Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1322704
of the Nittany Lions' scoring versatility, Wheeler, Lundy and Brockington all had at least one game as the team's high scorer. Penn State's early-season success was built around its guard and wing play on both ends of the floor. With Harrar, fellow senior Trent Buttrick and freshman Abdou Tsimbila combining to man the five spot, the shooters' collective potency has created a formidable matchup chal- lenge for the Lions' opponents. "Our philosophy is, we're an extra-pass team," Ferry said. "When we have all of these shooters on the floor and these guys can make plays, it's more about letting the ball find a shot, instead of guys having to hunt shots down. "We've been pretty good offensively over the past three years in the Big Ten. I think we'll continue to be pretty good. It's the greatest league in this country. We have the best coaches in the country, we have the best players. Everybody's big, everybody's physical, everybody's fast. It's going to come down to us defending and rebounding. If we defend and re- bound, the way we play and how fast we play, I think we'll be OK offensively. There are going to be nights when we've got to figure it out. We've got to play off what teams are giving us." After compiling a 3-1 record in their nonconference season, the Nittany Lions weren't able to maintain their momen- tum at Michigan on Dec. 13. Falling 62-58 in a radically different style of game, Penn State failed to reach the 70-point thresh- old for the first time all season, as shoot- ing and scoring against the Wolverines came haltingly all afternoon. And yet, Ferry came away from the game feeling optimistic. The Nittany Lions very nearly figured it out on a day in which they shot just 30.8 percent from the floor (20 of 65) and 36.8 percent from 3-point range (7 of 19). Clawing back from a 15- point first-half deficit against a Michigan team with size and depth, the Lions took a lead early in the second half and fought the rest of the way. They held a lead with 2 minutes, 9 sec- onds to play, competing with one of the conference's best teams even as they were struggling through arguably their worst performance of the season. To Ferry, that bodes well for the weeks and months ahead. "I didn't think we played well today. I don't think we played well at all, and we're still in a one-possession game [where] we can win the game on the road," he said. "I think that's a credit to the guys buckling down when we needed to. I thought we executed pretty well out of some timeouts and made some big bas- kets. And that's who we are. "We just have to finish those plays. When you come down to it, it's who can execute better? … Yet we still were in the position late in the game to get two layups, and that's what you're looking for. Give yourself a chance to win. Give your- self an opportunity to attack the rim in that situation, and we got there twice. I don't think we'll miss two times in a row if we had to do it again." Having embarked on a 20-game con- ference slate that features 11 matchups against teams that were ranked in the AP Top 25 as of mid-December, the Nittany Lions will likely have to battle to earn every victory. But they're determined to achieve an NCAA tournament berth that has been elusive to the program for the past decade, so the season is also an op- portunity – one that they plan to capital- ize on. ■ DRIVE TIME John Harrar tries to stop Eli Brooks from driving to the hoop in Penn State's 62-58 loss at Michigan. Photo by Marc- Gregor Campre- don/MGoBlog