Here are 3 takeaways from Penn State men’s basketball’s 73-52 loss to Purdue
Penn State men’s basketball lost to the Purdue Boilermakers at the Bruce Jordan Center Friday night, 73-52. The conference loss drops the Nittany Lions to 8-13 overall and 5-12 in the Big Ten.
Here are three takeaways from the loss.
1. Penn State struggled early
The Nittany Lions have been let down by their offense on numerous occasions in the first half this season, but Friday night they struggled mightily on both ends of the court. They put up only 26 points in the half and allowed the Boilermakers to rack up 41 in the first half to set the tone of the game early. Purdue used off-ball movement offensively to make life difficult for the Nittany Lions. They were frequently caught in traffic as the Boilermakers cut to the hoop and came off screens for open shots.
Purdue is a well-coached team that can run an offense to perfection and also isolate with the help of freshman guard Jaden Ivey when necessary. That allowed them to get whatever they wanted against Penn State to open the game. Meanwhile the Nittany Lions struggled to hit open looks once again and couldn’t answer frequently enough when they had the ball to make it a close game in the first half.
2. Poor shooting hurt the Nittany Lions
Penn State struggled mightily in the first half but the team’s inability to hit open shots was the reason it struggled to make any type of comeback in the second half. The Nittany Lions scored 26 points in the second half and made one of their 13 3-point attempts in the half to cut off any chance they had against Purdue. Those shooting struggles weren’t limited to from beyond the arc.
They also couldn’t make anything from within close that half, missing plenty of looks around the rim and relying entirely on junior guard Myreon Jones and senior John Harrar and their 17 points to generate scoring. The offense just hasn’t done enough of late, given the firepower it has, and was especially poor Friday night.
3. Penn State looked listless
The Nittany Lions have been competitive in nearly every game they’ve played this season no matter how good of an opponent they faced. Friday night, for the first time this season, that didn’t appear to be the case. They threw passes that didn’t have much energy behind them, they didn’t move without the ball and they gave up far too many open looks on defense.
It’s hard to blame this team — that lost its head coach just before the season and wasn’t given much of a chance in a season already severely altered by the pandemic — for having a less-than-inspired performance with its season all but over. In fact, it’s more of a testament to the players and coaches that it took this long for them to show any signs of a team that had every reason to fall apart in November.
This story was originally published February 26, 2021 at 9:07 PM.
