Here are 3 takeaways from Penn State men’s basketball’s 72-56 loss to No. 19 Wisconsin
Penn State men’s basketball was unable to string together back-to-back wins against the No. 19 Wisconsin Badgers, falling 72-56 Tuesday night on the road. The loss drops the Nittany Lions to 6-8 overall and 3-7 in the Big Ten.
Here are three takeaways from the loss.
1. Trice was shut down again
Penn State needed to again keep D’Mitrik Trice in check, like it did Saturday night, if it wanted to complete the regular season sweep of the Badgers. The Nittany Lions were able to do exactly that and the senior guard didn’t have much of an answer for the defense he faced. Trice was held scoreless in the game, bringing his combined total between the last two games to six points.
He saw pressure from defenders throughout the game and couldn’t crack the defense and find open shots. Instead, he was turned into more of a playmaker in the game, doling out six assists. His teammates were able to make open looks and help create some of the offense that gets lost when Trice can’t make shots.
2. Penn State’s offense was listless
While the team’s efforts against Trice were valiant, they will merely be a footnote in the story of the game. That’s because the Nittany Lions couldn’t get anything going on offense and struggled to make shots they usually hit. They finished the game making only 38.6% of their 57 attempts from the field and six of their 24 3-point attempts.
The shot selection wasn’t great but the Nittany Lions seemed destined to lose this game. There was almost nothing they could do to get shots to fall on Tuesday night. Sometimes those nights happen — and the timing could have been worse — but it still caused a blown opportunity against a team it had defeated three days earlier.
3. The Nittany Lions need to respond
A bounce-back game will be crucial for Penn State Friday night when it takes on Maryland at home. Upcoming is a stretch of three games against teams that aren’t playing well at the moment. They’re three winnable games against the Terrapins, Michigan State and Nebraska in that order. Winning Tuesday night against Wisconsin would have put the Nittany Lions in a position where a loss would have been palatable for the team if it wants to have an outside shot at the NCAA Tournament. Now that they’ve lost, they will need to get those three wins and get back above .500 before facing more difficult games the rest of the way.
The Nittany Lions’ postseason chances didn’t take a major hit with this loss, but they did create an impetus for positive things to happen in the next two weeks.
This story was originally published February 2, 2021 at 10:59 PM.
