Inside Yolk

A lot has happened since Penn State embarrassingly lost to Rutgers at home back on January 26. Pat Chambers finally got his team to execute properly, and that led to a whopping five Big Ten wins in the month of February, including a pair over ranked foes Michigan and Maryland.

Whoop dee freaking do. All this means is that athletic director Sandy Barbour has more excuses to keep Chambers around for eight more mediocre years, right? Well, maybe. There are reason to believe that this team is building into something sustainable, though it’s not like we haven’t been here before with Penn State. Lamar Stevens is playing like a First Team all-conference player, and we’re finally starting to see more disciplined player from freshman combo guard Rasir Bolton. Better yet, Myles Dread is a legit sniper from three-point range and Jamari Wheeler has settled into his role as someone who should never ever shoot the ball.

Add in some great defense to that improving offense, and you’ve got the recipe for a decent basketball team. Not bad considering where this program was a month ago. There’s still hope that all the key pieces — save for the graduating Josh Reaves — return next season and that incoming four-star recruit Seth Lundy gives the team a little something while Bolton and Dread continue to improve. If all that happens, Penn State might be a tournament team. In reality, someone gets injured and Chambers makes a deep NIT run to secure a contract extension.

Back to this season, though. Penn State’s second crack at Rutgers comes tonight in Piscataway. Back in January, both sides were equally brutal on offense, which makes sense given the solid defenses at play. To get the revenge win on the road, the Lions are going to need big contributions from the freshmen guards while Wheeler and Reaves smother Geo Baker and Eugene Omoruyi on the other end.

Even with a win in New Jersey on Wednesday and another at home over Illinois on Sunday, it’s looking impossible for the Lions to get out of the bottom four of the Big Ten. That means playing on the first day of the Big Ten Tournament next week and probably getting eliminated before the big dogs even hit the floor. Sigh. It’s all about building for next year anyway, and that means not losing to Rutgers twice in the same season. The Knights aren’t the doormat they’ve been in the past, but losing too often to a school so close to Philadelphia can’t be good for the little bit of clout Chambers maintains in the city. In other words, just freaking win tonight.

It’s been a while since fans of Penn State Basketball even entertained the idea of the team playing beyond the Big Ten Tournament in March. Eight straight conference losses will do that to a fan base. At this point, we just want to see improvement; a spark from a young player or an inspired performance from a vet. Something that will convince — at least those of us who aren’t there already — that athletic director Sandy Barbour shouldn’t just rocket Pat Chambers into deep space at the end of the campaign.

It’s a good sign that Lamar Stevens seemed to rediscover his three-point shot during last week’s game against Minnesota that Penn State should have won on the road. It’s nice that three freshman guards — Rasir Bolton, Myles Dread, and Myreon Jones — are all getting playing time. But this team should have been so much more this year.

Josh Reaves occasionally flashes his ability on offense, but with so many greenhorns in the backcourt, Penn State needs him to be the floor general and get to the basket more often. Mike Watkins has done a great job to work his way back into the fold given his off-court issues, but after an inspiring performance against a super tough Michigan team, he’s faded into the background.

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It’s Friday night and I feel alright. That’s what happens when you get your food shopping done during the day and get to watch speed runs of Pokemon Gold all afternoon. The NFL Playoffs continue tomorrow with a couple of hot games that will keep this guy glued to the action all night. Tonight, though? There’s Big Ten basketball action. Gotta get down on Friday, people.

I don’t know why it took this long for one of the major conferences to start putting their hoops games on Friday night. Saturday is already saturated with college basketball as well as the NFL football this time of year, so why not put your games in more friendly waters?

Big Ten basketball: Indiana at Maryland (-5.0) and Purdue at Wisconsin (-3.5), both games on FS1

The Hoosiers are tough to figure out because they haven’t played many teams on their level. Two of their three losses are to Duke and Michigan — perhaps the top two teams in the nation — while their best win is over Marquette, a team that isn’t quite at the top of the Big East. No one is super jacked about Indiana’s three Big Ten triumphs over Penn State, Northwestern, and Illinois. The attitude around this team can get a huge boost with a win over Maryland.

