WHO: Michigan Wolverines (7-6, 1-1)
WHERE: Bryce Jordan Center
WHEN: 7 PM
TV: ESPN2
LINE: Penn State by 2
Enemy Blog: UMHoops
Pomeroy Profile

Michigan’s season has been disastrous in the early going. A preseason top 25 team has stumbled mightily and has looked anything but. Their best win has been a 9 point home win against the Evan Turner-less Buckeyes (although no more! nice to see ET back playing). They’re in desperation mode if they want to get back to the NCAA tournament. They’ve performed terribly on the road, understandably losing to KU but also to Utah and Indiana.

While Wisconsin is one of the worst matchups for the Nittany Lions in the Big Ten, I think UM is one of the most favorable. They’re small and don’t really pose a threat on the glass. Their offense is predicated on threes and no turnovers. PSU doesn’t force turnovers anyway and it’s always easier to stop a shooting team than it is to stop a team that can dominate inside. Michigan’s defense is nothing like Minnesota/Wisconsin/Purdue, either. PSU should be able to get better shots and make them.

For no reason whatsoever, I just have a really good feeling about this game. Talor Battle on national TV against a team with no real threat to stop him…with PSU’s backs on the wall with the 0-2 start. I just think Talor’s going to go nuts. Not sure if he can top his 28 point, 13 rebound, 6 assist performance against the Wolverines his freshman year, but I’ll say he comes close. If David Jackson can keep Manny from going nuts as well, PSU could be in great shape. Or they could not guard anybody and watch UM shoot the Lions out of their own building. You never know but I’m surprisingly confident about this game. That is why I’ll take the Lions to cover the 2 point spread and win, 68-61.

Going into the game, I really believed PSU didn’t have a chance. But the Nittany Lions showed some toughness on the road and lost a hard-fought game to a supposedly much better team.

It didn’t look like it was going to be that way at the start. PSU looked dreadful in the first 10 minutes or so of the game as Minnesota raced out to a 21-10 lead. The offense was sputtering and Minnesota was getting further and further ahead. Stephen Bardo, the ESPN color guy, pointed to the foul on a Chris Babb 3-pointer as the turning point for PSU. Talor Battle hit a 3 on the next possession and PSU cut the lead to 5, but what seemed to be forgotten was Minnesota then extended their lead back to 10 at 26-16. I thought Tim Frazier was a huge key to why PSU stayed in the game in the first half. He came in and had 3 pretty assists that set up easy baskets in the half-court offense, something PSU wasn’t able to get before (except for a few long range jumpers from Battle). They went into halftime down only 7, a moral victory considering their play.

But a different PSU team came to play in the 2nd half. The Nittany Lions came out roaring to start the second half, as they hit their first 7 field goals. In the first 7 minutes, PSU outscored the Gophers 17-5 as they jumped out to a 44-39 lead. Talor Battle only contributed 2 of the 17 points. The damage was done mostly by Drew Jones and Jeff Brooks, who were getting great looks inside and finishing. It was exciting and encouraging to watch.

Minnesota weathered the early storm to the half as Hoffarber and Westbrook really started to get going, but PSU wouldn’t go away. Frazier hit a pretty 8 foot floater on a fast break and Battle then hit one of his patented 30-footers. The score was in PSU’s favor at 53-50 with 9 minutes left, when the turnovers came at all the wrong times. Minnesota stepped up the pressure and the Lions weren’t able to handle it, whether it was fatigue, inexperience, or inability to hang onto the rock. They turned it over on 4 straight possessions.

David Jackson did his best to keep PSU in it, hitting a big 3 to tie it at 56, but that’s when a huge swing really killed PSU. First, after struggling with the full-court pressure, PSU finally beat it until Andrew Jones couldn’t finish a contested dunk. That was a momentum killer, as Minnesota grabbed the board, raced down to court, and scored on a putback. PSU beat the pressure yet again, but Jeff Brooks took an ill-advised elbow jumper that he missed. It was a shot that even if he made it, I think DeChellis still would’ve been fuming. Penn State was playing into Minnesota’s fullcourt game, which is exactly what ED didn’t want to do, especially at such a critical point in the game. Jackson and Battle hit some big shots to keep PSU in it, but another turnover by Chris Babb (or should I say he got tripped and there was no call) was killer. It didn’t help that PSU couldn’t stop Westbrook, who scored 29 points (11-16 from the floor). Battle was guarding him most of the night, but it’s hard to be critical of a player’s defense when he had to play all 40 minutes. He’s understandably not going to be able to exert the necessary defensive pressure down the stretch. DeChellis finally put DJ on Westbrook towards the end of the game, but his damage was already done.

