Rutgers is a 2.5 point underdog tonight.
Let's get the win.
Best of Luck,
Groz
Let's get the win.
Best of Luck,
Groz
RU +2.5
- Thread starter Anon1751594821
- Start date
This is a real tough game -- don't be shocked by a loss.
Agreed - they are tough but if we play like we have been playing we will win.
Take a look at how RU his historically and reliably performed on the road, except for the empty arena games last year, and it will make sense.
Good chance for this arena to be near empty
Maybe. That'd be good. But their arena appeared to be hopping when they took Purdue to the wire just three days ago.
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They took Purdue to the wire the other night before losing in the last few minutes. They seem to be a bit like us prior to our last four games--unpredictable. They have athletes on their squad, and I think the determining factors in this game will be rebounding and fouls.
They are 100% going to try to bully us. We have to be very sound and mentally tough. Need to rebound.
I’ll be interested to see what type of crowd shows up tonight. Students are back and with it being the first week of classes, no one has any work yet. However, it’s ridiculously cold, and historically people aren’t hard pressed for excuses to bail on PSU hoops.
Just a few things looking at their stats so far:
- They seem to have a very balanced scoring attack across a lot of guys, and several who can shoot it from the arc. But they play with a very slow pace and don't score a ton of points.
- Doesn't look like they penetrate to the hoop that often, since they are 330th nationally in FTA. Usually teams that slash to the basket get to the line more often - seems like PSU settles more for jumpers that don't draw as many fouls
- They don't force many turnovers or block many shots
- They're on the smaller side, with no one over 6-9 and just 4 rotation guys over 6-4.
- Outside of Harrar, they haven't been great on the offensive glass
- Harrar is averaging a double double, but gives up size/length to Omoruyi/Reiber.
My guess is that the matchups will primarily be:
6-7/195 McConnell guarding 6-4/202 Pickett
6-4/195 Baker guarding 6-0/187 Sessoms
6-6/210 Mulcahy guarding 6-4/220 Dread
6-6/245 Harper guarding 6-6/219 Lundy
6-11/240 Omoruyi guarding 6-9/240 Harrar
- They seem to have a very balanced scoring attack across a lot of guys, and several who can shoot it from the arc. But they play with a very slow pace and don't score a ton of points.
- Doesn't look like they penetrate to the hoop that often, since they are 330th nationally in FTA. Usually teams that slash to the basket get to the line more often - seems like PSU settles more for jumpers that don't draw as many fouls
- They don't force many turnovers or block many shots
- They're on the smaller side, with no one over 6-9 and just 4 rotation guys over 6-4.
- Outside of Harrar, they haven't been great on the offensive glass
- Harrar is averaging a double double, but gives up size/length to Omoruyi/Reiber.
My guess is that the matchups will primarily be:
6-7/195 McConnell guarding 6-4/202 Pickett
6-4/195 Baker guarding 6-0/187 Sessoms
6-6/210 Mulcahy guarding 6-4/220 Dread
6-6/245 Harper guarding 6-6/219 Lundy
6-11/240 Omoruyi guarding 6-9/240 Harrar
Defensively, it’s a lot different than the Chambers/Ferry teams. Not nearly as aggressive, more of a stay at home and do your job type of philosophy. Tons of new pieces starting to mesh together, but no real “go to” guy (any given night, it might be Lundy, Sessoms, or Pickett). Harrar is Harrar, won’t run any plays for him, but he can put up 10 and 12 every night with hustle and work.
Our ceiling is probably about 9-11 in the B1G. Don’t force any turnovers and not great shooters, so need to win the rebounding battle and limit turnovers to be effective.
As far as attendance, their games so far this season have had announced attendance of:
01/08 - 10,464 - #3 Purdue, Sat. Noon
01/02 - 8,844 - Indiana, Sun. 4pm
12/08 - 7,499 - Wagner, Wed. 7pm
12/05 - 9,128 - Ohio State, Sun. 7:30pm
12/01 - 8,221 - Miami, Wed. 9:15pm
11/22 - 7,515 - Cornell, Mon. 6:30
11/18 - 7,764 - St. Francis, Thur. 7pm
11/10 - 7,884 - Youngstown, Wed 8:30pm
My guess is that they'll have 7500-8500 in attendance on a weekday night out of a capacity of 15,261, possibly on the lower end due to weather..... so roughly half full.
