3 takeaways from Penn State men’s basketball’s 58-49 loss to Wisconsin
Penn State men’s basketball lost its third Big Ten game of the season Saturday afternoon when it fell to Wisconsin, 58-49. It was Penn State’s first home loss of the season after winning 13 straight games at the Bryce Jordan Center.
Let’s take a look at what went wrong for the Nittany Lions and where they’ll go from here.
1. Penn State needs to keep shooting
Penn State head coach Pat Chambers said it best himself. The Nittany Lions just need to keep shooting.
“We’ve got to make shots,” he said. “Let’s call it what it is ... You’ve got to make shots. When you have open shots you’ve got to make shots ... We had good looks at Rutgers and we had good looks (against Wisconsin). We’ve got to make those ... Our 3-point shooters have got to step up and play with confidence, and I give them that. I keep telling them, ‘You’re gonna make the next one, you’re gonna make the next one.’ And I’ll continue to say that. They’ll start falling.”
They shot a paltry 5-of-21 from beyond the arc Saturday afternoon and 17-of-52 from the field. The Nittany Lions are too good of a team to perform like that on a consistent basis and are due for a positive regression to the mean. They will, and should, continue to take plenty of looks from beyond the arc and that will open the game up on the inside, which is necessary for this team to succeed.
Players like redshirt senior Mike Watkins and redshirt sophomore Izaiah Brockington need space to operate at their highest level, and making shots will open the court for them. When Penn State’s shooters can make looks from beyond the arc, it forces defenders to stay closer to them to prevent players like redshirt senior Curtis Jones and sophomore Myreon Jones from getting open looks.
The gravity Penn State’s shooters possess opens the lane for Watkins to go to work without the threat of a double team and clears the court for Brockington to use his athleticism and attack the rim. Even when they aren’t hitting shots, it’s important for Penn State to keep shooting to keep the offense in rhythm.
2. Lamar Stevens needs to be more of an alpha dog
When those open looks aren’t falling for Penn State, it needs its best player to step up and take the game over. That’s not to say Stevens hasn’t been great as a scorer this year (he has), but he needs to show more aggressive when nobody else is scoring, like when they struggled Saturday afternoon.
“Unfortunately, we’re going to have to (see Lamar take a heavier workload),” Chambers said. “We don’t have a choice. Everybody’s got to do a better job ... That’s putting a lot of stress and pressure on Lamar Stevens. He’s ready for it, he’s capable of it.”
Stevens led the team in scoring with 19 points and 17 field goal attempts, but in a game like Saturday’s, you want those totals to be greater. Now, he shouldn’t try to force the issue on offense all the time but he needs to sense when his teammates don’t have it.
If he’s the only player that is consistently getting good looks, he needs to do whatever he can to hunt those shots. You don’t want Stevens consistently taking 20+ shots per game because this team has plenty of other scorers. But when they’re not making their shots and he’s still finding his, Stevens needs to take control of the Penn State offense and prove why he’s one of the best players in Penn State men’s basketball history.
3. The Nittany Lions are still a good basketball team
It’s easy to overreact to Penn State’s two-game losing streak and say this is the same old Penn State men’s basketball team. It’s easy to say they’ve gotten fans’ hopes up only to let them down again like they have in the past. But that doesn’t make it true.
Chambers described the two-game losing streak best.
“We’re hitting a little speed bump here,” Chambers said, “a little bump in the road for us. We just gotta go back to work. There’s plenty of time here (and) a lot of games left. Our goals are all still intact. We just gotta keep getting a little bit better.”
This team isn’t set to derail just because it’s lost two games in a row. While a complete breakdown is a possible outcome, it’s not a probable one.
The Nittany Lions are playing like a team that can, and should, make the NCAA Tournament. They also just happen to play in the toughest conference in college basketball.
That means they’re going to lose games they’re projected to win and they’re going to win games they’re projected to lose. So are the other 13 teams in the Big Ten.
Take Indiana, as an example. The Hoosiers eked out a 66-62 win at home over the Northwestern Wildcats Wednesday night. The Wildcats are 5-9 and one of the two worst teams in the conference. Saturday afternoon, just as the Nittany Lions tipped off their game with the Badgers, the Hoosiers took down Ohio State in a 66-54 win at home. The same Buckeyes who currently rank as the No. 7 team in the country in Ken Pomeroy’s ranking.
On any given night, in any given arena, any team in the Big Ten is vulnerable in conference play. The Nittany Lions are no different. So prepare for big wins and puzzling losses, because there’s sure to be more of both on the way this season.
This story was originally published January 12, 2020 at 1:04 PM.