All in all it was a very encouraging performance, but the turnovers killed the Lions down the stretch. After making the first 7 shots on their first 7 possessions of the 2nd half, PSU finished with 9 turnovers in the remaining 12 minutes of play. Westbrook and Hoffarber hit some timely threes that put away the game.

Player Bullets

• Talor Battle – 40 minutes, 23 points (7-14/5-8), 6 rebounds, 4 assists. Quality game from Talor, but too many minutes prevented him from stopping Westbrook. Or at least attempt to make it more difficult for him.
• Andrew Jones – 12 points and 8 rebounds. His best game of the year, but that missed dunk was a big play down the stretch. Hopefully Drew builds off this game after such a lackluster non-conference performance.
• Jeff Brooks – 9 points, 4 assists, 2 rebounds and 2 steals. Jeff played well, but I thought he could’ve been a little more assertive. Those are some good numbers for Jeff, but it didn’t feel like he had that great of an impact on the game to me.
• David Jackson – 11 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists. I thought David did exactly what we needed him to do. He made big plays down the stretch as he tried to keep the Lions in it. His confidence was rising as he created a pretty 15 foot baseline jumper off the bounce to cut MN’s lead to 2. Didn’t seem hampered at all with the hyperextended knee.
• Chris Babb – played OK. He doesn’t have the green light to shoot anymore, as he only took 4 3-pointers (box score says 3, he was fouled on the other). I thought he did OK handling the ball as well, but his turnover (whether he got tripped or not) was killer.
• Tim Frazier – played great in the first half to get PSU back in it, but he was credited for 3 turnovers in the 2nd half. It didn’t look like he was slowed down at all from a ‘turned ankle’, but DeChellis only played him for 13 minutes.
• Andrew Ott – gave a forgettable 5 minutes. At least Drew got some rest.
• Bill Edwards – struggled heavily in his first BT game. He forced the issue quite a few times. He’s an above average ball-handler for a guy his size, but I’m pretty sure DeChellis doesn’t want him breaking a press by himself. He still contributed with 2 big putbacks in the 2nd half. I thought it was pretty telling of the coaching staff’s confidence in him when ED had Bill in there for the last 3 minutes of the game instead of Jeff, who had been playing better.

Always disappointing to lose road games that you had a chance to win in the 2nd half, but this was a great early experience for the team. Despite the loss, there was a lot of good that came out of it. The question now is can the supporting cast build off their performances? If Jones/Jackson/Brooks contribute like they did in this game, this team can win some games in this league. We’ll see if they can break the streak against those damn Bo Ryan Badgers tomorrow.

]]> http://www.battledoesitagain.com/2010/01/02/minnesota-75-psu-70/feed/ 0 http://www.battledoesitagain.com/2009/12/29/minnesota-preview/ http://www.battledoesitagain.com/2009/12/29/minnesota-preview/#comments Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:22:39 +0000 Eric http://www.battledoesitagain.com/?p=1783
• WHO: Minnesota Golden Gophers (9-3)
• WHERE: Williams Arena aka The Barn
• WHEN: 9:00 PM
• TV: ESPN2
• LINE: Minnesota by 12
• Enemy Blog: From the Barn
• Pomeroy Profile

Conference play starts tonight, and the Lions open up with no cakewalk. The Golden Gophers play defense, something many opponents in the OOC schedule could not. Will the Nittany Lions be able to handle it?

Minnesota’s only real competition came in the 76 Classic and the Big Ten/ACC challenge. They did beat Butler, but they went 1-3 in those games. However, all of those games were on the road. They lost close games to Miami FL, Texas A&M, and Portland (when they were the story of college basketball).

The Golden Gophers practically returned their whole team from last year (89% returning minutes). Defensive stud Damian Johnson and offensive scorer Lawrence Westbrook return as the senior leaders. Hoffarber, Nolen, Iverson, and Sampson are back as well. The Gophers are deep (11 guys average between 9-25 MPG), tall (21st tallest team in the country), and experienced. Penn State is none of those things. Oh, boy.

Minnesota, much like last year, is still finding their way offensively. Usually Tubby just goes with the hot hand, which this year has been Blake Hoffarber (49% from behind the arc). Blake has torn PSU up in the past so the Lions must be weary of the sharpshooter. Lawrence Westbrook is the go to scorer at 12.9 PPG, but after that, it will be whoever has the hot hand. They can go inside with Sampson (8.4 PPG) or Damian Johnson (10.7 PPG).  Or they could outside with Hoffarber, Westbrook, and 6’3″ reserve Devoe Joseph, who also has had crazy success against the Lions.

