Here’s 3 takeaways from Penn State basketball’s 80-72 loss to Purdue
Penn State men’s basketball took the court for a game for the first time in 2021 on Sunday afternoon. The Nittany Lions couldn’t find a rhythm against the Purdue Boilermakers on the road, losing 80-72. The loss drops Penn State to 3-5 on the season and 0-4 in the Big Ten.
Here are three takeaways from the loss.
1. Penn State couldn’t shake off the rust
The Nittany Lions hadn’t played a game since Dec. 30 and on Sunday, and it showed against Purdue. They struggled to make shots from deep in the game and didn’t have much of an answer fix their offensive issues. They couldn’t consistently finish around the rim because of Purdue’s size and rim protection, leaving them without a clear path to easy offense against the Boilermakers. Penn State began the game by missing their first nine looks from beyond the arc, a sign that the nittany Lions were still shaking off the rust from their time away from game action.
They finished 10-of-39 from 3-point range, which isn’t good enough for a team that needs to rely on its perimeter scoring to generate offense this season. The Nittany Lions will have nights where shots aren’t falling consistently, but when they’re missing as many looks as they did Sunday, they have very little chance of winning.
2. Defense applied more interior pressure
Penn State interim head coach Jim Ferry said Thursday his team had new defensive tactics it was ready to implement in an effort to stop team from scoring on the interior and generating offense out of the post. That resulted in the Nittany Lions playing zone defense and using double teams at times against two of the biggest centers in the Big Ten. The Boilermakers boast 7-foot-4, 285-pound Zach Edey and 6-foot-10, 265-pound Trevion Williams, who are both capable of dominating the interior.
They were good against Penn State, but not great. The zone defense allowed Penn State to collapse when the two big men had post touches and the double teams forced kick-out opportunities. Williams was able to find open teammates on those double teams, which created a new set of issues that the the Nittany Lions will need to solve as it works through it’s defensive half-court struggles.
3. The Nittany Lions are in a precarious position
Sunday wasn’t a make-or-break game for Penn State, but one may be coming in the near future. The Nittany Lions have now lost their first four Big Ten games, with more difficult games ahead. Their next opponent is an extremely talented Illinois team that already lit them up for 98 points in late December. Then it’s two potentially winnable games against Rutgers and Northwestern at the Bryce Jordan Center.
Those games are going to be crucial for their postseason chances. Penn State needs to find two wins in their next three games to keep their season alive. Two losses will put them in a bad place within a difficult conference schedule that won’t be forgiving to a team that has its wheels come off in the middle of it.
