Blue White Illustrated

already to understand the young talent he's helping to mold. Although they are at opposite ends of the eligibility spectrum, the 24h-year senior guard has embraced his young side- kick. Garner, meanwhile, has enthusias- tically soaked up as much knowledge from Newbill as possible. The two guards are far from being iden- tical. While Newbill developed his con2- dent shooting stroke over a period of years, Garner has come out 2ring – sometimes to his and the Nittany Lions' detriment. "He has a lot of heart. Some of the shots he takes, I would never have taken as a freshman, but he has the con2dence to take them and he makes them," Newbill said. "I love playing with him. He spreads the 3oor for us, he makes good decisions and he plays hard. "What more do you want out of a fresh- man?" As the Nittany Lions try to rebound from their early conference setbacks, the answer is obvious: All Garner can give. ■ Penn State suspends shooting guard The Nittany Lions will be without senior guard John Johnson for an in- definite period of time due to what Penn State described in a prepared statement as "conduct inconsistent with team standards and values." Johnson was averaging 7.4 points and 20.6 minutes per game before the announcement of his suspension Jan. 12. At a news conference later that day, Penn State head coach Patrick Chambers said Johnson remains in the program but is not taking part in basketball activities. "I don't have a timetable [for his re- turn]," Chambers said. "I wish I could give you a timetable. Every time we talk, we'll try to update you, but right now I don't have a timetable." As of this writing, Johnson had missed the Nittany Lions' games against Indiana and Purdue. The timing could not have been worse for Penn State, which was caught up in another protracted los- ing streak to open its conference sea- son. But, looking at the situation as optimistically as possible, Chambers indicated his staff will be working to get Johnson back into the lineup. "Timing is never good," he said. "There's never good timing for bad news. But, by the same token, we're going to help him as much as we can, and the next guy's got to step up." With Johnson out of action, Cham- bers said he expects redshirt fresh- man guard Payton Banks and juco transfer Devin Foster to "step up and get some quality minutes and provide some spark off the bench." Although Banks appeared in 13 of Penn State's first 18 games, he was averaging only 6.1 minutes. Foster made three ap- pearances and averaged 4.3 minutes during that same span. – N.B.

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