But the strength of the Gophers is their defense. Pomeroy has them rated as the 2nd best defense in the entire land (behind only Texas). They like to press you and force steals, but if you successfully get into the halfcourt, they’ll swat your shots. Their defensive numbers so far have been outstanding. The Nittany Lions haven’t seen a defense nearly as good as the Gophers will bring tonight.

So can PSU win this game tonight? I guess they can, but I have no idea how they will. Here are some keys for PSU:

• Slow the game down. Minnesota’s weakness is the halfcourt game, so it’s crucial for the ball handlers to be able to beat the Minnesota press with regularity.
• Be aggressive on offense. The Nittany Lions have to get to the foul line. Minnesota’s defense is allowing their opponents to shoot 29% from 3 and 39% from 2. PSU is going to have to put up some points at the foul line. It’ll be much easier.
• Lock down their shooters. The Gophers have had ridiculous success from behind the arc against the Lions. They shot 19-29 last year in 2 games (including a record 9-9 in the game at The Barn). That obviously cannot happen if PSU expects to win.

PREDICTION: Minnesota covers the 12 point spread. Their defense is just too much for a Nittany Lions offense still struggling to find their identity. Battle could go off and I still think it wouldn’t matter (much like the VT game). Good chance this could get ugly.

A few notes…

• David Jackson, who hyperextended his knee against American, will play tonight but who knows how much. DeChellis was quoted as saying he’s 80%.
• Tim Frazier is also hobbled and will not start tonight. He turned his ankle in practice on Sunday. Chris Babb, who played well the last 2 games, will get the start. Babb’s ball-handling skills will be put to the test.
• Nittany Lions haven’t won at Williams Arena since 2001, the only time they’ve won there.

A few links…

• Check out a Q&A interview I did with From The Barn, as part of his Big Ten previews.
• The Only Colors already breaking out the tempo-free scatterplots.
• Brian Siegrist with some valuable tweets, already. I’m sure more will be coming throughout the day/game.
• Lions shuffling into Big Ten play – Jeff Rice

There’s still opportunities that the schedule ratings could improve. Robert Morris, Sacred Heart, Davidson and UNC-Wilmington all look like they will make some noise in their respective conferences. But you can also basically stick a fork in Penn (who already fired their coach), American, UMBC, and Gardner-Webb.  In the end, though, does it really even matter? The bottom line is this young Penn State team is about to embark on an 18 game conference season. Their preparation was the 317th toughest schedule, and they did not fare well against it.

The NCAA tournament is a long ways away for this team. A road win against ACC bottom-feeder Virginia isn’t going to impress anyone. The Nits have set themselves up for another 11 win conference season if they want to get in. They were unable to do it last year, and it’s highly unlikely they don’t get it this year.

Have any questions heading into this season been answered? There are no consistent scoring options after Battle. As much as we all love Talor, it’s foolish to think he’s going to score 20 points in every Big Ten game. When he has a bad outing, which I’m sure will happen at least a few times, will PSU get run out of the gym or will they still be able to stay competitive? Time will tell.

David Jackson has been the best shooter on the team in terms of shooting percentages, but he continues to not be involved (only 15.2% possessions used). He rarely takes more than 5 shots a game, and it’s unlikely that since conference season is here, things will change. DJ is a great defender and a solid role player. But on a team so desperate for somebody to step up, role players aren’t going to win games.

I’ve been pretty disappointed in Chris Babb. I didn’t think he’d be as streaky of a shooter as he is. He shot his way out of the starting lineup in the Charleston Classic. But in fairness to Chris, he’s still an underclassmen and never proved to be a consistent scorer. My expectations for him were probably a little high. But Penn State’s offense needs him to hit the open jumper when he gets a clean look. He started sinking some shots the last two games, so maybe he can carry that over to conference play. Another thing I’ll say for Chris is he still contributes even if his shot is off. He’s averaging 4 boards in 23 minutes, and I’m impressed with how much he has improved defensively.

Andrew Jones, on the other hand, probably is the biggest disappointment. I’m starting to wonder if he’s maxed out. I thought last year he was ignored on offense, but he’s not using many more possessions this year (15.2% compared to 13.9% ). He struggled early in the year just establishing post position. He’s still scoring his garbage points that are set up by Battle or him grabbing an offensive rebound. But PSU needs Drew to be able to score his own points , and he hasn’t been able to do that. Will he ever?

