Penn State vs Penn Men’s Basketball Preview

Story posted November 29, 2012 in CommRadio, Sports by Bradford Conners

After a valiant comeback effort came up short in a 73-61 loss to Boston College on Wednesday, the Penn State Nittany Lions (3-3) will look to rebound and cap off their three-game home stand on a high note in Saturday’s match-up with the Pennsylvania Quakers (2-5).

A visit from a struggling Penn team could be just what the doctor ordered for the Nittany Lions, who are in desperate need of a win after being upset by a Boston College team that has no juniors or seniors in its starting line-up and was coming off of a loss to Bryant University, who was 2-28 last season.

A year ago, the Penn Quakers went 20-13 and were in contention for the Ivy League title all the way until the last day of the regular season. However, after the graduation of star point guard Zack Rosen, who is currently playing professionally in Israel, and second-leading scorer Tyler Bernardini, Penn has had difficulty finding wins in the first month of its 2012-2013 campaign.

However, a huge bright spot for Penn this year has been the emergence of junior power forward Fran Dougherty. After averaging just 5 points and 4 rebounds per game last season, Dougherty has exploded onto the scene this year by averaging 19 points and 10 rebounds per game, both of which lead the Ivy League.

In a November 13th loss to Fairfield, Dougherty put up 31 points on 13 for 21 shooting, the most points scored in a game by a Penn player since 2006. After averaging 24 points and 9 rebounds in his three games that week, Dougherty was named the Ivy League Player of the Week.

Slowing down Dougherty hasn’t been an easy task for any team, but Penn State has done a great job of dealing with talented big men early on this season. The Nittany Lions have gone up against two NBA Draft prospects in NC State’s CJ Leslie and Bucknell’s Mike Muscala but managed to hold Leslie to 14 points and Muscala to just 10.

Although Penn State’s interior players have handled tough opponents well on defense, their offensive production has been lacking through the first six games of the year. Ross Travis, Jon Graham, and Sasa Borovniak have combined to average just 11.5 PPG, and the trio went just 3 for 19 (16%) from the floor in Wednesday’s loss to BC.

As the Nittany Lions continue to miss the target from the beyond the arc (their 24% three-point percentage ranks last in the Big Ten), they will need to develop a presence in the paint if they want to improve their scoring efficiency, and they should have a chance to do so against a Penn team that ranks last in the Ivy League with 2.4 blocks per game.

Another Quaker player that Penn State will need to key in on is junior guard Miles Cartwright. Cartwright has consistently averaged 33 minutes per game in all three of his collegiate seasons, but he looks to be in the midst of a breakthrough year by averaging a career-high 16 PPG. His field goal percentage has actually dropped from 45% to 39% as compared to last season, but he is making up for it by getting to the line three times as often as last year and knocking down 81% of his attempts.

A final key to Penn State coming out of the Bryce Jordan Center with a victory in Saturday’s 2:00 p.m. matinee will be winning the turnover margin. Penn is prone to turning the ball over, averaging 17 turnovers per game as compared to just 13 for the Nittany Lions.

The simplest remedy to Penn State’s struggling half court offense may be trying to avoid it altogether as much as possible by forcing steals and scoring in transition. Quick scores off of turnovers were what ignited Penn State’s late surge against BC that almost erased a 20 point deficit, and if the Nittany Lions can manage to force steals more consistently throughout the game on Saturday, they could very well see themselves back above the .500 mark when they pay a visit to the Palestra on Wednesday to take on La Salle.

Bradford Conners is a sophomore majoring in Broadcast Journalism. To contact him, e-mail btc5082@psu.edu.