Happy Valley Insider: Penn State Nittany Lions Football & Basketball Recruiting - Penn State Basketball's 2023 NCAA Tournament Resume
With Selection Sunday only a few weeks away, Penn State Basketball is pushing to secure an at-large bid.
Basketball Penn State Basketball's 2023 NCAA Tournament Resume so far...
- Thread starter Richie O
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Ultimately, Nebraska, and Wisconsin at home will be the two games that keep this team out of the tournament I believe.
At this point, really need to go 3-1 over the next four to feel pretty good heading to Chicago. All four games are near coin flips. Hoping we can steal one of the two on the road, and that the fans come out the next two Sundays and we can take care of business at home.
There is a serious disconnect between the headline and the article. The article is clearly not this season.
Happy Valley Insider: Penn State Nittany Lions Football & Basketball Recruiting - Penn State Basketball's 2023 NCAA Tournament Resume
With Selection Sunday only a few weeks away, Penn State Basketball is pushing to secure an at-large bid.pennstate.rivals.com
they need to win all of their remaining games (pre-tournament). If they do that, I think they might be in. If not, I think their schedule is just a little too weak.
20 and we’re pretty much a lock (as long as no more than 1 of them comes in Chicago). I’d still like our chances too at 19 wins if we could go 3-1 down the stretch, even if we dropped our first one in Chicago (assuming it was on Thursday, which it very likely would be).
Wisconsin isn't very good and we lost to them twice. They're 5-9 in conference excluding games vs PSU.
The Wisconsin home game had to be a win and it wasn’t; that was a killer.
We should be able to beat OSU in Columbus on Thursday. They have given up on the season it seems like, and it will be prob be an empty arena there on Thursday. If we do that, I think there’s a good chance we can win both of the two home games with the momentum of a three game win streak.
Though Ohio St has struggled lately, we’ll be underdogs…they are still a lot better than their record, though if Key is out, it will help our cause.
It's amazing at what has happened to that team. They basically just stopped winning since the new year. God, they even lost to Minnesota at home. I believe that they were one of the highest ranked Big 10 teams in the preseason. They have to be better than they have played, so I agree with you that a lot of their players have thrown in the towel. What's also amazing is that they blew out Northwestern on the road in January, which might have been their last win, and Northwestern arguably is playing the best basketball in the Big 10 now.
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Why is everyone so optimistic? Pickett can’t go off for 35/7/7 every game!! Lundy and Funk aren’t consistent and the rest of the team I dont trust at all. You want dread or wynter taking an open look with a big game on the line? Maybe have Kebbe bang down low….sorry we just have one All- American who is willing us to games. Shrewsberry needed to get a contributing big in the portal and he didn’t.
I just reread the thread again to understand where the "why is everyone so optimistic" comment came from, and I'm still not sure...I don't see a whole lot of optimism in this thread.
At this point, I'd put our chances of dancing around 25-30%. We'd need to either go 3-1 in them, or go 2-2 and make some serious noise in Chicago. All 4 remaining games are very winnable, but they are also very losable. We've got some big games on the horizon and while we're far from perfect, our next two opponents are banged up right now, so we've certainly got a chance to do what we need to do.
Our problem is Wisconsin. We are both fighting to get in and they beat us twice. We need to get ahead of them for a chance. Minimum 2-2 and 1-1 if Wisconsin falters. 3-1 & 2-1 if they dont.
It's surprising how far Dorsey has fallen. Njie & Henn get into foul trouble so we have 6'4" Dread defend opponent's 6'10" big man.
Most good D1 shooters can make a high % of 3pt shots. The question is what kind of looks they get. For PSU it depends on Pickett's ability to get deep into the paint and kick it out to an open shooter. Except for Dread. His head is in a very bad place. The last few games he's passed up good looks which throws the whole offense off.
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Dorsey's usage has been very odd all season...he goes from starting to getting DNPs back to starting but only playing very limited minutes to again getting DNPs. I personally like Njie and Henn better at this point so I'm not complaining, but it's just odd how much it's "yo-yo'd" for him.
I don’t agree with this at all. Both PSU and Wisconsin can and will make the dance if they finish strong.
