Why Penn State men’s basketball isn’t overlooking Nebraska with No. 14 Michigan State looming
Penn State has a big-time matchup looming.
The No. 14 Michigan State Spartans are lurking as the No. 24 Nittany Lions traveling to East Lansing for an 8 p.m. Tuesday clash. The road game looks to be Penn State’s toughest of the season and an important one in determining just how good this team can be.
But before the Nittany Lions can turn their heads to the Spartans, they must first travel to Lincoln, Nebraska, to take on the Cornhuskers Saturday night.
While back-to-back road games can be difficult, head coach Patrick Chambers said the key to navigating the stretch successfully is time management.
“It’s really about taking care of mind and body,” Chambers said. “We have to pick and choose when we’re going to practice, we have to pick and choose film sessions ... We always talk to the leadership council and get some of their feedback on where they think the team is and what we need to do on this particular day.”
While the staff is keeping an eye on how it manages the team’s time, it isn’t managing its focus. The Nittany Lions are only talking about Nebraska and won’t think about Michigan State until they take care of the task at hand.
Taking a page out of football coach James Franklin’s playbook, Chambers said the focus now is “Nebraska, Nebraska, Nebraska.”
“Right now we just need to go 1-0 ... We can’t look back, we can’t look forward. We’ve got to stay right here, right now,” he said. “We’re not looking ahead. We’re staying right here and (we’re) focused on Penn State getting a little bit better.”
He’s right to hone in the team’s focus. The Cornhuskers are the worst team in the Big Ten, according to Ken Pomeroy’s KenPom rankings. They’re ranked No. 130 in the rankings and have started the season 7-14 overall and 2-8 in the conference.
Still, they present a unique challenge because they have one of the most gifted passers in the country in sophomore guard Cam Mack.
“This kid has 79 assists versus 26 turnovers in 10 games,” Chambers said. “That’s pretty ridiculous.”
Mack does it all for Nebraska. He’s leading the team in scoring and assists with 13.6 and 6.8 per game, respectively, while shooting at a 37.8% clip from beyond the arc, third on the team, and grabbing 4.7 rebounds per game, second on the team.
Chambers even sees a bit of one of his former standout players in the Husker.
“Mack reminds me of (former Penn State and current Detroit Pistons guard) Tim Frazier, but (Mack) is probably a better shooter at this point,” Chambers said.
Penn State will have two excellent options to match up against Mack in junior guard Jamari Wheeler and redshirt sophomore guard Izaiah Brockington, but even that might not be enough.
According to Chambers, guarding Mack will be a full-team effort.
“We’ve got to do the best job we can of disrupting him or getting him out of rhythm,” Chambers said. “He seems like he plays with an incredible pace. He’s got great hesitation moves, he lives in the paint when he wants to, and he’s shooting at a very high clip right now. The last couple of games he’s been on fire. We have to do a really good job of team defense, much like we did against Indiana and Michigan. We have to bring that same defense to Nebraska.”
The Nittany Lions are on a three-game winning streak, and slowing down Mack will be important to extending it to four. Their defense has been good during the streak, which bodes well for their chances to stop the sophomore guard.
“Watching game film I thought we really played well defensively,” Chambers said. “Over our winning streak here our defense has gotten so much better. It’s performed really well. (We’ve given up a) 37% field goal percentage (and a) 27% 3-point field goal percentage and we’re really not fouling as much. (We’re) only putting teams there 53 times in the last three games compared to our 67.”
Whether Penn State can continue that Saturday night and not get caught looking ahead to Tuesday will be key to making sure the Cornhuskers aren’t in a position to pull off a shocker Saturday night in Lincoln.
