Blue White Illustrated

W ith Penn State locked in a disjointed game against visiting Indiana on Jan. 29, Myles Dread found his opportunity. The Nittany Lions were protecting a four- point lead with less than 15 minutes to play when the sophomore shooting guard helped force a Hoosier miss from long range. Racing the other way, Dread saw enough distance between himself and Indiana guard Aljami Durham to hoist a 3-pointer, even as teammate Mike Watkins sought position underneath the basket. To that point in the game, Dread's lone statistical contri- bution was an offensive re- bound and putback to draw Penn State even, 28-28, just before half- time. His 3-point attempt, launched from a spot in front of the Penn State bench, didn't change that fact. It sailed long and wide without so much as touching the rim, let alone falling through the net. "Oh my goodness," television analyst Seth Davis said. Moments later, following a poorly exe- cuted alley-oop attempt by Indiana, the Nittany Lions found themselves in the exact same position, racing back up the court on the break, with Dread positioned along the sideline in front of the Lions' bench. His path to the basket blocked by three Hoosiers, Jamari Wheeler passed to Dread, standing exactly where he'd been when he hoisted his airball just 12 seconds earlier. Once again, Dread shot without hesitation. This time, though, the ball swished through the basket. When all three officials confirmed that it was a 3, his teammates and coaches be- hind him celebrated. This was exactly what they wanted to see – not just three more points in what would turn out to be a 64-49 victory, but the fearlessness it took to keep shooting. "He had just shot an airball and he was running his lane like he's supposed to, and I was screaming at him: 'Shoot it again! Shoot it again! Shoot it again!' And that's what he did," coach Patrick Chambers said. "He shot another one and he made it. I think when you give your players that type of confidence, the ball is going to find its way in the basket. And I give Myles credit for wanting to take that shot." Dread had every reason not to. There had been great anticipation heading into his sophomore season, but the campaign has at times been a struggle. Prior to the team's visit to Purdue on Feb. 11, he had hit only 42 of 139 3-point shots. He was leading the team in attempts from beyond the arc, but his success rate – 30.2 percent – was only fifth-best on the team among the frequent contributors, trailing Wheeler (44.4), Myreon Jones (41.3), Curtis Jones (38.3) and Seth Lundy (36.2). Against Big Ten competition, Dread had connected on only 17 of 61 threes (27.9 percent) heading into the Purdue game. That included a three-game stretch against Rutgers, Wisconsin and Min- nesota in which he missed nine consecu- tive 3-point attempts. In the process, he had lost his starting position to Lundy at Minnesota and, not coincidentally, the Nittany Lions also lost all three games during the drought. Through it all, Chambers continued to believe that Dread would be a major factor in Penn State's success. "Myles is a great basketball player. He's not just a specialist. He has a high IQ ," Chambers said. "Now statistically, I would say he's a specialist because he shoots so many threes, but that's the role that he has on this team right now: search, find threes. Now he has gotten to the paint. He's shooting very well from the free-throw line. He has mixed it up a little bit. And I think he needs to keep doing that, just so we see the ball go through the basket so that when he does take those threes, he's feeling much better about when he launches." Chambers said that body language, de- meanor and attitude all play a direct role in a shooter's success or failure, and he returned to the subject following Penn State's win against Indiana. Dread con- nected on 3 of 6 shots from the floor vs. the Hoosiers and made a pair of 3-point- ers for the first time since the Nittany Lions' win over Iowa on Jan. 4. Part of the reason for his success, Chambers said, was that Dread knew that the coaching staff had confidence in him. "If he didn't feel that way, he's probably not going to make that shot. Or he's not going to play as well as he has been play- ing on the defensive end," Chambers Undeterred by slump, Lions' Dread keeps shooting SHOOTING STAR Dread has struggled at times this season, but he hit a key 3- pointer to help lift Penn State past Min- nesota. Photo by Ryan Sny- der BY NATE BAUER nbauer@bluewhiteonline.com

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