Penn State falls narrowly to Northwestern 76-72

[bdgan]

PSU leads 40-32 at halftime. This is easily the best I've seen them play. They've shared the ball and got it to the post.

Two criticisms:

1. 1-10 from 3pt range. I counted 5 of those misses that were totally unguarded.
2. NW is 5-9 from 3 pt range. PSU tends to get lazy getting through screens and closing out on 3 pt shooters.

Let's see how the 2nd half goes. Everything went in PSU's favor in the 1st half but it's only an 8 pt lead.

 

[GregInPitt]

Puff should know how to play defense by now without fouling so much.

PSU giving open 3 looks in beginning of 2nd half not a good thing....

 

[bdgan]

PSU stopped sharing the ball. Back to one on one with several no pass possessions. Nothing down low to Wahab. NW 15-0 run.

 

[SUPERTODD]

I have wondered frequently if DJ Karstensen (sp?) bets on games. He has been in the middle of too many game altering calls to believe he is only concerned with applying the rules in an impartial fashion. There is something up with him.

 

[AWS1022]

Clary should shoot way more than he does. They got away from him for too long. The coach needs to put a leash on Baldwin in key situations. Makes some great defensive plays, but then tries to do too much on offense. Seems like the NW players have been around for about 30 years. Bottom line, coaches need to recruit guys who can shoot the ball, not just athletic guys.

 

[ryoder1]

PSU stopped sharing the ball. Back to one on one with several no pass possessions. Nothing down low to Wahab. NW 15-0 run.

I flipped it on as NW was in their run. Penn State had no flow on offense. Could barely get a shot off and NW converted every possession. Disappointing because before that they had a 10 point lead. If they just don't collapse they very well could have won.

Nevertheless, this looks like at best a 5-15 conf record. We won't win a game on the road in conference and for the remaining home games we have a shot to beat Minny, Maryland and Indiana, that's about it. We are 8-8 now and we go 3-12 the rest of the way to finish 11-20. Play in game for the BTT. Let's hope next season is better.

 

[johnmpsu]

I don't know what it's going to take to get them to play team ball for a full game. At least we got a 1/2 today. The first half in my opinion was the best they have played this year. Sadly the technical really killed them today, 8 pt lead cut to 3 and then the bottom fell out.

 

[AWS1022]

The coach recruited the players who would come. After our program had almost no one left, you take those willing to come.

I was talking in general, not about Rhoades specifically….i know what he was faced with, but I also know in the future he needs to recruit shooters, not just guys like Baldwin and Kern. Some coaches are in love with the guys who can run fast and jump high, but shooting wins games.

 

[AWS1022]

I don't know what it's going to take to get them to play team ball for a full game. At least we got a 1/2 today. The first half in my opinion was the best they have played this year. Sadly the technical really killed them today, 8 pt lead cut to 3 and then the bottom fell out.

When they start to fall behind or start to have a comeback and can tie or take a lead, Baldwin usually tries to take over and any chance at team ball goes out the window. I love the guy on defense, but he’s often painful to watch on offense.

 

[87 Penn St8]

Only saw the last few minutes of first half and then 2nd half from us being down 62-59.

From what I watched it seems that we look like the Chambers teams with a lot of 1:1 at inopportune times. The Ace Baldwin play that Bardo criticized is top of mind. Critical exchange at critical moment

It just felt like NW had more control in what they were running on offense than we did.

I wish Clary would've gone for a 3 at the end or we ran a play to get a shot. Did we have a timeout?

The calls are what they are. Tough one on Ace vs Buie. If Kern could've better established position on the entry pass turnover then Barnhizer goes over his back and fouls. Missed call off of Clary's leg worked out but was still wrong after a conference to overturn. Kern's odd intentional miss maybe was wrong...awkward play for sure.

Not sure what happened during the 15-0 drought- but from Chambers tobShrew to now- those have been an unfortunate staple.

NW helped with some missed FTs but then so did Kern. Cats earned the win - woulda been a nice one to have.

 

[bdgan]

That finish was outright thievery. Just a number of terrible calls all going against PSU. I guarantee it is why Shrews left. You just aren't going to get a fair shake in this conference if you play basketball for Penn St. And you aren't going to get a fair shake in any sport if you are playing Ohio St or Michigan. You see it year after year.

1. I agree there were a couple of rough calls at the end but I don't think that's what cost us the game.
2. In the first half PSU shared the ball including getting the ball to Wahab. They got away from that in the second half and reverted to hero ball. Bardo has been talking about that for the last 2 games.

