Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1512721
J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 4 41 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M a row of 80 points or more. That's never happened in my career. That's where we've got to adjust." Perhaps the most worrisome aspect of the ESPN tourney was that it laid out a blueprint for how to beat Penn State. Starting on the ball, the Aggies gutted the Nittany Lions off the dribble. Un- able to force turnovers with pressure — it created only 10 for the game — Penn State saw its half-court sets repeatedly exploited. Texas A&M guard Wade Taylor IV took advantage by driving to the bas- ket off the dribble. He finished with 23 points on 8-of-13 shooting, with an- other 5 points scored at the free-throw line. The aggressive pursuit wasn't beneficial only to Taylor, though. It also created opportunities for big man Henry Coleman III, who finished with a team-high 24 points. The Aggies' success in the paint cre- ated an additional problem in that it forced Penn State to collapse on their post players, and in so doing, open up room for their perimeter shooters. Texas A&M finished with 5 three-pointers, in- cluding 4 in the game's final 23 minutes of action. "It's a domino effect," Rhoades said. "You want to help your teammate, but someone else's mistake gets you out of position. Then you get in full rotation. I thought against Texas A&M, we did a pretty good job of taking away threes, but then late in the game, they diced us up. "Against VCU, we just gave up way too many threes because we didn't guard the ball well. And against Butler, we gave up too many attempts. Later in the game, they felt good because they were getting them and they started making them." The fix, Rhoades said, is in the details of how this Penn State team defends as a team. He said the issue is that players have shown a tendency to freelance from possession to possession, breaking the defensive framework by forcing another defender to attempt to make up for the mistake. "We had a lot of deflections, and we had some guys flying around, but our discipline guarding the ball let us down," Rhoades said. "I'm disappointed that we got exposed this much. We didn't stick to the foundation of our defense. Other teams [are going] to score; we're not go- ing to throw a shutout. But then you ad- just, and you have the discipline to lean on what you do. "At times, we just went rogue. You can't go rogue, because if you go rogue, the four other guys don't know what you're doing. We had too much of that." Time is of the essence. The December slate includes only six games, and a re- newed commitment to team defensive concepts will be paramount heading into the heart of the Big Ten schedule in Janu- ary and February. "We've got to guard the ball better as a team. It's not just one guy guarding the ball. It's one guy guarding the ball and four helping him," Rhoades said. "It takes time. And sometimes it takes some failure and disappointment and frustra- tion to make you realize how hard it is and how committed you've got to be." The challenge for Rhoades is figur- ing out how to hasten that process. He brought in 10 new scholarship players this offseason, with only three schol- arship players returning from last sea- son's NCAA Tournament team. Given the scope of the overhaul, the Lions have emphasized the need to build cohesion. It had seemed as though the Decem- ber schedule might provide an oppor- tunity to make the necessary improve- ments. The Nittany Lions were granted a six-day reprieve after the Thanksgiv- ing weekend tournament before retak- ing the floor against Bucknell on Dec. 2, but that game ended up only reinforcing the concerns. The Bison, which had won just two of their first nine games, shot 58 percent from the floor, including a 47.6 percent rate from three-point range. They hit 69.2 percent of their attempts in the second half. "They just stuck to their game plan and shot the heck out of the ball," Rhoades said. "I'm disappointed in our performance and our approach. It's got to get better." Two more gaps in the schedule are coming up. The Lions have seven days between the Dec. 9 matchup against Ohio State and their trip to New York for a nonconference showdown against Georgia Tech, and they'll have an eight- day break during the Christmas holiday. Penn State will try to use that time off to its advantage. "We've got all these new guys try- ing to play our defense, except for two guys," Rhoades said, referring to VCU transfers Ace Baldwin Jr. and Nick Kern Jr. "I was talking to Jamal Brunt, our associate head coach, and I said, 'Every year in the past, it was only two or three new guys we were teaching in the sum- mer. We're teaching 10, 11 new guys how to play.' We've got to improve on the de- fensive end, and that will pay dividends for us." ■ P E N N S T A T E 2 0 2 3 - 2 4 M E N ' S B A S K E T B A L L S C H E D U L E Date Opponent Time/TV Oct. 27 at Robert Morris (exhib.) W, 68-58 Nov. 6 DELAWARE STATE W, 79-45 Nov. 10 LEHIGH W, 74-65 Nov. 14 ST. FRANCIS (Pa.) W, 83-53 Nov. 17 MOREHEAD STATE W, 74-51 Nov. 23 Texas A&M* L, 89-77 Nov. 24 Butler* L, 88-78 Nov. 26 VCU* L, 86-74 Dec. 2 BUCKNELL L, 76-67 Dec. 6 at Maryland 7 p.m./BTN Dec. 9 OHIO STATE 6 p.m./BTN Dec. 16 vs. Georgia Tech** Noon/BTN Dec. 21 LE MOYNE 7 p.m./Peacock Dec. 29 RIDER 2 p.m./B1G+ Jan. 4 at Michigan State 7 p.m./Peacock Jan. 7 vs. MICHIGAN^ Noon/BTN Jan. 10 NORTHWESTERN 6:30 p.m./BTN Jan. 13 at Purdue 2:15 p.m./BTN Jan. 16 WISCONSIN 9 p.m./BTN Jan. 20 at Ohio State Noon/BTN Jan. 27 MINNESOTA 6:30 p.m./BTN Jan. 31 at Rutgers 8:30 p.m./BTN Feb. 3 at Indiana Noon/FS1 Feb. 8 IOWA 7 p.m./BTN Feb. 11 at Northwestern 1 p.m./BTN Feb. 14 MICHIGAN STATE 6:30 p.m./BTN Feb. 17 at Nebraska Noon/BTN Feb. 21 ILLINOIS^^ 6:30 p.m./BTN Feb. 24 INDIANA Noon/BTN Feb. 27 at Iowa 9 p.m./BTN Mar. 2 at Minnesota 3:15 p.m./BTN Mar. 10 MARYLAND 7:30 p.m./BTN Mar. 13-17 Big Ten Tournament# TBA/BTN, CBS * ESPN Events Invitational at Kissimmee, Fla.; ** at New York (Madison Square Garden); ^ at Philadelphia (Palestra); ^^ at Rec Hall # at Minneapolis (Target Center)