Penn State men’s basketball ready to start 2020-21 season amid plenty of uncertainty
Penn State basketball’s upcoming season — which begins Wednesday against Drexel at the Bryce Jordan Center — comes with plenty of uncertainty. The Nittany Lions lost former head coach Pat Chambers after he resigned in late October and will take the floor without forward Lamar Stevens to start the season for the first time since 2015.
Chambers has since been replaced — in the interim — by Jim Ferry, one of his former assistants.
Ferry will be charged with leading the Nittany Lions in the first year of the post-Chambers era and will have to do so while replacing Stevens, one of the best players in program history.
He and his team are trying to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2011 after missing out on a clear opportunity to do so when the season was canceled last March due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The plan for Ferry and the remaining coaching staff that Chambers left is to maintain what the former head coach built and utilize it to take the Nittany Lions to the postseason.
“I’ve been here for three years now, going on four,” Ferry said. “I’ve been the offensive coordinator, (assistant coach) Keith (Urgo) has been the defensive coordinator. We’ve all been working together, so there really hasn’t been that much change. We had one of the best seasons in the history of the school last year, so I don’t think we’re really looking to change much.”
While Ferry will keep the structure the same, the components will likely look very different this year.
Stevens was the engine that made the offense go last season and the pieces around him were there to complement him offensively. Without him, those complementary pieces will have to step up and take over as the team’s primary option on offense. The Nittany Lions have multiple options to take that step forward.
There are guards like Myreon Jones and Sam Sessoms who have proven capable of leading an offense, while Izaiah Brockington and Seth Lundy have proven to be talented scorers at the wing who could lead the offense with enough improvement from last season.
Jones is the player most likely to step up because he already proved he could do it for the Nittany Lions. The junior guard averaged 13.3 points per game as last season’s second-leading scorer behind Stevens and has a skill-set that can take over a game. He’s an excellent shooter that can get to his spots on the court and make open shots in a pinch.
He’s the shot-maker the team needs and said he’s ready for what’s to come this season.
“I don’t have any pressure on me,” Jones said. “I feel like the staff put me in the best position to succeed and I know my teammates have got my back. So I feel like if all of us are working on the same page there won’t be no pressure at all.”
The other guard option to lead the team is the inverse of Jones as a scorer. Sessoms led Binghamton in scoring last season with 19.4 points per game before transferring to Penn State in the offseason.
He’s only 6-feet tall, but plays with strength and grit on offense. He can get to the rim in isolation situations and finish through contact while getting and-one opportunities at the free throw line. He only shot 31.5% from 3-point range on seven attempts per game but made 36.6% of his attempts on 5.8 attempts per game the year prior. Ferry said the newest Nittany Lion brings toughness to the roster.
“Sam’s a competitor, man,” Ferry said. “He’s one of those tough Philly guards. He can really play with the ball in his hands and break you down ... He’s done a really good job and I think he gives us another guard that can break people down, which is always helpful in this league.”
Brockington and Lundy are more likely to step up marginally from their respective 8.1 and 5.3 points per game scoring averages, respectively. They — specifically Lundy — will need to provide some of the other aspects of Stevens’ game, like his rebounding, that will be lost on this year’s team. That need will be exacerbated by the loss of Mike Watkins, the team’s redshirt senior center last season, and lack of overall size.
Senior John Harrar and freshman Abdou Tsimbila will soak up the minutes left behind by Watkins at center. They’ll need to replace his rebounding and ability as a shot blocker to provide a solid last defense for the Nittany Lions.
Watkins’ and Stevens’ lost production will dictate just how far Penn State can take this tumultuous season. If the guards and wings can replace Stevens and the remaining bigs can help provide an interior presence, the team could achieve what it was on course to last season and make an NCAA Tournament appearance.
But if the loss of last year’s seniors is too much to overcome, the team could fall apart quickly and become just another Penn State team that failed to reach the postseason. It’s up to the team’s leadership to prove it can build off the success of last season and reap the rewards of the groundwork laid by Chambers.
Penn State basketball 2020-21 schedule
Nov 25 (Wed) vs. Drexel University
Nov 28 (Sat) vs. Virginia Military Institute
Dec 2 (Wed) vs. Virginia Commonwealth University
Dec 6 (Sun) vs. Seton Hall University
Dec 8 (Tue) at Virginia Tech
Dec 13 (Sun) at Michigan
Dec 23 (Wed) vs. Illinois
Dec 30 (Wed) at Indiana
Jan 3 (Sun) vs. Wisconsin
Jan 6 (Wed) at Ohio State
Jan 9 (Sat) vs. Michigan
Jan 12 (Tue) vs. Rutgers
Jan 17 (Sun) at Purdue
Jan 20 (Wed) at Illinois
Jan 23 (Sat) vs. Northwestern
Jan 30 (Sat) at Nebraska Lincoln
Feb 2 (Tue) at Wisconsin
Feb 5 (Fri) vs. Maryland
Feb 9 (Tue) at Michigan State
Feb 14 (Sun) vs. Nebraska
Feb 18 (Thu) vs. Ohio State
Feb 21 (Sun) at Iowa
Feb 26 (Fri) vs. Purdue University
Mar 3 (Wed) vs. Minnesota
Mar 7 (Sun) at Maryland
This story was originally published November 19, 2020 at 10:27 AM.
