Agree, even going to the barn in Minnesota is a tough game. I would hope that Penn State can get two away game wins and conference and then if they end up with an overall conference record of 500 that would be fantastic.
Not surprisingly, 15th ranked UCLA went into Nebraska today, which is a good team, and lost, and undefeated Florida lost at Kentucky. Earlier this season, UCLA did win at Oregon, which was big because road wins in the Big 10 are going to be very hard to achieve. MSU did win at OSU last night, which is good for PSU because we may be competing with OSU for a tourney spot.
OTOH..... Illinois beat higher-ranked Oregon (#9 vs #22) by 32 points on Oregon's court the other night.
I know, which was very surprising. Oregon’s players must have partied pretty hard the night before to lose by that score at home.
You’re absolutely right and that’s been a trend for at least the last few years. It is VERY difficult winning on the road even against bad teams. PSU made Purdue look silly at the BJC a month ago.
Home court is definitely a big advantage. Sleep in your own bed, no jetlag, familiar court / lighting / rims, supportive fans.
It’s probably a must win for this team to make the tournament; I’ve watched parts of several IU games and they’re a pretty average team.
I don't think it's a must win but I agree it's important.
IU’s resume to date is pretty bad. Haven’t beaten anyone good and have double digit losses against Gonzaga, Louisville and Nebraska. A good line was recently seen on our board that “Woody’s teams consistently play down to the level of their opponent, but never plays UP to the level of the good ones.”
You want to grow the program playing games at Palestra is good.
The handwriting is on the wall that this probably is a 6 or 7 win Big 10 team. They’ve already played 3 home games and only are 2-2 in the conference; they’ll struggle to win any road game. This just looks like another typical PSU basketball season.
They are 2-0 at their home court in the conference. Playing a "home game" 150 miles from their campus is no home game at all. They basically play 11 out of 20 conference games on the road this season. BTW, Penn State is favored (by the analytics) in every true home game for the rest of the season, even the one against a very good Oregon team next Sunday where they will have to play their absolute best. If they would have played Indiana at their true home court, they would have won. Their outside shooting at an unfamiliar court today was horrendous, even at the foul line (10 for 17). This is a 20-win team if they play as expected at HOME.
Of course it doesn't help us at all. Indiana is not a particularly well coached team. Given we have a better coach and the very premise of this thread that the road teams really struggle in conference makes this loss both puzzling and very disappointing.
Okay that helps explain the loss. We should be beating Indiana at home or a quasi home game in the Palestra. A bad loss that could hurt us down the road as resumes get compared.
He was out most of the first half and wanted to ride the stationary bike that was near the PSU bench. He had to have help lifting his left leg so that he could get on the seat. I hope he heals quickly.
The crowd is just one part of a home court advantage….the familiarity with the rims is the biggest part. If the crowd is what gave a team the advantage, we wouldn’t win very many. The BJC crowd isn’t exactly Cameron Indoor.
Yeah, I’ve coached 25 years and won plenty of games but you’re telling me that having an extra few thousand people squished in next to the court for that game isn’t better than having it at the Bryce Jordan center? I talked to one of the members of our coaching staff over break and the kids were excited to play this game there and they definitely said that they feel playing the game at this time of year with limited amounts of fans versus a packed house full of Penn State fans is a big advantage.
PSU somehow survived when Ace sat out with 2 fouls in the final 7 minutes before halftime. That was due to Indy going cold more than PSU playing well without Ace. PSU scored 20 pts in the first 10 minutes but only 9 pts in the second 10 minutes which was played mostly without Baldwin.
Agree, a sitting was when he picked up his second foul, not about an injury. He was on the bike just to stay loose in case they did any kind of offense, defense substitutions. The problem was they let Indiana get too easy of shots the first three minutes of the second half. And then as they came back, they missed too many free throws.
When your team doesn’t even regularly practice in the gym that you play games in and the team itself says that they’d prefer to play in front of a big crowd then I’ll accept their word for it.
