Blue White Illustrated

utors – Lamar Stevens and Mike Watkins – having moved on, Brockington under- stood that he would have an opportunity to bring his game to the floor on a full- time basis. "My role doesn't change much this year, it's just more prominent. It's more neces- sary just because we lost Mike, we lost Lamar, and those are two key guys, so we have to have guys step up," Brockington said before the start of the season. "I just want to step up as a leader and as a player on the court. I just want to have my voice heard and lead by example and just make an impact. I want to step up and guard the best player. I want to be a guy that can go and get us a basket when the other team is on a run. I want to keep the pace high, grab a rebound, push it, and find the open guy or go make a layup." Thus far, Brockington has done exactly that. Producing double-digit scoring in two of the Nittany Lions' first three noncon- ference games, Brockington finished with 24 points and eight rebounds in a 75-55 decimation of Virginia Tech on Dec. 8. The victory over the 15th-ranked Hokies offered a glimpse at his development, an evolution that his teammates and coaches had already seen in practice. He had be- come a three-level scoring threat, adding offensive components to his game that complemented his defensive versatility, which poses problems for guards, wings and forwards. The breakout performance was merely a byproduct of work he had already done. "Coming back from the summer, man, he was locked in. He's in the gym all the time. We see this all the time in practice," Penn State interim head coach Jim Ferry said. "He was down on himself because he thought he played poorly against Seton Hall [the game prior]. So he was locked in, and I just felt like he was playing with quickness and he played within himself. "[He's] the attack guy for us. He can break guys down off the dribble. He scored at all three levels today. He got to the rim, he made threes, he made pull- ups. He was just fantastic and just put major pressure on their defense, which allowed other guys to get shots, too." That performance, and the ones Brock- ington is determined to deliver through- out the season, was enabled by a commitment he'd made after the disap- pointing end to the Nittany Lions' 2019- 20 campaign. Virtually guaranteed an at-large berth to the NCAA tournament, which would have been their first since 2011, the Lions saw their season end abruptly in March due to the onset of the pandemic. Just hours from the start of their Big Ten tour- nament opener, Brockington and the rest of the team learned their hopes for a con- ference championship and their opportu- nity to play in March Madness had evaporated. Acknowledging the difficulty of learn- ing that news, Brockington said he hurt not only for himself but also for the sen- iors who had worked so hard to reach that point. He then vowed that he would do everything within his power to again achieve that accomplishment. "I want to win. I want to get us back to the Top 25, get us back to where we were last year and make it to the tournament," Brockington said. "I just want to be an impact player for the team. I want to be a key guy on both ends of the court. I want to make plays. I want to rebound, score, defend. I have big goals this year, and I'm just working hard every day and just try- ing to make things happen." ■ Penn State's first game action since Dec. 30 went about the way interim head coach Jim Ferry anticipated. Traveling to face Purdue on Jan. 17 after having been forced into a pro- gram-wide pause due to COVID-19 concerns, the Nittany Lions produced an intense defensive effort but ulti- mately struggled to find the bottom of the net in an 80-72 loss. "We started and we couldn't make a shot. That was some of the rust that we had from being off for a little bit," Ferry said. "Then we got our second wind. We locked in, we defended bet- ter, we went to our zone and we were active. Guys started playing off each other, making good plays. "I think for all of us, it felt great to be back on a court playing for each other." The long layoff, combined with the end of the fall semester and the Christmas holiday, meant that the contest was only the third for Penn State in the previous 34 days. It con- tained many of the same elements as the three Big Ten losses that preceded it, as the team dropped to 0-4 in league play. Quickly and frequently racking up personal fouls in the first half, the Nittany Lions found themselves on the wrong end of a free throw shoot- ing disparity that eventually drew a technical foul for Ferry early in the second. Already the owners of the league's highest fouls-per-game av- erage, the Lions connected on just 8 of 13 attempts from the line, while Purdue went 24 for 33. Meanwhile, the Nittany Lions' 23- 14 offensive rebounding edge proved a mirage due to an abysmally uneven shooting afternoon from the floor. Although John Harrar's 14 points and 14 rebounds helped produce Penn State's 29 second-chance points, an overall shooting performance of 27 for 82 (32.9 percent) left the Lions unable to overcome a deficit that grew to as many as 17. "We got some good shots that didn't go down, which keeps putting pres- sure on your defense," Ferry said. "We can control taking good shots, we can control getting good shots, but we can't control the ball going in. [We need to get] better at the things that we can control, which is playing with- out fouling and blocking out. Shot- making is going to come." –N.B. PSU falls to Purdue as season resumes

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