to do it effectively after the attention from this run. At this point, I am not sure what team doesn't need to use the portal every year.
I think the lack of Henn and Njie showed me ultimately how much trust (lack of) Shrews has in our big men....preferred to ride with Dread on Disu....
Decided to sacrifice offense for defense with the small ball lineup. Many of Dread’s open looks were a result of disu covering him on defense. Could have possibly tried to do more offense/defense substitutions but that’s hard to do for a long period of time.
On the rare occasions when PSU has made the Tournament, the next season usually has been a disaster and the program never was able to build on the previous season. I just hope that history doesn’t repeat itself, and it shouldn’t if the coaches manage the portal properly.
Held our own on the boards (who would have guessed we'd end up with more offensive rebounds) and didn't let them beat us at the line (both of us were 8-11). We went a little cold from the outside, and didn't have an answer to stopping Disu. If you told me we'd go 8-28 from 3 and Jalen would have 1 assist and 7 turnovers, I would have assumed it was a blowout. But Texas missed enough shots to let us hang around. It was a fun season.
A little surprised he did not use Njie more. Not real surprised that he didn't use Henn much
It would have worked if we didn’t go ice cold at the end.
Could have, but on the other hand, Texas's other shooters were ice cold and putting somebody bigger on Disu might have worked too. Mahaffey also got way more minutes than I expected. It was an interesting game plan and almost did work out.
We have the transfer portal now….certainly that was not around the last time we made the tournament. We used it effectively this year. As others have pointed out, if we can replace Pickett, Funk and Wynter with similar type players, we can definitely make another run at the tournament next year.
The last time we made it, the coach quit to go to Navy and the AD apparently didn't make an effort to stop him. The time before that, our coach's contract expired and the same AD left him with no contract for a month, before re-signing him. During that month Gerry McNamara decided to pass on PSU.
Yes, the seasons that came after those events were disasters. It was the same AD both times, BTW
This game boiled down to Disu making everything he threw up yeah I know they were close in but he never seemingly missed. Then we were lousy from 3 including Funk missing two wide open 3s at the top of the key in the last 3 minutes. Ball game.
all true, but Lundy's improbable 4-point play still had us in it even with all that stuff.
Yeah there was a glimmer hope but that guard of theirs was money from the line. I feel if Funk had hit one of those 3s that would have shifted mo and got Texas nervous while injecting us with confidence and life. Texas was lucky he was off. Texas basically "Picketted" us with Disu. The guy just converted everything in the paint and mid range. In fact I went back and watched, from the 4 minute mark all the way to 10 seconds left Texas scored on every possession, either a bucket or free throws. Disu literally could not miss. The fadeaway baseline jumper with 1 second on the shot clock. Wow just his night. We simply could not get any stops when we needed some.
Meanwhile Funk missing I think three 3s and a horrible backcourt turnover with Wynter and Dread totally sealed our fate. This game came down to who would win the last 4 minutes and they totally dominated us. It was going to happen, how many close games did we win? We were bound to have it go against us and tonight was that night.
Still a great season. Horrible games from Funk and Pickett IMO. Texas did a nice job just playing their game and we weren't able to hit shots to get them out of it.
I mean we went from not in the tournament to blasting A&M and playing a final four favorite down to the last couple of minutes. No shame in any of that. Just keep the coach and reload for next year!!!
I would not classify it as horrible but below average. Pickett was horrible in the first half with those turnovers. He came back in the 2nd half, not spectacular like we needed him but decent. Nevertheless it is amazing we were that close with the way those two played but it was because Texas had no one except Disu. They were ripe for the taking but we could not hit many 3s and could not take advantage.
I've been assuming next year would be rebuilding, but not only does the transfer portal exist, but coach Shrew has shown that he can get players strategically - i.e. not only find good players but find players that blend together well. Also, I think the I saw some hope with some of our freshmen in these last several games. If we get our coach to come back, I think we can keep the momentum going.
After the way he shot Thursday, he had to come back to earth a bit. We still had a chance at the end. That was a team ranked #5, and we played right there with them. We were in the zone on Thursday and might have beaten them with that level of play. We didn't play our best and still pushed them until the end..
Love the effort and heart of this team, even when overmatched. That one bounce to himself and then tip out on the offensive rebound by Lundy kind of captured the level of effort on this team tonight trying to take down a beast. I expect Texas in the final 4. We gave them all that they could handle and almost pulled it out. Very proud of this team.
Of course the transfer portal will be huge with us losing so many seniors. However, by far the most important thing for next season is to make sure Shrews isn’t at Georgetown or Notre Dame. PAY THE MAN.
I agree it was amazing that it was that close and Disu singlehandedly won that game. If someone plays as poorly as Pickett did in the first half they need to be insane in the second to make up for it. Pickett is a 2nd team AA...he needed to be better. Doesn't take away from his amazing season but yesterday was disappointing.
i don't know about horrible. Funk was bad in the first half but gave us points in the second. It was the worst game i have seen from Pickett, wondered if he was not 100%. even when he got shots they weren't good
that's bad news for Texas. nobody is getting past Pitt
Kebba seemed to spend a lot of time on d on the ground. Couple of fumbles for turnovers and that missed hook shot hurt. If he would hace not been such a liability on O then we coukd have tried to use him on D. In this case 2 negatives were not positives.
Henn's stint in first half was similar. A few missed shots, a turnover (although it was tipped), and not much on D.
One replay they kept showing Disu going up over Dread for two in the lane. Myles is standing flat footed and barely has his arms up...trying to body the much taller and agile Longhorn. Obvioysly tgat didn't work very well...without collapsing D to try and strip the ball it was too easy.
Hoever, we did contain Carr pretty well and Rice was off from distance ( except each made critical shots... Carr before hald and Rice witg a big 3 when we coukd've extended our lead late.)
Overall the paralysis by analysis won't change the outcome. We gave them a game, but list to a better team. Had our chances but m8ssed or goofed. Sad that Myles and Cam have to live with that backcourt gaffe...both played their hearts out.
L9oking forward to keeping coach and building something very good for our future.
i basically agree with how they handled Disu. it almost worked. if he had missed like one shot we might have won the game
more important than the outcome of this game is locking Shrewsberry into a better contract and fast. now is the time to capitalize on this run and get out and recruit for both the '24 class and the transfer portal
Texas coach look like Gustavo Fring's twin bro with totally different demeanor. Not reserved and slow burning at all- he was up in his athooletic stance and high-steppin out there.
Was Shrew juggling the lineup looking for some offense since we weren’t hitting threes?
think it's more like he was doing whatever he could to keep Dread in the lineup, because he was hot. He probably could have used Njie and Henn a little more aggressively though. It wouldn't really have hurt for them to pick up some fouls in the first half
Sounds like Kraft is working on that. I would hope to see a contract that ensures that if he leaves PSU anytime soon it won't be over money.
