Blue White Illustrated

"I think they were really underrated in high school. Those guys can really play, and I felt like it brought this fire in their stomach from day one that they have a lot to prove because everybody said that our recruiting class was terrible. They saw that," Stevens said. "I think they're hun- gry, and it made them want to work harder and prove everybody wrong. And I don't think they had the same expecta- tions that I may have had as a freshman from the outside, so I think that was really good for them to come in hungry and not feel like they made it. They feel like they have to really prove themselves." Stevens and the rest of the Nittany Lions have appreciated the new dynamic that has developed with the arrival of Bolton and Dread. The two freshmen have al- ready found a comfort zone at Penn State, and the feeling appears to be mutual. "I think there's kind of like a blind trust right now," Stevens said. "We know they put in the work in the off-season, so we're going to trust that [they're] going to make the right play, make the right shot, what- ever it is, when they're called upon." ■ Stevens, Reaves shine in season-opening romp Minutes before Penn State took to the floor to open its 2018-19 men's basketball season, the accomplish- ments of last year's group commanded attention one last time. A promo video showing the Nittany Lions' five-game run to the NIT championship flowed into an official banner raising, the program's second- ever for the tournament. Then came the national anthem, player introductions and tip-off, after which the Lions picked up right where they left off. While Tony Carr, Shep Garner and Julian Moore were no longer alongside them at the Bryce Jordan Center, junior forward Lamar Stevens and senior wing Josh Reaves didn't seem to notice. Led by Stevens' 22 points and 10 re- bounds, the third double-double of his career, and a manic 19 points, three rebounds, four assists and four steals from Reaves, the Lions topped North Florida, 87-72, on Nov. 9. Stevens got going early. Exploiting the Ospreys' most glaring weakness – a lack of height in the frontcourt – he scored 18 points in the first half, hit- ting 5 of 7 shots inside the 3-point line while adding eight free throws in eight attempts. "Their biggest player was 6-7, 6-8, and I thought that I would have an ad- vantage in the paint," Stevens said. "So I took advantage of it. My team- mates put the confidence in me to do it, and it worked." The Ospreys, meanwhile, weren't able to exploit an element of their game that had worked well only two days earlier. Facing Dayton in their season opener, they had hit 8 of 21 3- point attempts in a 78-70 loss. But against Penn State, North Florida missed its first 19 attempts from be- yond the arc. Its long-range drought didn't end until Ezekiel Balogun knocked down an elbow-extended three with 10 minutes, 10 seconds left in the game. Attributing some of the Lions' de- fensive success to a switching philoso- phy, head coach Patrick Chambers was satisfied with what he saw in the game's first 34 minutes. North Florida head coach Matthew Driscoll agreed that PSU had played well, but he also noted that a number of open shots just didn't find the bottom of the net. "I would never want to discredit any- one for whatever their scheme was or whatever they did. I've got to think we missed a lot of wide-open threes – threes that we make," he said. "We did take some bad ones, that's why some guys came out. We looked like a revolv- ing door there for a little bit, but those are threes we make. We're really good at that. That's what we do. And those are daggers. Now 11 becomes eight, you hit another one and eight becomes five, here we go. It's part of our DNA." From the jump, the Nittany Lions are finding that true freshmen Myles Dread and Rasir Bolton are part of theirs. Making their regular-season debuts, Dread scored 17 points, thanks in large part to a 4-of-8 performance from the 3-point line, while Bolton had 13. Dread started the game and logged 31 minutes. Bolton played 22 minutes in relief of starting point guard Jamari Wheeler. Their performances offered further proof that Penn State's back- court will be getting significant con- tributions from the freshman class. Dread's effort came on the heels of a 23-point outburst in Penn State's 84- 82 exhibition victory at West Virginia on Nov. 3. He has already impressed teammates with his scoring potential. Said Stevens, "Myles is a very confi- dent player and he can really shoot the ball. That's his job, and we expect him to put up a good amount of threes each night, and most of them more than likely are going to go in. That's his job." The 87 points that the Lions scored against North Florida were the most they've scored in an opener in Cham- bers' eight seasons at Penn State. Still, the veteran head coach acknowledged that his team left plenty of room for im- provement. He specifically took issue with his group's second-half defensive performance after holding the Ospreys to just 28 points in the first 20 minutes. "We've got some work to do," Chambers said. "We've got to work on that rebounding thing. But it's Friday, we'll get a little bit better tomorrow, a little bit better Sunday, and then be ready to go." –N.B.

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