Jeff Brooks was a pleasant surprise in November, but he has since struggled. Jeff can score with his back to the basket, but he still insists on floating around the perimeter. PSU needs him to touch the ball on the low block with regularity. His length and athleticism is tough to guard, but he needs to stay inside. It’s mind-boggling that with Jeff’s size (6’8″), he has registered 6 games with just 1 rebound or less.

Tim Frazier is going to be really good, but he’s going through the learning curve every freshman guard faces. He’s going to be inconsistent. It has to be expected from the true freshman. I like his defense and athleticism, but we’ll see how he handles Minnesota’s press. Broadcasters have exposed his inability to drive with his left, so you can be sure all the coaches in the league have noticed. His jumper has been a pleasant surprise, even so much that I would like to see him shoot more.

And then there’s Bill Edwards. The late signing has been an awesome surprise. He’s a smooth, versatile playmaker with above average passing and balling handling skills. The coaching staff has given him a lot of freedom on the court. He can shoot the 3, drive the lane, and post up. If there’s anyone who will step up into that 2nd scorers’ role, I’d bet it will be Bill. But he’s still a true freshmen and makes his fair share of bad plays (29.7% TO%). I never feel comfortable relying on a true freshman to be consistent. Especially one who hasn’t even played a game yet at 100%. He’s still hobbled by that knee injury, and I’m curious if Bill will be able to keep up with the athletes in this conference.

I’m more optimistic about the defense this year, however. Before the season, I thought PSU had the potential to put out their best defensive team in years. That wasn’t the case early on, as Sacred Heart and UNC-Wilmington tore the Lions up. But they’ve guarded much better since then, even against decent clubs like Virginia, Va Tech, and Temple. There are much better offensive teams in the conference than those 3 clubs, though, so we’ll see how improved the defense really is. Just because they could be PSU’s best doesn’t mean they’ll be elite. I’m hoping PSU could register a sub 1.0 PPP defense in conference play this year for the first time in DeChellis’ era, but I don’t think they will be at the point to win games on defense.

So, as you can probably tell, I’m not really optimistic as we enter the Big Ten campaign. Too many questions have been left unanswered and too much has been the same. The offense is in disarray. However, I certainly wasn’t optimistic last year and the team went on to post a winning conference record for the first time since 1996…Can Talor Battle really do everything?

In such a close game, every possession, missed shot, or mistake is magnified and can be pointed to as the difference in the game. These frustrating losses tend to allow fans to just focus on the negatives and not the positives, which then leads to arguments over which mistake was bigger and cost the team the game. It gets pretty pointless after a while, but here’s a quick list of what I believe were the most important factors to why PSU lost.

• Shooting – 39.2% eFG% at home isn’t going to get it done.
• Inconsistent Frontcourt – Brooks, thought to be the most consistent so far, didn’t show up.
• Dumb fouls – Frazier, Jones, Ott, and Babb with crucial fouls down the stretch
• Talor Battle missed 7 foul shots

Each of those four factors contributed significantly to the outcome of the game. If we could eliminate just one of those four factors, I bet PSU wins the game. But the bottom line is PSU played a comparable bottom-tier BCS school at home and lost, despite the fact that Talor Battle was unstoppable and scored a career-high 32 points with 0 turnovers. That is the most troubling issue to me because it doesn’t bode well at ALL for the Big Ten season (that is a mere 2 weeks away).

Looking at the Four Factors, PSU just couldn’t shoot the ball well enough to win. Talor had 12 field goals while the rest of the team had 10 combined. That is not a winning formula. Obviously Battle took more than a fair share of shots (26 FGA), but it’s not like the other guys didn’t have chances (39 FGA for the rest of the team). The only player excluded from ‘the rest of the guys’ category would be David Jackson, who had a solid 12 point, 7 rebound performance (4-8 from the field). The rest of the guys were a glorious 6-31 (19.4%). Someone on this team desperately needs to step up and bring it every night.

