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second half, and he knew that he needed to step up. "There was definitely a little bit of a con- scious effort, just knowing that two big parts of our offense were on the bench," he said. "Coach has us do that in practice. He has us go through game situations where Lamar or Mike is in foul trouble. So I did know that we were capable of playing without them. I knew I had to come out and definitely try to be a little more aggres- sive and just try to halt the run that Iowa was making at the time. So there's defi- nitely just an extra level of aggressiveness." Chambers said that mindset has been beneficial to Brockington throughout his tenure with the Nittany Lions. He has looked to score, facilitate when necessary and generate offense through his defense. In spite of his status as a reserve, his 20 steals were tied for third on the team through 16 games, and his 49 rebounds ranked fifth. Brockington said that he's been deter- mined to prove himself since making the transition from the Atlantic 10 Confer- ence to the Big Ten. "I do feel like I have that extra chip on my shoulder to come in and show that I can play at this level, come in and play high-major Division I basketball," he said. "So I definitely think about that every time I step on the floor, and I just want to come in and pro- duce." His evolution began at Archbishop Ryan in Philadelphia, where he became only the third 1,000-point scorer in school history. It continued during his freshman season at St. Bonaventure, where he pro- duced a game-high 20 points against TCU and 18 vs. Maryland Eastern Shore. He even played in the NCAA tournament in his lone season with the Bonnies, total- ing five points and two assists in a 77-62 first-round loss to Florida in 2018. And now he finds himself at Penn State, where his steady development has been on full display. "I think he matured," Chambers said. "His body matured, his game matured. He became more consistent in his ap- proach and what he was going to do. I think it's maturity and I think it's consis- tency." None of which means that he can't con- tinue to grow, Chambers added. Through 16 games, Brockington had knocked down only 8 of 33 3-point attempts (24.2 percent). Chambers hopes to see him make strides from beyond the arc, re- flecting the potential he's already shown in practice. "He's not shooting great for three, but at [St. Bonaventure], he shot very well. He didn't take a huge number of threes, but enough," Chambers said. "He's making threes in practice. So he's got a great midrange game, he's an elite finisher. I think the last thing for him is threes." ■ N ames on opponents' jerseys mean lit- tle this season in the Big Ten. Sure, with wins its first five conference games, Michigan State was living up to its pre- season expectations. And with losses in four of its first five, Northwestern was doing the same. But with 11 other teams holding between two and four confer- ence wins, the Big Ten simply does not allow for nights off for any of its teams. Penn State's 72-61 loss at Rutgers on Jan. 7 served as a harsh reminder of that reality. The Nittany Lions were 2-3 in conference play after following up that defeat with a 58-49 home loss to Wis- consin on Jan. 11. Their other Big Ten loss was a 106-74 shellacking against an Ohio State team that, inexplicably, went on to drop its next four conference games. The primary takeaway from the early phase of the Big Ten season was that the teams in the middle of the pack can't af- ford to take anything for granted. Penn State may have pulled off one of the more rousing wins in the program's re- cent history when it outlasted the Hawkeyes, 89-86, on Jan. 4 at the Palestra in Philadelphia. But the loss to the Scarlet Knights three days later il- lustrated the need to stay focused on the task at hand. "It's a great lesson for us on the emo- tional and physical toll that [the Iowa game] took on us," coach Patrick Cham- bers said. "You need to be able to bottle that up and put that behind you and be able to compete the next night. I thought we did it for about 20-25 minutes." Even against a Rutgers team that was playing without its second-leading scorer, Geo Baker, that wasn't enough. Chambers praised the Scarlet Knights for "making all the winning plays" in the second half. They enjoyed an 8-3 advan- tage on the offensive glass, while Penn State missed open looks and was both- ered by persistent foul trouble. After returning home, Chambers said he thought his players had absorbed the lessons of the loss in Piscataway and were ready to apply them to the matchup against Wisconsin. But the Badgers sti- fled Penn State, holding the hosts score- less for the first 8 minutes, 36 seconds. The Lions missed their first 12 shots from the floor before a contested turn- around jumper by Lamar Stevens finally got them on the scoreboard. "We've got to make shots. Let's call it what it is," Chambers said. "If you told me I was going to hold Wisconsin to 58 points, I'd say we're going to win the game… especially at home, because we shoot the ball better at home. We really do." They didn't this time, and their 3- point performance was especially dam- aging. Myreon Jones, Myles Dread and Curtis Jones combined to go 1 of 14 from Shooting woes, foul trouble dampen Nittany Lions' momentum A N A L Y S I S B Y N A T E B A U E R

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