I'm short on time so this will be a super short preview this morning...
What Penn State Does Well...
- Penn State takes care of the ball. They are second in the nation in turnover percentage. They will turn the ball over on just 16.7% of their possessions. This will be interesting because we make a living off forcing teams into turnovers.
- They rebound well. Penn State is fourth in the nation rebounding 75% of their opponents misses. This too will be interesting because we rebound fairly well (see 16 off boards vs. Iowa). Jamel Cornley leads the way for PSU on the boards, he is a strong forward (6-5, 240) who is bringing in 7 reb per game.
- Guard play. Talor Battle and Stanley Pringle make up as good a backcourt as there is in the Big Ten. They combine for 34 ppg, nearly 9 rpg and 8.5 apg. Matching up Nolen and Westbrook on those two will be intersting. I fear what will happen when those guys are out of the game.
Penn State's Weaknesses...
- They have three very good players but they are not particularly deep. Battle plays 36 min per game, Cornely plays 34 and Pringle plays 30. They all have to log big minutes and have to play well. After those three they have Danny Morrissey who is a good shooter and Andrew Jones III who grabs just under six reb per game. Morrissey and Jones are good but they aren't exactly going to carry the team.
- They need both guards to be scoring. In their three losses either Pringle or Battle had games below 10 points. If they aren't both scoring they tend to be in trouble.
- A couple weak losses. Losing at home to Temple (7-6) and Rhode Island are not good losses. They have beaten Purdue but the Boilermakers were without two starters (Hummell and Kramer) so that exactly a huge win.
Today's game...
Should be a good game that has a much faster pace than the Iowa game. Enjoy watching the PSU trio of Cornley, Battle and Pringle as they are pretty good, but lets hope we don't get to see too much of them.
Defending their guards and continuing to improve on the boards will be the key for us.