Without Watkins, Chambers considers smaller lineups

Patrick Chambers was unwilling to say Monday, one way or the other, the status of injured redshirt sophomore forward Mike Watkins.

Hobbled by an apparent knee injury in the first few minutes of Penn State’s loss to Michigan Feb. 21, Watkins would return to the game for only minutes and has not been seen on the hardwood since. Now, reeling from a three-game slide to end the regular season as they enter this week’s Big Ten Tournament in New York, the Nittany Lions could again find themselves trying to make up for Watkins’ absence in a Thursday night date with Northwestern.

“It's still assessing,” said Chambers. “I can tell you this. He doesn't need surgery. So we're still assessing the situation.”

Whether or not Chambers’ comments amount to a bit of gamesmanship leading into the matchup at Madison Square Garden remains to be seen, but in acknowledging some of the practice time and film study Tuesday and Wednesday this week will be centered on the adjustments needed in Watkins’ absence, plenty of clues would suggest his return is doubtful.

Arguing that plugging the league’s third-leading rebounder back in would be the norm, should he become available, Chambers said different lineups will need to be tinkered and experimented with in finding a balance without Watkins.

“We played a lot of games with Mike, so we know what that's going to be,” said Chambers. “We just gotta try some different lineups, maybe some different adjustments on the defensive end. We gotta probably make a couple of tweaks, add a couple of wrinkles on the offensive end to put these guys in the best position possible.”

Later addressing a question about body language in the Lions’ 76-64 loss at Nebraska Sunday, a game in which Chambers said he saw some things he hadn’t seen in months, the head coach offered up potentially another clue.

Noting that the early punches taken against Wolverines and Cornhuskers put the Lions on their heels, which hadn’t been the case in team’s six wins in seven games through the end of January and beginning of February, Chambers said defense and rebounding needed to again become his team’s identity.

“Our identity really matters, which is defending and rebounding. Because when we defend and rebound, we're really good, so we gotta get back to that,” said Chambers. “Now we gotta adjust because you don't have your rim protector, so we gotta do certain things to help them.”

Some of the weaknesses exploited by Nebraska of Penn State’s three-man solution at the five in Julian Moore, Satchel Pierce, and John Harrar, prompted Chambers to already make some of those adjustments.

Surrendering 26 points in the paint, allowing nine layups, and permitting 13 points off second chances in the first half alone at Nebraska, the 20 combined minutes for Moore, Pierce, and Harrar evaporated in the second half as Chambers turned to a smaller lineup. Featuring only Moore for four more minutes and none for Pierce or Harrar, the Nittany Lions attempted to speed up the game and, in turn, at least marginally reduced points in the paint (20), and layups (7), while turning them over nine times and producing better perimeter defense in the second half.

Maybe more important, the Lions also scored 47 second-half points after an anemic 17-point output in the first. Though surrendering more points on more Nebraska possessions in the sped-up second half, the results were good enough to create a 47-42 advantage in the box score for the Nittany Lions.

“The benefit of the smaller lineup is we're tougher to guard and there's speed out there. Obviously, we pressed a little bit, we switched a lot more, keeping guys in front we took away threes. But I thought mostly we took away their threes. And we did a better job with their drives,” said Chambers. “I thought the first half they just drove the ball, which we knew. We anticipated it. Without your rim protector there, they're going to drive the ball or they're going to put it inside to Jordy (Tshimanga). So again, we gotta continue to practice, continue to work, and I have to continue to make adjustments to give ourselves the best chance to be successful.”

The No. 7-seed Nittany Lions (19-12 overall, 9-9 Big Ten) will face the No. 10-seed Wildcats (15-16, 6-12) in the second round of the conference tournament Thursday. The winner will face No. 2 Ohio State Friday for another 6:30 p.m. tip.