 

[Erial_Lion]

I have wondered frequently if DJ Karstensen (sp?) bets on games. He has been in the middle of too many game altering calls to believe he is only concerned with applying the rules in an impartial fashion. There is something up with him.

He's one of the more highly respected referees out there...he's not getting to that level by intentionally making bad calls.

 

[Erial_Lion]

I flipped it on as NW was in their run. Penn State had no flow on offense. Could barely get a shot off and NW converted every possession. Disappointing because before that they had a 10 point lead. If they just don't collapse they very well could have won.

Nevertheless, this looks like at best a 5-15 conf record. We won't win a game on the road in conference and for the remaining home games we have a shot to beat Minny, Maryland and Indiana, that's about it. We are 8-8 now and we go 3-12 the rest of the way to finish 11-20. Play in game for the BTT. Let's hope next season is better.

Running the numbers, the odds of going winless on the road are something like 16%. We'll likely pick up one somewhere along the line. Though something like 5-15 or 6-14 sounds about right.

 

[Erial_Lion]

That finish was outright thievery. Just a number of terrible calls all going against PSU. I guarantee it is why Shrews left. You just aren't going to get a fair shake in this conference if you play basketball for Penn St. And you aren't going to get a fair shake in any sport if you are playing Ohio St or Michigan. You see it year after year.

And I can almost guarantee you that "being scared that he might not get calls from the refs" wasn't in the top 10 reasons of why Micah left.

We're really going to complain about "thievery" on a night when we got to the line more than them and they committed more fouls than us, all while we're shooting more 3's and playing a lot more aggressive at the defensive end?

Maybe "you" see it year after year, but anyone looking at it objectively doesn't think that freaking Northwestern has the refs looking out for them in a road* game (* being that if we actually had a good atmosphere to make it a true road game, I'm sure we'd get a few more whistles).

 

[Erial_Lion]

Our inability to make shots really kills us tonight. Got lots of really good looks from 3, but couldn't get them to fall. We did the other things we need to do to win (controlled the defensive boards, got to the line, and forced turnovers)...but both teams got to shoot a lot of wide open 3's...NW made theirs, and we didn't.

And I've said it before, but Boo Buie is everything that I was hoping Taran was when he came here...oh what could have been.

 

[Erial_Lion]

Kern's odd intentional miss maybe was wrong...awkward play for sure.

D.J. missed that one...it did touch the rim before either foot crossed the imaginary plane. However, I thought it was the right call in real time as he did get on it extremely quickly (as you said, a very akward play), and reply can't help in that spot.

 

[bdgan]

Our inability to make shots really kills us tonight. Got lots of really good looks from 3

I recall missing 5 wide open 3s in the first half. The 2nd half misses weren't as wide open. IMO the problem was we stopped getting the ball to Wahab.

 

[Erial_Lion]

I recall missing 5 wide open 3s in the first half. The 2nd half misses weren't as wide open. IMO the problem was we stopped getting the ball to Wahab.

I think that part of not getting it to him was that NW kept sagging more and more and trying to take him away on the inside...they were very quick to double when he did see the ball, and we couldn't make them pay with our ball movement.

But I agree that a big part of the offense needs to be finding a way to get him touches, or at least threatening to get him touches to get the D to collapse. We did have way too many possessions where the ball never made it inside the arc and we settled for a long 3.

It's just a slog for us at the offensive end this year. Very few really easy baskets, unless we're scoring in transition. We don't score a whole lot at the rim, and we don't have anyone like a Funk/Garner//Lundy(last year/even Dread, etc where you feel really good when you've got that open 3. I thought O'Boyle was our best chance at that guy, but he's never got it going. And Hicks thinks he's that guy, but just isn't making enough open looks.

 

[WaylonJ]

Players. You have them or you don't.

Same ho different dress.

 

[MacNit2.0]

I flipped it on as NW was in their run. Penn State had no flow on offense. Could barely get a shot off and NW converted every possession. Disappointing because before that they had a 10 point lead. If they just don't collapse they very well could have won.

Nevertheless, this looks like at best a 5-15 conf record. We won't win a game on the road in conference and for the remaining home games we have a shot to beat Minny, Maryland and Indiana, that's about it. We are 8-8 now and we go 3-12 the rest of the way to finish 11-20. Play in game for the BTT. Let's hope next season is better.

Rhoades is a proven commodity. He will get the job done.

