Nittany Lions shift to Big Ten, Wildcats

By Jeff Rice

Two teams will meet in Evanston, Ill., tonight to discover if their momentum is legitimate.

Both Penn State and Northwestern, who will square off at 9 p.m. in Welsh-Ryan Arena, will open their Big Ten seasons on the heels of strong if unspectacular finishes to their non-conference slates.

Penn State (8-4) has won its last five games, but just one — an 89-86 overtime home defeat of Seton Hall on Dec. 8 — over a quality opponent.

“We’re starting to put the pieces together somewhat,” Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said. “The consistency is what we’re trying to get out of the guys now, especially out of the younger guys.”

The Wildcats (5-4) have won four in a row, but none against a major-conference team. Northwestern, which generates the vast majority of its Princeton-style offense from 3-pointers or layups, is shooting 40 percent as a team from long range, tops in the Big Ten, and 48 percent from the field overall.

Freshman guard Michael Thompson, a 5-foot-10 Chicago native who averages five assists per game, leads the team and is sixth in the Big Ten in 3-point shooting at 45.2 percent. Coach Bill Carmody’s team should also have its top scorer from 2006-07 on the floor for the first time this season.

Kevin Coble, who had missed the first nine games of the season while spending time with his ailing mother in Arizona, returned to practice this week and is expected to play tonight. The 6-foot-8 true sophomore averaged 13.4 points and 5.2 rebounds per game last season, leading the Wildcats in both categories.

Northwestern’s deliberate offense can be challenging for some opponents, but the Nittany Lions should be as prepared as anyone. They defeated both Princeton and Denver, teams coached by former Princeton assistants who run the same offense, last month.

“Playing Princeton and Denver really helps us out,” senior forward Geary Claxton said.

Claxton, who led Penn State in scoring in each of his first three seasons, enters his final conference run on a torrid pace. His 19.3 points per game are second-best in the Big Ten, and he has scored 20 or more points in eight of 12 games, including 29 in Monday’s 81-68 defeat of Lehigh.

He leads a group of five veterans who give DeChellis as much experience on the floor as he has had in four-plus seasons at Penn State. The coach believes those veterans were big reasons his team rebounded from a nightmarish 0-3 performance at the Old Spice Classic in November.

“I think it’s important for upperclassmen to show the way defensively, offensively, off the floor,” DeChellis said. “After (the Old Spice Classic), they went back to work, and we were able to do some good things. They have responded and they have given us some leadership.”

Notes: The Nittany Lions, who visit Illinois at 2 p.m. Sunday, will stay in Illinois until then instead of flying back to State College. ... Penn State has won only three of its last 48 Big Ten road games. One of those wins came in Welsh-Ryan. ... Northwestern is shooting 61.3 percent from the free-throw line and ranks ninth in the conference. Penn State’s 59.5 mark puts it 10th. ... The Wildcats have the league’s best assist-to-turnover ratio (1.74). The Nittany Lions are third at 1.28.