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Penn State Pre-Game Thread


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When: Saturday, February 3rd 12:00 PM EST

Where: Simon-Skjotd Assembly Hall, Bloomington, Indiana

TV: FS1 

First year coach Mike Rhoades (185-124 lifetime after stints at Rice and Virginia Commonwealth) brings his 9-11 (3-6 in Big 10 play) Nittany Lions into SSAH having lost 4 of their last 5 with the win being at home against Wisconsin of all teams, dealing the Badgers their lone Big 10 loss. They play at Rutgers tonight (8:30 EST BTN)

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The Lions are led by 5'11  sophomore guard Kanye Clary (18 ppg 38% from 3) a lightning quick kid who has that knack for making tough shots off the dribble drive, much like Michigan's Dug McDaniel. His backcourt mate 6'0 senior transfer Ace Baldwin (VCU where he played for Rhodes) checks in at 13 ppg (32% from 3) and leads the team in assists. 6'11 senior transfer (Georgetown, Maryland, back to Georgetown) Qudus Wahab mans the 5 spot at 9 ppg and 8 boards per. 6'6 junior transfer (VCU) Nick Kern (5 ppg 15% from 3) and 6'7 junior transfer (Temple) Zach Hicks (8 ppg 29% from 3) round out the starting 5. North Carolina transfers 6'4 junior D'Marco Dunn (7 ppg 32% from 3) and 6'8 senior Puff Johnson (6 ppg 27% from 3) along with 6'7 senior transfer (Lafayette) Leo O'Boyle (2 ppg 26% from 3) provide double digit minutes off the bench.

Penn St shoots a high volume of 3s (2nd in the conference) but only averages 31% from behind the arc. Good FT shooting team. Terrible rebounding team, but they like to press and they do come at you on defense.

The key will be keeping Clary under control. He torched Wisconsin for 27 points, the vast majority on drives to the hoop. If we can stop him, I think we win comfortably, as long as we have at least 4 of our starters available.

Penn St is a patchwork team kinda forced together after Micah Shrewsberry left for Notre Dame. They're overall probably the worst team in the conference, but they can be dangerous, as Bucky found out...

Let's get above .500 and try to get healthy...

GO HOOSIERS! 

Edited by IUFLA
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5 minutes ago, Reacher said:

I'm worried about Clary blowing past our guards. X is our only player that matches up well with speedy guards. Hopefully Wares presence inside negates that some.

I thought Cupps did a pretty fair job on Dug McDaniel, who's a similar player...Maybe not quite as quick... In my opinion, the bigger, stronger guards are the ones who give Gabe problems... 

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11 minutes ago, ForHumanity said:

Any updates on the injuries?

Both are listed as “Game time decisions.” Frankly, I wouldn’t expect to see anything more definitive. This isn’t professional sports where teams have to divulge injuries. No sense giving Penn State any more information than needed 

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8 hours ago, IU Scott said:

PSU lines to press and we have to handle the press and not turn the ball over

I thought we looked very tentative against Iowa's press. We didn't "attack" it and try to score on it. Can't remember the game last year, but somebody tried to press us, we attacked it and scored immediately, and never saw the press again the rest of the game.

If we are tentative against PSU's press, I'm afraid we'll get into that "quicksand" mode where one thing goes wrong, then another, then another....we'll likely have more turnovers than we should.

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9 minutes ago, btownqb said:

We did a nice job of handling Iowa's, I've not watched PSU this season, but I expect to handle it well. 

Penn State's press is a little more aggressive than Iowa's... The Lions lead the Big 10 in steals and are 20th nationally...

It'll be a challenge... 

 

 

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well, i was definitely counting this one as a win and still fell like it will be.  i also view it as a must win.  of course now i'm nervous that they won at Rutgers, they press aggressively, and we are very likely shorthanded X, MR, or both.  great.  now i'm worried again.  

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