01/08 - 10,464 - #3 Purdue, Sat. Noon
01/02 - 8,844 - Indiana, Sun. 4pm
12/08 - 7,499 - Wagner, Wed. 7pm
12/05 - 9,128 - Ohio State, Sun. 7:30pm
12/01 - 8,221 - Miami, Wed. 9:15pm
11/22 - 7,515 - Cornell, Mon. 6:30
11/18 - 7,764 - St. Francis, Thur. 7pm
11/10 - 7,884 - Youngstown, Wed 8:30pm
My guess is that they'll have 7500-8500 in attendance on a weekday night out of a capacity of 15,261, possibly on the lower end due to weather..... so roughly half full.
1. It’s the annual “Thon” game, with portions of ticket sales benefiting the dance marathon cancer fundraiser. That has juiced student attendance at times in the past, and *may* be why so many lower bowl tickets are not for sale. Or it may just be that there’s not much interest.
2. Last game (10.5k attendance): Purdue was ranked No. 3, Penn State was coming off a win, it was the *only* Saturday Big 10 game of the season. As folks have pointed out here, it’s a tough weeknight “commute” for folks in the more populated areas of the fan base, so the rare Saturday league games are usually the best attended.
3. Greg Lee, 6-9, has only played four games after being injured to start the season. He plays up front with Harrar, completely changes the floor balance, and frees Seth Lundy to chase the best wing. Lundy, generously listed at 6-6, had been forced into playing the opposing team’s four.
Lee only played 15 minutes in the first two games, but 30 in the next two. That this has changed the team in a positive way is an eyeballs’ view - Penn State’s analytics are slightly worse since Lee’s arrival, but all four games have been Big 10 games.
I don’t think Penn State’s been playing as well as Rutgers, but it’s a much different team when Harrar has some - any - help down low and there’s a reasonable front court rotation. They scrap enough on defense that a lot of games are going to come down to whether they make enough threes. They’ve averaged about 10 in their wins, made 12 in the OT loss to LSU, but averaged 5.6 in the other losses.
They’ve also been plagued by some jaw dropping turnovers - of the type Michigan State was suffering early in the season - although the really bad ones have dropped recently and the rate has dropped from 21% pre-Lee to 16.9% post.
2. Last game (10.5k attendance): Purdue was ranked No. 3, Penn State was coming off a win, it was the *only* Saturday Big 10 game of the season. As folks have pointed out here, it’s a tough weeknight “commute” for folks in the more populated areas of the fan base, so the rare Saturday league games are usually the best attended.
3. Greg Lee, 6-9, has only played four games after being injured to start the season. He plays up front with Harrar, completely changes the floor balance, and frees Seth Lundy to chase the best wing. Lundy, generously listed at 6-6, had been forced into playing the opposing team’s four.
Lee only played 15 minutes in the first two games, but 30 in the next two. That this has changed the team in a positive way is an eyeballs’ view - Penn State’s analytics are slightly worse since Lee’s arrival, but all four games have been Big 10 games.
I don’t think Penn State’s been playing as well as Rutgers, but it’s a much different team when Harrar has some - any - help down low and there’s a reasonable front court rotation. They scrap enough on defense that a lot of games are going to come down to whether they make enough threes. They’ve averaged about 10 in their wins, made 12 in the OT loss to LSU, but averaged 5.6 in the other losses.
They’ve also been plagued by some jaw dropping turnovers - of the type Michigan State was suffering early in the season - although the really bad ones have dropped recently and the rate has dropped from 21% pre-Lee to 16.9% post.
Penn State will not be easy. They have recently played very well. If we can protect the rim and the lanes we should get the win. Harrar would have helped us but that’s over and done. Keep sharing the ball, play D , pressure the ball. Do that and good things will happen. Do wish Mag was back as he can really be a catalyst going forward.
Penn state is decent but honesty I think we matchup pretty good. They don’t force a lot of turnovers, which should let us keep our ball movement going. They also lack a viable backup C and turn the ball over a fair bit, and we are good at creating turnovers. They aren’t bad but we should win
This is how I see it. A lot of this matchup looks favorable. Teams that play aggressive pressure on the ball and have a stud or multiple large bigs who can score inside are more concerning matchups for us.
There are no easy games in the B1G, but if we want to be a tournament team... need to get road wins at places like PSU
Get it done
remember when we were playing Penn State at home and for some reason (freshman) Mulcahy was guarding Lamar Stevens couple times in a row down the court. i was sitting down low and Stevens had this crazy "you gotta be fuckign kidding me" look on his face. bodied him , scored two straight possessions, then chirped Pike back down the court to get the kid off him before he got hurt.
man, that made me laugh. Stevens was a scary ************ though. doing well with Cavs.
man, that made me laugh. Stevens was a scary ************ though. doing well with Cavs.
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