Defensively, I thought PSU played OK. Not as great as they have been, but the competition was tougher. PSU switched in some 2-3 zone after struggling a bit to match up with VT’s athleticism inside. Malcolm Delaney was on fire for VT and nearly matched Battle’s output (27 points on 20 shots). Delaney is off to a great start to the year averaging 21 PPG and scored 32 on Temple’s tough defense. I felt like PSU made Delaney earn his buckets, so you just have to live with his production. Jeff Allen posted a double-double (12 and 10), but I didn’t think he was nearly as dominating as he was against PSU as a freshman. The biggest problem defensively were fouls. The Lions didn’t give up a FG to Va Tech the last 8 minutes of the game, but there were too many dumb fouls down the stretch that allowed VT to score their last 10 points of the game from the charity stripe. Tim Frazier had 4 fouls himself, neither of them were necessary. He picked up his first three fouls on breakaways for VT, compounding PSU’s problems. The worst committed by Tim, though, had to be his overaggressive reach on Malcolm Delaney (80% FT shooter) 30 feet from the hoop with 9 on the shot clock. It came at the worst possible time as PSU was trying to get a stop and a chance to tie the game with under 30 seconds left. If Frazier didn’t commit any of his needless fouls, VT scores 3 less points. He IS a true freshmen and these were obviously freshmen mistakes, but how long is that excuse valid? These kind of fouls, especially the last one, prevent teams from winning.

Other dumb fouls:

• Chris Babb’s momentum-shifting intentional foul on another VT breakaway. This could be attributed as the key moment of the game. The breakaway was the result of Andrew Jones’ gimme layup being blocked from behind by a VT help-defender. PSU had just regained the lead at 59-58 until this play.
• Andrew Jones picking up 5 fouls in the 2nd half. Some of them were unlucky calls, but still. Having to play Andrew Ott at crunchtime is not something DeChellis would like to have to do.
• Andrew Ott’s tackling of Dorenzo Hudson on a missed foul shot by Battle. Gave VT two free points with under 2 minutes to play. Ya gotta know when and when not to go after some loose balls.

Player Bullets…

• Talor Battle – 32 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, and no turnovers. But everyone has been focusing on his 7 missed foul shots and his missed layup at the buzzer. The guy played his heart out again, after coming back from turning his ankle just 7 minutes into the game. When Battle came back in after the injury, I claimed to my friends he wouldn’t come out. He actually did, but on his own accord, for about a minute or two before the under 8 media TO in the 2nd half. Phenomenal game from Talor, and I’m not too concerned about the foul shots. His form is atrocious, but it always has been. With how hard he plays combined with the hitch in his form (he doesn’t even use his legs), I always expect his foul shots to come up short. They did for the first time all year last night.
• David Jackson – 12 points, 7 rebounds. Played well defensively as well. Good game from DJ.
• Andrew Jones – I thought Drew played better than he has. He was more aggressive, but this team still needs more. He didn’t finish on a couple of decent post moves, and him fouling out in the second half was a big blow. He actually got to the foul line 6 times and converted on 5 of them. Finished with 7 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 blocks.
• Jeff Brooks – Worst game by Brooks on the year. Looked like last year’s Brooks as his body language showed him getting down on himself. The only play he made was a nice alley-oop from Woodyard in the first half, but it could have been a result of Brooks taking forever to get back on D. He got abused on defense and didn’t make any shots he took. 2 points and 1 rebound in 22 minutes. He was benched down the stretch in favor of Andrew Ott…..not good.
• Chris Babb – How long is this guy going to have the greenlight? I don’t know if he’s just lost confidence, but Chris continues to put up bricks from behind the arc. He’s now under 30% for the year from 3. He HAS to be able to knock down the open 3 with consistency. Also, not the best time to test your ability to penetrate and shoot with under a minute left in the game. Nice to see him try, but it was just at the worst possible time. He made a fair share of good plays on defense, but he also let Delaney split a double team to get the rock towards the end of the game. His intentional foul wasn’t too smart, either.
• Tim Frazier – Continues to struggle. I don’t know if he’s still trying to find his niche, but he needs to become more involved in the motion offense. Missed a few open floaters in the lane and committed bad fouls at the wrong times. He’s got a long ways to go, but you can live with it from the true freshman. But will he remain a starter?
• Bill Edwards – Bill didn’t play as well. I would have liked to see him get some more minutes, especially down the stretch. Also, I would’ve loved to see him post up more. He’s shown he can get buckets inside, but when he was in, he floated around the perimeter.
• Andrew Ott – He played about as well as anybody could have expected, but he is what he is. A slow-footed backup that really can only contribute 8-10 minutes MAX a game. Jones foul troubles and Brooks awful play let Ott play 16 minutes. He scored 3 points and grabbed 6 boards, but he committed a dumb foul and couldn’t guard Allen one-on-one.
• Cammeron Woodyard – Cam continues to log minutes and not affect the game at all. It’s almost like he’s not even on the court. He missed 2 shots, assisted on Brooks’ alley oop, and committed a turnover in 9 minutes.
  

  
  It’s finals week, so the Lions don’t take the floor until Saturday night against Gardner-Webb. But this loss has a lot of PSU fans worried about the Big Ten season, including myself.

