Five takeaways from Penn State’s 76-69 Big Ten Conference road victory over Minnesota
Penn State men’s basketball took care of business against the Minnesota Golden Gophers i Minneapolis on Saturday night with a 76-69 win.
Here are five takeaways from the Nittany Lions’ victory.
Pickett on a heater
Few players in the country are as good as Jalen Pickett, and his last two games are the perfect example of why. He casually scored 41 points Tuesday night against Illinois and tacked on eight assists. It would have been easy to backslide into an off night, but that’s not what happened. Instead, he responded with 32 points, eight assists and nine rebounds against Minnesota.
His 73 points in his last two games have come within the team’s offensive system, and his team play is exhibited by the assists he’s accumulated along the way.
He’s one of the best players in college basketball and is starting to peak at the right time as Penn State tries to keep its postseason hopes alive.
Garcia gives the defense trouble early
Penn State was the first team to face Minnesota’s Dawson Garcia in nearly a month after he missed time due to an injury. Garcia did not mess around early in his return. The Gophers were good when he was on the court and a disaster when he wasn’t. Penn State struggled to deal with him as a scorer because he’s 6-foot-11 and skilled and lit the defense up for 14 points in the first half.
He still had to come off the court eventually, and the Nittany Lions took advantage when he did. They outscored Minnesota by 12 when he went to the bench in the first half and that allowed them to go into halftime with a 10-point lead.
Scorching the nets from deep
The Nittany Lions’ scored 45 points in the first half, and 24 of them came on 3-point shots. They made eight of their 15 looks from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes of action and were able to get most of the looks they wanted. There were open looks on most of the team’s possessions in large part because of the work the team did to get inside and because of the screens the Nittany Lions set. Shooters such as Andrew Funk consistently got open off of flare screens off the ball. When that didn’t work, Pickett made his way to the rim and forced the Gophers to pay attention to him, usually losing track of Penn State’s shooters in the process.
Wynter and Clary on the attack
Penn State had lacked dribble penetration this season from anyone outside of Pickett, and even he gets there in an unorthodox way. It’s less attacking off the bounce and more methodically dribbling in front of his defender until they’re underneath the rim and don’t know how it happened. The emergence of freshman Kanye Clary and the re-establishment of Cam Wynter has added to the Nittany Lions’ ability to get to the basket.
Clary can beat his man off the dribble with speed, getting to the rim and showing off an improved ability to finish of late. Wynter uses speed at times, but also has the skill to cross up defenders and get to the bucket. Their increased presence will only help Penn State as teams put all of their effort into stopping Pickett.
Taking care of business
Saturday was a must-win game for the Nittany Lions — as most of them will be if they want to make the NCAA Tournament — and they took care of business against the worst team in the Big Ten. A victory was expected, but Garcia’s return for Minnesota added a level of uneasiness for Penn State heading into this game. He’s good enough to turn a game on its head, and it looked like he might early. However, the Nittany Lions did what they had to and earned a road victory in the conference.
Now they have to spin that forward and make two wins in a row three and defeat Ohio State on Thursday night. The Buckeyes have been free falling of late, and this will be another chance to build a tournament-caliber profile for Penn State.
