The next game on the schedule has arrived. Never mind that it’s the most anticipated date of Penn State’s non-conference schedule in years and against arguably the most talented team the Nittany Lions will play this season, or that it will be the first trip away from the Bryce Jordan Center for nearly half the rotation.
Nope. Penn State’s noon contest against No. 2 Kentucky in the Basketball Hall of Fame Tipoff Tournament at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., is merely the next game on the schedule, or at least that’s what Penn State coach Patrick Chambers has been trying to get across to his team for the last several days.
“We are playing a high-major team,” Chambers said Friday. “It just happens to be Kentucky. Championships aren’t won in November. This will be a great test to see where our guys are.”
The Nittany Lions are 3-0 after a contested 77-68 defeat of Long Island on Wednesday in the Bryce Jordan Center. Veterans like Tim Frazier, Cammeron Woodyard and Billy Oliver are playing with confidence in the early part of the season while newcomers Trey Lewis and Ross Travis have shown early signs they will be able to contribute this season.
But today's matchup will be different than anything the Nittany Lions have encountered since Chambers took over the program in June.
The Wildcats (2-0) racked up 183 points and allowed 123 in their first two games, shooting 57 percent from the field and 44 percent from 3-point range and blocking 26 shots (12 by 6-foot-10 freshman Anthony Davis).
Five different Wildcats average in double figures, including Davis (18.5 points) and sophomore guard Doron Lamb (16.0), and 6-9 sophomore Terrance Jones (11.5 points, 8.0 rebounds per game) is a potential national player of the year candidate. John Calipari’s team, coming off a Final Four appearance and led by yet another lauded recruiting class, is once again young, deep, versatile and equipped to run most of the nation's teams out of the building.
It’s not a tussle with Rad-ford, and Chambers knows it as well as anyone. But he wants to see how his young squad will handle it.
“We faced a little adversity at home against Long Island, and you don’t know how your team is going to respond to that,” Chambers said. “We are a young team — are you going to crumble, fold up and go home, or just keep plugging away?”
The winner of today’s game will take on the winner of today’s Old Dominion- South Florida game on Sunday, and the loser will meet the loser of that game. Either way, the Nittany Lions will play at 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
Chambers wants his team to worry about what it is doing and not to get caught up in the tradition or the hype on the other side of the floor today.
“Focus on us, on Penn State basketball,” Chambers said. “Don’t do anything outside of what we have been doing for the first few months here. Get to our strengths, don’t worry about the score — everyone wants to score 30 in these big games — just go out and do what we do.”
Notes:The game will be webcast on ESPN3.com. … Kentucky leads the all-time series 2-1, but Penn State won the most recent meeting, a 73-68 upset in Lexington on Nov. 25, 2000. … Frazier entered Friday's games third in the Big Ten in scoring (20.7 points per game) and first in assists (8.7 per game).