  ]]> http://www.battledoesitagain.com/2009/12/14/vt-66-psu-64/feed/ 3 http://www.battledoesitagain.com/2009/11/28/psu-87-sacred-heart-75/ http://www.battledoesitagain.com/2009/11/28/psu-87-sacred-heart-75/#comments Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:30:09 +0000 Eric http://www.battledoesitagain.com/?p=1641 There’s no place like the Bryce Jordan Center for the Nittany Lions. After an atrocious trip to Charleston where Penn State was a frigid 38.1% eFG% from the field in 3 games, the Lions carved up Sacred Heart’s defense for 87 points in a 68 possession game. They shot a blistering 70.2% eFG% from the floor, getting whatever they wanted from inside. That’s right, PSU looked like they had a plan of attack on offense and they were dominant on the offensive end.

  Tempo-free numbers:

  Teams	Poss	Efficiency	eFG%	OReb%	FTRate	TO%
  PSU	68.0	127.9	70.2%	10.5%	53.2%	16.2%
  SH	68.0	110.3	60.2%	32.1%	10.2%	25.0%

  Those rebounding numbers are awful, especially when you consider the level of competition. But when you take into account the fact that PSU only missed 17 shots all game, it’s not that big of a deal that they only pulled down 2 offensive rebounds. Plus, they put up their best offensive efficiency of the year so far. It was an encouraging performance for a team that looked so anemic on offense in Charleston. Keep in mind, though, Xavier put up 136.4 efficiency and 105 points against the Pioneers just 4 days earlier, so the competition was not good.

  The defense was very disappointing, especially in the second half. Sacred Heart hit 8 of their first 11 threes of the second period. They didn’t really do anything special, either. They obviously were a POT team and shot a bunch of threes. There were a lot of ball screens and dribbled weaves that PSU strategized to switch off. But they couldn’t close on SH’s three shooters and they were burned repeatedly. DeChellis sounded frustrated on the postgame radio show. This game wouldn’t have been a contest if the defense showed up. SH did hit a couple of ridiculous shots, but it shouldn’t have become a 62-61 game in the 2nd half.

  Player Bullets

  • David Jackson – How about DJ’s career night? Probably one of the most impressive stat lines from a PSU player, ever. 26 points on just 10 shots (made 8), including a solid 9-11 at the charity stripe. Chipped in 2 rebounds and 4 assists for good measure, as well. The most encouraging part of DJ’s night was that he commanded the paint on offense. He had an assortment of up and under post moves, had a few drives that resulted in trips to the line, and hit a couple of jumpers. I would really like to go nuts over his game, but the defense on him was terrible (6’4″ playground shooter Corey Hassan was guarding him on half his buckets). Probably won’t ever see a game like this from DJ again, but it’s nice to see he can step it up inside.
  • Talor Battle – Probably one of the quietest, but most efficient games of his career. 19 points on 8 shots (made 6), 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals. Most of his buckets were layups, and he was a beast on the defensive glass, once again. Talor looked much more comfortable with the rest of the team compared to any other game this year.
  • Jeff Brooks – Last year’s Brooks made an appearance. Jeff was in foul trouble all game and was never a factor. He only logged 13 minutes and had 4 points and 1 rebound. Really lost his composure on a few occasions, most notably his 4th foul after a lazy pass that was picked off on the perimeter. We’ll see how Jeff responds…how fragile is his confidence?
  • Andrew Jones – Can someone get this guy some post moves going to the basket. While DJ was schooling kids left and right, Jones wasn’t doing diddly. He only took 4 FGA (1 was a wide open dunk) and 2 of them were jumpers. Neither of the 3 attempts were going at the rim. He has got to pick up his game if PSU wants to win, particularly on the road.
  • Bill Edwards – I love this guy. He has tons of composure for a true freshman coming off his first injury. He never got ahead of himself and showed some quality court vision. He’s not scared to take it to the rack and finish, either. The lefty has a soft touch from the perimeter, as well. He’s just so smooth with the ball in his hands. I cannot wait until he has at 100%. He was a little bit gimpy with the knee and he was noticeably slow. He scored 10 points (all in the second half) in 13 minutes with 2 rebounds and 2 assists. High ceiling for this guy.
  • Cammeron Woodyard – By far Woodyard’s best game of the season. He had 2 steals and 7 points in 15 minutes. He attempted two shots that were not threes for the first time this year. He had a layup on a steal and run-out and a clean 3. But the biggest play from Cam was a smooth 17 foot jumper with 5 minutes left that put PSU up 3 possessions. Nice to see Cam stepping up with the emergence of Edwards. If Cam wants to stay in the rotation, he has to continue this play. The luxury of having depth, for once.
  • Tim Frazier – Got the start again and scored 7 points and had 3 assists and 2 rebounds in 23 minutes. He continues to drive the lane with nowhere to go, though. Typical growing pains for the freshmen. He made a lot of athletic plays though and contributed. Will he ever attempt another 3 pointer? He hasn’t since he went 4-5 against Robert Morris.
  • Chris Babb – Chris came off the bench and hit two big threes that were set up nicely. He also dished out 5 assists in 22 minutes. I’m willing to bet Babb is going to be a much better shooter at home than on the road. All 4 FGA were from behind the arc, as usual. Still have yet to seen Babb penetrate and create.
  • Andrew Ott and Sasa Borovnjak – Both played 5 minutes in the first half but didn’t do too much. Sasa got rejected a couple of times, and Ott did nothing but score on an easy layup set up beautifully by a TB wrap-a-round pass.