 

[87 Penn St8]

I think that part of not getting it to him was that NW kept sagging more and more and trying to take him away on the inside...they were very quick to double when he did see the ball, and we couldn't make them pay with our ball movement.

But I agree that a big part of the offense needs to be finding a way to get him touches, or at least threatening to get him touches to get the D to collapse. We did have way too many possessions where the ball never made it inside the arc and we settled for a long 3.

It's just a slog for us at the offensive end this year. Very few really easy baskets, unless we're scoring in transition. We don't score a whole lot at the rim, and we don't have anyone like a Funk/Garner//Lundy(last year/even Dread, etc where you feel really good when you've got that open 3. I thought O'Boyle was our best chance at that guy, but he's never got it going. And Hicks thinks he's that guy, but just isn't making enough open looks.

Hicks missed an important wide open 3 in 2nd half. Watched him a bit at Temple and saw him live when they lost their opener vs. Wagner last year.

Dickie V may call him a "bus player" because he sure looks the part coming into the gym- but hasn't put it all together- which is why he was available for us.

 

[Erial_Lion]

Hicks missed an important wide open 3 in 2nd half. Watched him a bit at Temple and saw him live when they lost their opener vs. Wagner last year.

Dickie V may call him a "bus player" because he sure looks the part coming into the gym- but hasn't put it all together- which is why he was available for us.

He was a 36% shooter from deep at Temple, so I expect that we'll see things get better for him. But it's really hurting us having him take 5.5 three pointers/game while only making 28%. He doesn't add much else offensively (doesn't put the ball on the floor, doesn't attempt to score much in the mid-range, etc), so we really need him to start making shots.

 

[Richie O]

Happy Valley Insider - Penn State falls narrowly to Northwestern 76-72

Penn State couldn't hold onto a halftime lead in a 76-72 loss to Northwestern.

pennstate.rivals.com

 

[ryoder1]

Yeah, I still believe he was a good hire just this year is not going to look good. Hopefully he is able to have the program in s good spot by year 3.

 

[ryoder1]

Running the numbers, the odds of going winless on the road are something like 16%. We'll likely pick up one somewhere along the line. Though something like 5-15 or 6-14 sounds about right.

Maybe at Rutgers or at Indiana but it will be very slim pickings in road wins this season. Can we stay within 20 at halftime vs Purdue on the road this weekend?

 

[WaylonJ]

What does a good spot look like in year 3? 10th in the conference? 9th?

Deep run in the conference tournament and secure a ten year extension, NIT 2nd rd.? I mean what is the goal? There is no goal.

 

[Erial_Lion]

Maybe at Rutgers or at Indiana but it will be very slim pickings in road wins this season. Can we stay within 20 at halftime vs Purdue on the road this weekend?

I'd play us +19.5 for the 1st half.

 

[Richie O]

 

[WaylonJ]

I'd play us +19.5 for the 1st half.

NW beat Purdue. It's ridiculous but it happened. I wouldn't put a penny on PSU unless we were getting +26.5 for the game and even then you'd lay probably -150. Not for me.

 

[Erial_Lion]

NW beat Purdue. It's ridiculous but it happened. I wouldn't put a penny on PSU unless we were getting +26.5 for the game and even then you'd lay probably -150. Not for me.

26.5 would be a lot higher than -150...thinking the game itself will be around 21, so going to 26.5 would be in the -200 to -220 range.

 

[WaylonJ]

Discounting whatever the odds may be against Purdue, again I ask...what is the goal? What should be the goal? I think 9th in the conference is a good start. But you can't cave and give Rhoadesie some huge extension because he got deep in a tournament or beat some good team on a miracle. Like all our coaches if he does hit some success, he's gone.

 

[Erial_Lion]

Discounting whatever the odds may be against Purdue, again I ask...what is the goal? What should be the goal? I think 9th in the conference is a good start. But you can't cave and give Rhoadesie some huge extension because he got deep in a tournament or beat some good team on a miracle. Like all our coaches if he does hit some success, he's gone.

Doesn't really address your question, but since I was looking at this earlier this week...

What's interesting is the impact that Mike Brey leaving (or more accurately getting fired) ND had on several programs...

One of the ratings that Pomeroy does is his "Minutes Continuity" Rating (you can read more about it at Ken's site -> https://kenpom.com/blog/measuring-continuity/)...it basically judges a team's turnover from year to year. Out of 361 returning D1 programs this year...