The Terps are 3-0 in January with wins over Nebraska, Rutgers, and Minnesota. They haven’t been tested as tested as Indiana and might not have the top two players on the court in this game — IU’s Romeo Langford and Juwan Morgan are pretty damn impressive — but Maryland’s team is deeper and it’s getting some great performances from its own freshmen in Jalen Smith and Aaron Wiggins. I like Maryland to win by a bucket at home.

I’m thinking the Badgers also get a home win tonight. Wisconsin lost back-to-back games against Western Kentucky and Minnesota recently, but they rebounded with a shellacking of my Nittany Lions. On the other side, Purdue took its lumps during a tough non-conference slate, but also has Big Ten win over Iowa and Maryland to brag about. Most recently, the Boilermakers were blown out by Michigan State on Tuesday.

This game will be billed as a battle between the two top players in the Big Ten, Ethan Happ and Carsen Edwards. That alone will make this game fun to watch, but Wisconsin’s home-court advantage and its superior supporting talent should be enough to get the win by about five or six points. Look for Wisconsin point guard D’Mitrik Trice to rediscover his scoring touch after being held under 10 points in each of his last two games.

NBA: Indiana at New York (+8.0) and Lakers at Utah (-8.0), both games on ESPN

The Knicks are without Enes Kanter tonight because he went too hard on cheat day. That doesn’t give New York much of a chance against a very good Pacers squad. However, Indiana will be missing a big man of its own, as Myles Turner is out with a shoulder injury. I still think the Pacers win by double digits.

Over in Salt Lake City, the Lakers are big underdogs without LeBron James, but they’ve won two in a row and Kyle Kuzma seems to be emerging as the secondary go-to guy that Los Angeles needs. The Jazz have been playing down the middle all season; they haven’t won or loss more than two games in a row since November. I’ll take Utah to win but not cover.

Big Ten Hockey: Michigan State at Penn State, BTN

College hockey is awesome, but I’m only going to watch this because it’s a PSU game.

Have a great night!

Even an NIT bid is starting to look out of reach for Penn State basketball. The team is now 0-5 in Big Ten play and 7-9 overall after losing to Nebraska on Thursday night. Yes, it was nice to see the Lions compete for 40 minutes against a veteran squad on the road, but Pat Chambers is supposed to have some experienced talent of his own, and said talent has not performed consistently enough to grind out wins against — we hear this from announcers time after time — the deepest league in the country.

If Penn State is going to take a step forward and start winning some of these Big Ten games in January, Josh Reaves needs to approach 20 points more often. He reached 20 against Nebraska, but that was following five straight instances of him scoring below 10 points. It’s not as though there’s a wealth of options to hand the ball to after Lamar Stevens gets doubled-teamed, which happens on every other possession.

The key for Reaves seems to be his three-point shot. At times, it looks dreadful, but when it’s falling, the senior looks to take it and becomes a much more aggressive player. His 4-for-7 night from beyond the arc was his best since going 3-for-8 to key another close road loss against Maryland on December 1.

Mike Watkins had his second double-double in three games, which is good because it means less John Harrar on the floor. Harrar is a decent enough defender, but he’s painfully clumsy on offense, and Penn State can just not deal with that when it’s playing form a deficiency at the perimeter spots.

Like Harrar, Trent Buttrick and Myreon Jones also scored zero points on Thursday. Since the Alabama game in which they both received expanded playing time, both players have gone back to being insignificant contributors. That’s disappointing, especially when you consider that the main guy Penn State counts on for three-point shots, Rasir Bolton, has made one of his last 14 from long range, a span ranging all three January games.

Penn State kept the game close in Lincoln by frustrating James Palmer Jr. (11 points on 3-for-12 shooting), but Isaiah Roby and Glynn Watson Jr. picked up the slack by combining for 41 points on just 25 shots. The Cornhuskers are even more shallow than Penn State, as they only got one point from their bench, but their starters proved a little more capable.

Next up for Penn State is Michigan State on Sunday afternoon. It’s a 4:30 p.m. start that is running against an Eagles playoff game, so you can bet your tush that there will be a very sparse crowd around to see the Lions take their shot against one of the conference’s best teams.