The 2 Wisky losses don't kill us if we can go 3-1 down the stretch. That will put us at 10-10 in the conference and we may get in even with a first round BTT loss. The committee does not put a huge emphasis on the conference tournaments. Obviously it helps if you put together a string of wins but I don't believe one loss is deadly. Yes, I would love to win that first BTT game but we have a decent shot even if we don't.
Wisky is 7-9. They will beat Minny on the road and Iowa at home. They will lose to Purdue at home and Michigan on the road. That puts them at 9-11 in conference so advantage PSU if we go 3-1.
As for us, I agree with other posters, we could win all or lose all. Realistically though I see very little shot of beating NW in Evanston. So then the focus turns to the other 3. We can beat O$U but this game scares me. They seem like a sleeping giant who will of course wake up against us. We have to hope they continue to play lousy D, Iowa hung over 90 on them and Purdue had something like 88 while we are able to make 3s. Pickett is a lock to have a good game. will anyone else??? Wynter was 2-2 from 3 and Funk made half of his vs Minny so if they bring it again that will help tremendously. Lundy was 1-7 but he was sick so if he can bounce back being healthier that is another bonus.
We absolutely can win both remaining home games. Rutgers has slid down and just squeaked by Wisky while losing to Neb at home. As long as we can control their big guy and not let him have the game of his life we have a good shot. MD is playing well but lost to Neb yesterday and we played them tough in College Park. A winnable game.
I'd be amazed if we finish 3-1. We struggled to beat Minnesota on Saturday. Once again totally dominated in the paint.
IMO PSU was a bigger threat when Dread was a serious threat. Dread, Funk, and Lundy were tough to defend all three. I just don't see Dread pulling out of it. His confidence is shot.
Just beat OSU and we'll go from there.
I hope you're wrong but you could very well be right. To go 3-1, among other things, we have to avoid these stretches where we fall asleep and the other team goes on a 12-0 run for example. We recovered from that brutal 2H start versus Minny because we had a lead and they are just a bad team but even against O$U that kind of sloppy, uninspired stretch of play will burn you.
PSU sometimes goes long stretches without scoring because they don't have a big man who can score in the paint or get fouled.
OSU is not very good. If we lose to them we shouldn't be in the tournament. The only game we can even think about losing is at NW
While it would be nice to never have droughts or have a big guy scoring down low, we’ve still got the 17th best offense in the country according to Pomeroy’s numbers..most of are struggles are a result of our defense.
That's also due to our lack of a big man / rim protector
JH was not a 'rim protector' per se but he did get most available defensive rebounds. We give up way too many offensive boards, I think thats where the issue is.
We're actually the best team in the conference when it comes to Defensive Rebounding, and 20th in the country. You wouldn't think it with our personnel, but we have some good rebounding guards, and really crash the defensive boards. Unfortunately, offensive rebounding is a completely different story (still the worst team in the country, which is really hard to do).
PSU must be near the bottom of the country in points in the paint differential. We don't stop anybody and our only player that scores in the paint is Pickett.
I don't have access to that specific stat as it's not officially tracked, but I can tell you that our point distribution is:
44.4% 3-pointers (2nd in the country)
44.6% 2-pointers (335th of 363)
11% FTs (last of the 363)
Our opponents distribution is:
32.7% 3-pointers (112th)
51.3% 2-pointers (163rd)
16% FTs (304th)
Nothing official yet, but sounds like he might be done for the year…I’ll be surprised if he plays.
Will Sensebaugh have a field day against us? He's only 6'6" but PSU's interior defense is a mess.
With our luck Zed Key will return from injury.
Minnesota has won one Big 10 game this season and it was at OSU. Also, OSU has been terrible lately and appears to have given up on the season. Based on this, and even with PSU’s putrid road record, I would think that the percentage would be higher.
Well, I believe that we have to accept that this team is going to struggle to win any road game, so I certainly am not expecting them to win at OSU. OSU has been so bad since they blew out Northwestern on the road, but they’re a better team than their record and probably are due for a win. I actually believe that PSU would beat OSU comfortably at home, but they’re a different team on the road.
Yes our road performance is just weak. I think the keys for us winning are...
-Pickett has a stellar game. Minimum 20 pts but 25 or higher desired
-We shoot the 3 ball well from the suppirting cast. Are you listening Funk, Lundy and Wynter? Need to shoot at least 40% from 3 but target 50%
-We minimize the damage inside vs Sensabaugh and whomever else they have
