Penn State Looks to Find Stride as Season Home Stretch Approaches
John Harrar refused to take a fatalistic approach to Penn State’s recent two-game slide.
Dropping a 68-60 decision to Indiana at Assembly Hall on Sunday afternoon, the Nittany Lions bookended a program-record eight-game winning streak against Big Ten competition with another losing streak. First sinking the Nittany Lions to 2-4 in the conference with losses at Rutgers, to Wisconsin, and back on the road at Minnesota in January, the most recent slide now includes a home loss to Illinois last Tuesday and this weekend’s loss to the Hoosiers.
But, according to Harrar, those setbacks can and must be used to spur on growth.
“We lost these two games. Good. I'm glad because now we can learn from these two games. We lost those three games. Good. I'm glad we lost those three games because that started our win streak,” Harrar said. “It's just always about changing your perspective on looking at it. How can you grow? How can you watch the film and grow from those games that you lost?”
According to head coach Patrick Chambers, the answers don’t appear to be especially complicated.
Meeting with the media Monday afternoon for the program’s weekly press conference, Chambers lauded his team’s competitive spirit in fighting back from a 38-19 first-half deficit in Bloomington. Able to respond with a 30-5 run that spanned the two halves, the Nittany Lions eventually took a 48-42 lead before ultimately succumbing to Indiana’s game-winning plays down the stretch.
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Pleased with his team’s character, that didn’t prevent Chambers from identifying the turnovers, allowed offensive rebounds, missed free throws, missed layups and other mishaps that sunk Penn State’s chances at an 11th Big Ten win.
Largely identifying those issues on the offensive end, describing his Nittany Lions’ defense and rebounding as “fantastic” in the second half at Indiana, back-to-back performances of just 56 and 60 points in losses to the Illini and Hoosiers, respectively, have Chambers again keying in on point production.
“I think on (the defensive) side of the floor we're giving ourselves a chance. And that's all I can ask for,” he said. “We just got to get the offense... going again, sharing the ball.
“It's not about the cuts, because the cuts worked. Two weeks ago, they were fine. You know, we got open shots and we got ourselves to the free-throw line and we were getting assists. So we just gotta make sure we continue to trust one another, continue to share the basketball.”
That problem has been especially present in Penn State’s production from beyond-the-arc in each of the past two games.
Still playing without sophomore and the team’s second-leading scorer this season, Myreon Jones, for the fifth-straight game, Chambers reiterated the guard’s status as still being “day-to-day.” But in that absence, the Nittany Lions shot just 4 of 19 from deep against the Illini and just 2 of 14 in the loss on Sunday.
“If you make four threes yesterday you might be sitting here in a different situation,” Chambers said, insisting that intense competition should be expected in the Big Ten on a game-to-game basis. “Now, with saying that, we gotta share the ball. We're gotta keep putting pressure on the paint. We got to make the extra passes. And guys got to be ready shooters.
“I don't think we were down ready shooters. I thought Seth (Lundy) passed up on a couple. I thought (Izaiah Brockington) passed up on a couple and I think we missed some guys that were open. Instead of taking a very difficult, contested two, I think some guys were open because it wasn't like we stood as much as we did against Illinois. I thought our movement was better. So we got to play a little bit more unselfish.”
Confident that systemic breakdowns were not to blame, resisting an overreaction in the same vein as Harrar had done earlier, Chambers said that some of the bounces that went his program’s way during the eight-game winning streak went the other direction in the past two games.
Combined with necessary improvements that were already identified, and frequently stressed, throughout the span of success, Chambers acknowledged that “sometimes, you just lose.”
“How's that? I'm not going to give you a politically correct answer. Sometimes you just lose,” he said. “Illinois, they get the carom that goes straight down. He takes a deep three and he just barely hits the rim and it goes straight down and they can come in and dig it out. That's unlucky. On a night where we didn't shoot the ball well, give Illinois credit for that, but it's unlucky.
“And then some plays yesterday, Lamar goes for dunk, it goes over (the backboard). What are the chances of it going over the backboard? I've never seen anything like that. And it was still a five point game or six, but it was two possessions. So sometimes you're just unlucky and the bounce doesn't go your way.”
Instead focusing on the controllable variables within Penn State’s purview, Chambers’ message is one that Harrar and the rest of the Nittany Lions believe will pay dividends in a stretch run of four games the next two weeks to close out the regular season schedule.
First facing Rutgers in a rematch of a Jan. 7 decision that went 72-61 in the Scarlet Knights’ favor, the Nittany Lions will get the opportunity to upend their recent slide Wednesday back at the Bryce Jordan Center (7 p.m., BTN).
Determined to return to the gym for practice with intensity and “togetherness,” Harrar said that Penn State’s best basketball can still be achieved in the coming days or weeks.
“That's why Coach Chambers is such a good coach, because last year, that's when we found our stride, for sure, in the last 10 games of the season,” Harrar said. “So we're going to find our stride once again and I think his leadership, his ability to really influence our program and where our mindsets are at is such a positive thing for this program.”
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