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WAITING GAME Transfer John Johnson eager to boost Nittany Lions��� offense next season | hen the Penn State men���s basketball team takes the floor for the final few games of the regular season, one of Patrick Chambers��� best scorers will be sitting courtside. Each game. He���ll sit there during the Big Ten tournament, too, and every game until this long season reaches its conclusion. Even through the first month of next season, 6-foot-1, 170-pound combo guard John Johnson will be forced to watch the Nittany Lions��� game action from the sideline due to NCAA regulations. JOHNSON Johnson transferred from Pittsburgh to Penn State for the beginning of the spring semester. ���It���s hard not being able to play, but it���s definitely not hard for me to be on the side, supporting my teammates and getting guys better in practice,��� Johnson said before a team practice in January. ���Guys like D.J. [Newbill], I���m helping him get better, and he���s helping me get better every day. It���s hard, but it���s not too hard.��� Chambers might disagree. With star senior point guard Tim Frazier also sitting on the bench because of an Achilles tendon injury, there���s no guarantee that Johnson could have resurrected the Nittany Lions��� season had he been able to play this season. But the team is averaging a leagueworst 55 points per game against Big Ten opponents and it certainly could have used his scoring prowess. ���He���s the best player on the scout team. He���s lit us up like a Christmas tree a few times,��� Chambers said. ���He can really score the basketball. He scores in bunches and he scores a variety of ways: 3s, floaters, pull-ups, W fadeaways. He���s got every shot that you can possibly need as a combo guard.��� Johnson proved as much during his high school career at Girard College and Life Center Academy in the Philadelphia area. He earned All-State honors all four seasons, averaging nearly 20 points a game and finishing with 2,314 points. As a true freshman at Pitt last season, Johnson showed similar ability. He played in all 39 of the Panthers��� games, averaging 4.2 points and 1.2 assists Frazier���s loss leaves Penn State with few options When Penn State senior Tim Frazier was lost for the season with a ruptured Achilles tendon early in November, the immediate question became one of simple math: How would the Nittany Lions replace the 18.8 points and 6.2 assists per game that the point guard contributed during his junior season? For head coach Patrick Chambers, whose roster lacked a true point and knocking down 33 3-pointers. He reached double figures in two games and earned a Big East Academic AllStar nod along the way. His shooting percentages ��� 43.5 from the floor, 38.4 from beyond the arc ��� surpass those of Penn State���s current guards who average more than four minutes per game in Big Ten play. Through its first 10 Big Ten games, Penn State was shooting just 24.8 percent from 3-point range and 36.1 percent from the floor. guard waiting to fill in, the best option was to move his second-best player ��� sophomore shooting guard D.J. Newbill ��� to the point. Newbill, a scrappy kid from Philadelphia with a fighter's mentality, accepted the role without hesitation. He accepted it even though it meant sacrificing the breakout season that he had envisioned. As a result of the shift, wingman Jermaine Marshall was forced to the two, Ross Travis to the three, and true freshman Brandon Taylor was thrust into an unexpected starting role at the four. A makeshift lineup ��� thin on readyto-play Division I talent even before Frazier���s injury ��� would need to navigate the majority of its schedule playing largely out of position. It has not gone well. Through early February, the Nittany Lions were winless against Big Ten competition, plagued by shortcomings too numerous to mention. Only Newbill and Marshall have had anything resembling productive seasons, pouring in 15.7 and 14.8 points per game, respectively, during the conference season. Others, like Travis, Taylor,

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