  I wasn’t impressed with Sacred Heart but they hung tough with their shooting. The defense has got to improve immensely, but I’m sure the coaching staff is working diligently on it with the team. The Lions hopefully found some new shooting confidence they can take with them on the road Monday against UVA in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Preview forthcoming.

  ]]> http://www.battledoesitagain.com/2009/11/28/psu-87-sacred-heart-75/feed/ 0 http://www.battledoesitagain.com/2009/11/15/psu-70-penn-55/ http://www.battledoesitagain.com/2009/11/15/psu-70-penn-55/#comments Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:50:48 +0000 Eric http://www.battledoesitagain.com/?p=1564 You gotta love season openers. For many of us diehards, we had to wait a long 7 and a half months. Football tried to fill the void, but failed horribly. A terrible schedule/conference provided undeserved victories, which raised unrealistic expectations for this team, and it just led to disappointment, confusion, and an awkward ‘emptiness’ feeling. This might be the most unsatisfying 10-2 season in the history of football (assuming they win in EL next week, which is a complete toss-up IMO).

  It didn’t help that this has been by far the most optimistic I’ve been for a Penn State basketball season since the Crispin era. With the positive end to last season, along with the uncertainty of how this team is going to be this year, I was just a little excited to get the season started on Friday. I was so excited to see basketball that I completely forgot how awful these early games are. It’s not a Penn State thing. It’s evidenced throughout college basketball. It takes a week or two for teams to get into the flow of the season and start playing competent basketball. It really makes you wonder why the hell the Selection Committee puts as much stock in these games in March. It’s all about the body of work, don’t you know.

  So I would have to say the Penn game wasn’t too revealing to how PSU is going to play this year. Or maybe it was a significant sign that this is how we’re gonna be and I’m just in denial.

  We all knew Talor Battle is going to produce the most, but if he’s counted on to do this much for PSU to win a game, it’s going to be a long season. Talor had a phenomenal game – 27 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists. He consistently broke Zach Rosen’s ankles with some incredible hesitation steps and some ridiculous craftiness in the lane. Talor could always score in the paint, but the way he did Friday made me think he did really improve over the summer. He did whatever he want against the Quakers and it was a joy to watch. I particularly enjoyed his 1 on 5 drive that put PSU up 61-49, capping off a mini 7-1 run that put the game away with 4 minutes to go.

  It was a choppy game, because the officiating crew couldn’t swallow their whistles. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many offensive fouls called in one game. It wasn’t unfair or one-sided, it just really kept the game from getting into any sort of flow. Three of PSU starters picked up 2 fouls in the 1st half – Drew, DJ, and Babb. That allowed for DeChellis to play 11 guys at least 5 minutes each in the first half. It was nice to see the new guys get so much time, but there was little cohesion among the ever-changing lineups. Battle was the only constant during the game.

  Some tempo-free analysis:

  Teams	Poss	Efficiency	eFG%	OReb%	FTRate	TO%
  PSU	63.0	111.1	56.5%	25.8%	31.5%	15.9%
  UPenn	63.0	87.3	42.7%	25.0%	45.8%	20.6%

  As you can see, PSU shot well and took care of the ball like we did last year. But the offensive rebounding wasn’t there, which is a little unusual for DeChellis’ teams. PSU also didn’t do well getting to the foul line, especially when you consider Penn was whistled for 23 fouls. I thought the pace would be faster, but like I mentioned, I think the number of fouls interrupted the flow.