• Notre Dame is 356th after Micah takes over ND
• Penn State is 350th after Rhoades replaces Micah
• VCU is 340th after Ryan Odom takes over for Rhoades at VCU
• Utah State is 360th after Danny Sprinkle takes over for Odom (I could add Montana St to this too, where Sprinkle came from and brought a few of his best players, but some of Montana St's squad actually hung around)

All of these teams had to completely revamp their rosters. What's really interesting is that in the short term, the team that's making out best this season is Utah State, sitting at 15-1 and 37th in Kenpom (after sitting at 101st preseason). And if Spinkle turns out to be as good as he's been out of the gate in Logan, he'll be part of a cycle like this again relatively soon.

 

[ryoder1]

Discounting whatever the odds may be against Purdue, again I ask...what is the goal? What should be the goal? I think 9th in the conference is a good start. But you can't cave and give Rhoadesie some huge extension because he got deep in a tournament or beat some good team on a miracle. Like all our coaches if he does hit some success, he's gone.

The goal in my mind is to finish consistently say 4 out of 5 years or maybe 2 out of 3 in the top half of the Big 10. So with 18 teams we need to finish in the top 9. And hopefully that finish also translates to being in the Dance.

 

[bcspsu]

The goal in my mind is to finish consistently say 4 out of 5 years or maybe 2 out of 3 in the top half of the Big 10. So with 18 teams we need to finish in the top 9. And hopefully that finish also translates to being in the Dance.

It's just a damn shame that every season after PSU makes one of its rare NCAA appearances, the team can't capitalize on the positive momentum and not ony regresses but completely collapses. This phenomenon has occurred for as long as I can remember for various reasons. And this has happened under multiple coaches.

The shame of it is that PSU is surrounded by high school basketball meccas unlike programs like Iowa and even Wisconsin, so it never should've been an issue for the state university of PA that plays in the Big 10 to field a consistently competitive program.

 

[ryoder1]

It's just a damn shame that every season after PSU makes one of its rare NCAA appearances, the team can't capitalize on the positive momentum and not ony regresses but completely collapses. This phenomenon has occurred for as long as I can remember for various reasons. And this has happened under multiple coaches.

The shame of it is that PSU is surrounded by high school basketball mecas unlike programs like Iowa and even Wisconsin, so it never should've been an issue for the state university of PA that plays in the Big 10 to field a consistently competitive program.

Not sure the program will collapse this time around. Hoping Rhoades is the real deal and can build a winning program in the next 3 years. I am hopeful of an NCAA bid in his third year. Maybe next year but that seems like a stretch looking at this year and I don't know what he has done on the recruiting trail, etc.

You are right about why we historically have been so lousy in hoops when we are located in a good high school area for hoops. Back in the day it was a lack of focus and just not a priority for whatever reason. That resulted in average to below average coaches and the program just stalled. I do think our AD wants to win in hoops and is willing to put resources behind it like spending the money to get a good coach. In general I believe we now put hoops as priority so hopefully we can start seeing some sustained success.

 

[Psubiomed]

Last night's post game presser was strictly done to lay the ground work for next year and the year after: Big Ten officials are on notice they can't lowball Penn State any longer.

Rhodes is THE MAN, and this years record will be close to.500 in conference. Next year we dance.

 

[Erial_Lion]

Last night's post game presser was strictly done to lay the ground work for next year and the year after: Big Ten officials are on notice they can't lowball Penn State any longer.

Rhodes is THE MAN, and this years record will be close to.500 in conference. Next year we dance.

Gee, if they're on notice, I guess that changes everything.

And we're extremely unlikely to be "close to .500 in conference" this season...we're just not at that level yet.

 

[bdgan]

Rhodes is THE MAN, and this years record will be close to.500 in conference.

That would be amazing but unlikely.

 

[AWS1022]

Our inability to make shots really kills us tonight. Got lots of really good looks from 3, but couldn't get them to fall. We did the other things we need to do to win (controlled the defensive boards, got to the line, and forced turnovers)...but both teams got to shoot a lot of wide open 3's...NW made theirs, and we didn't.

And I've said it before, but Boo Buie is everything that I was hoping Taran was when he came here...oh what could have been.

Our inability to make shots is what pretty much always kills us. If you can’t recruit the top notch athletes, then you need three point shooters to give you a chance. Hopefully Rhoades learns that throughout this year and goes out and gets some shooters for next year. If we had Andrew Funk this year instead of Hicks, we would be able to win some games.