Nittany Lions aim to be more aggressive on defense
Penn State men’s basketball coach Patrick Chambers stressed the importance of avoiding fouls to his team through the first four games of the season.
The NCAA had approved changes during the offseason, calling for officials to focus on perimeter defense, post play, screens, blocks and charges, to “reduce the physicality in the sport.”
It was part of an effort, according to the NCAA release, to “better balance offense with defense.”
But Chambers felt his players lost their aggressiveness as they aimed to avoid fouls in back-to-back losses to Duquesne and Radford.
“We went back to old-school practices of you know what? If you foul, you foul,” Chambers said Monday. “Let’s just play hard. Let’s compete. Let’s get gritty again. Let’s get back to the cement we poured over the last four years and start building up and that’s what we did before Bucknell.”
Penn State got back on track with a win over the Bison on Saturday. The Nittany Lions held Bucknell to 24.1 percent shooting in the second half after Duquesne and Radford both shot better than 60 percent in the final 20 minutes of their wins. Penn State outscored Bucknell 13-1 in the final five-plus minutes, giving Chambers something to show his players when they watched film Monday morning.
“Look, we did a great job here,” Chambers said. “We were bodied up, they couldn’t get an open 3, we had high hands, we did all the little things. The scary thing is we have so much more room for growth because it wasn’t perfect.”
Penn State (3-2) returns to action at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday against Boston College in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.
Chambers said he was “extremely happy” to refocus on that defensive approach.
“I was starting to become an offensive coach,” Chambers said. “It was crazy. I did not like that. I was getting up in the middle of the night drawing up diagrams of plays.”
The coach said his team responded to the losses and showed up ready to compete and improve.
“That’s what’s exciting about this team,” Chambers said. “That’s what’s easy to get up in the morning and come back to work because you got a few freshmen and a few sophomores and seniors that are totally engaged and trying to lead. So it’s a fun mixture.”
Back on the road
Penn State will be looking to prove something in its second road game of the season.
The Nittany Lions fell 78-52 to Duquesne in Pittsburgh in their first game away from the Bryce Jordan Center. They’ll travel to Chestnut Hill, Mass., to take on Boston College on Wednesday.
“If we come out with that ‘W,’” Penn State forward Payton Banks said, “that would be a huge confidence boost.”
Boston College is 3-3, with all three wins coming at home. The Eagles beat St. Francis Brooklyn, Central Connecticut State and Harvard before dropping their last three games at the Wooden Legacy tournament.
Boston College fell 99-68 to No. 3 Michigan State, lost to UC Irvine 80-67 and fell 62-45 to previously winless Santa Clara.
Eli Carter, a 6-foot-2 guard, is Boston College’s leading scorer with 18 points per game, and 6-foot-5 freshman guard Jerome Robinson is averaging 11.3 points per game. 7-foot center Dennis Clifford, who Chambers recruited while at Boston University, is averaging 8.2 points and 7.0 rebounds.
“We got to get stops and we got to prevent 3s and we got to do a really good job against Carter and clean up the glass,” Chambers said.
Strong start
Through five games, Brandon Taylor is leading Penn State in scoring and rebounding, averaging 16.6 points and 6.0 rebounds.
He’s been efficient offensively.
The senior forward is shooting 46.7 percent from the field and 45.5 percent from 3-point range.
In the first three years of his career, he shot 37.4 percent from the field and 31.7 percent from beyond the arc.
This story was originally published November 30, 2015 at 9:05 PM with the headline "Nittany Lions aim to be more aggressive on defense."