  I was disappointed with the offense. PSU shot 27 threes (made 9 of them). You would think a Big Ten team would be able to getter better shots against an Ivy League team with nobody over 6’9″. I know we are going to shoot a lot of jumpshots from the perimeter, but there has to be some sort of balance. How about this stat; Talor Battle scored 9 baskets inside the arc, the rest of the team scored 8. If a 5’11″ PG is going to be our inside threat, we aren’t going anywhere. Andrew Jones didn’t look like the guy he was at the end of last season. He couldn’t get open in the post and we were never able to get some inside-outside ball movement going on. There were only 11 assists on PSU’s 26 made field goals (42.7%). Talor did most of his damage on his own. This cannot be the M.O. for this season.

  The defense was okay. Penn State played straight man all night. I was impressed with Penn, to be honest. They had great spacing and did a good job penetrating and getting great looks. Zach Rosen is a solid PG. He can really dish the rock in traffic. Penn had 12 assists on their 18 made field goals (66.7%). Darrin Smith’s 1-11 performance and Tyler Bernandini’s foul troubles really hurt them. Bernandini actually scored the first 10 points for Penn, but finished with just 12. Penn State did a good job rebounding, but they didn’t really force turnovers (most of theirs were offensive fouls) and posted just a 2.1% Block Pct and a 4.8% Steal Pct.We gotta be more active on defense and create plays that will generate fastbreaks and points.

  Player Bullets

  • Talor Battle – Phenomenal, as previously mentioned.
  • Andrew Jones – Didn’t play well. Foul troubles limited minutes until he fouled out. Scored 4 points and grabbed 5 boards in 21 minutes. Missed both of his free throws.
  • Chris Babb – He played just 6 minutes in the first half because of foul trouble, but logged 17 minutes in the second half. Took him a while to get in a rhythm, but he hit 2 threes towards the end of the game and finished with 8 points, 4 boards, 3 assists, and a steal. There are going to be nights when he goes OFF.
  • David Jackson – Looked okay. He was also limited by fouls. He scored 4 points on 2-6 shooting, but was steady on defense like always. His shots looked good, he rimmed out a few jumpers.
  • Jeff Brooks – Second leading scorer with 10 points. He looked comfortable on the court. You gotta wonder, though, how a 6’7″ forward plays 27 minutes and only grabs 1 rebound. He’s gotta be more willing to mix it up inside.
  • Andrew Ott – He was productive, despite how it looked. 5 points and 4 boards in just 14 minutes, but he also fouled out. The guys have to adjust to how the game is called.
  • Cammeron Woodyard – He played the majority of the first half because of Babb’s fouls. He hit a pretty three from a feed from Talor, but shot 1-4 from behind the arc. You would like to see more production out of your sixth man who logs 16 minutes. He finished with just 3 points, 1 assist, and 1 rebound.
  • Sasa Borovnjak – He’s not red-shirting. I get more and more encouraged by his play each time I see. He was diving on the floor and really hustling out there. He logged 13 minutes – scored 2 points and grabbed a board.
  • Adam Highberger – I’m curious to see how much he plays this season. He’s just 6’2″ and doesn’t have the athleticism to create like our other guards. But his shot is money. Very quick release. He hit two big threes in the first half in his 5 minutes of action. He was also guarding Bernandini for a stretch, and while I found that to be a mismatch, surprisingly, Bernandini didn’t score on him.
  • Tim Frazier – I thought he would play a bit more, but DeChellis I guess wanted to get his starters some run in the second half. Talor was also playing too well to come out. He didn’t do too much on the stat sheet other than record 2 assists in 8 minutes. Can’t wait to see more of Tim.
  • Billy Oliver – Nice to see him see the floor. Didn’t do much in his 5 minutes to really form an impression. He did take a three and missed, but his stroke looked good.

  Overall, an unimpressive first performance (except for Battle). They shot pitifully from the foul line (9-17), as usual, chucked up threes on offense, as usual, relied on Battle way too much (39 minutes against Penn?), as usual, and weren’t active on defense, as usual. But it is just the first game and I’m probably looking way too much into it. PSU got the W, so it’s on to the next one (Robert Morris, tomorrow).

  PS – If you didn’t know, Denzel Washington was at the game to watch his son, Malcolm, who is a walk-on for Penn. I was disappointed that I was denied by the usher to go meet him. He’s the man.

  Game Stories

  • Battle powers Penn State in opener – CDT
  • Penn State downs Penn 70-55 to win 5th straight season opener – GoPSUSports
  • Penn short on answers in 70-55 loss to PSU – Philly Inquirer
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