2026-27 PSU MBB Thread
- Thread starter Tom McAndrew
- Start date
UT Chatanooga Mocs lost their opening season game to #11 Louisville and played lots of players. They are coached by former PSU baller and alum, Dan Earl.
Rebounding well, scouting report out on him now.
Team defense will be their biggest issue all year
Really good half. We made Chattanooga look like Canisius (while they are considerably better). Thought the officials did a good job…some will complain about the number of fouls, but they were consistent and kept calling them as they kept occurring. I’ll watch 1k college basketball games this season and I might not see another with three players on a team with 3 fouls in the first half.
Defended well. Rebounded even better. And couldn’t ask for more at the FT line.
Need to keep getting to the hoop and pounding it inside!
Only negative was hearing about the Blums injury. We could use his shooting on Sunday, and in the Bahamas.
Defended well. Rebounded even better. And couldn’t ask for more at the FT line.
Need to keep getting to the hoop and pounding it inside!
Only negative was hearing about the Blums injury. We could use his shooting on Sunday, and in the Bahamas.
54-31 at half
PSU 22-11 rebounding advantage and has made 21-22 FTs. That's the story of the game.
Reed & Juric are too big and strong for UTC. Roco adds to that physicality. 13 rebounds for those 3.
Bowen is listed at 6'2" but seems smaller. He looks solid but I'd like to see him take his man off the dribble and finish at the rim or kick out to an open shooter. He hasn't shown that so far.
UCT does a nice job reversing the ball and hitting the cutter when double teamed. PSU did a very poor job defending that.
PSU 22-11 rebounding advantage and has made 21-22 FTs. That's the story of the game.
Reed & Juric are too big and strong for UTC. Roco adds to that physicality. 13 rebounds for those 3.
Bowen is listed at 6'2" but seems smaller. He looks solid but I'd like to see him take his man off the dribble and finish at the rim or kick out to an open shooter. He hasn't shown that so far.
UCT does a nice job reversing the ball and hitting the cutter when double teamed. PSU did a very poor job defending that.
Thought we defended pretty well. They got some clean looks, but most were contested. The pressure forced several turnovers too. Something under .8 points/possession which is really good.
Roko has had a few bad turnovers, but otherwise has been great the first 1.5 games. 5 points, 5 rebounds in 12 minutes, and didn’t force shots. Thought that shows his maturity. You can see how badly he wants to get to the basket in transition (and did once tonight).
I wasn't impressed with the D. We're lucky they missed 13 3s.
Agree on the rebounding. FT shooting was great, especially Juric 6-6.
It’s not in Mike’s DNA, but I’d love to see some zone out of this group. Especially as we have gone big, but keep getting in mismatches and getting beat off the dribble.
Weird game. Gave an A/A+ performance in the first half, and a D- second half. Win probability never fell below 92%, but things got tense and had a few possessions where things would have gotten really interesting without a bucket/stop…thankfully, we responded when needed.
I liked our defensive performance in the 1H, but 2H was awful. Got beaten off the dribble constantly, bad recognition of their shooters, terrible recognition of their cutters, a step slow boxing out, etc.
I liked our defensive performance in the 1H, but 2H was awful. Got beaten off the dribble constantly, bad recognition of their shooters, terrible recognition of their cutters, a step slow boxing out, etc.
PSU did all they could possibly do to lose but they won anyway.
UTC is a much better fundamental team than PSU. They are quick off the dribble and able to kick it out to wide open shooters. They reverse the ball really well. PSU's defense was really bad. They gave a lot of easy lanes to the basket, back door cuts, and wide open 3s after UTC reversed the ball.
PSU won by 4 because they're physically bigger and stronger made 43 FTs vs 14 for UTC (+29).
Player assessment:
Juric gets an A with 15 pts and 10 rebounds.
Reed gets an A with 25 pts and 5 rebounds.
Bowen gets a B- with 13 pts and 7 rebounds. Only 3 assists and unable to create on offense but otherwise solid player.
Prkacin gets a C+ with 13 pts and 6 rebounds. 3 TO and reaches on D instead of playing with feet.
Allard gets a C- with 11 pts and 2 rebounds. Some poor shots late and 3 TO. Weak on D.
Byers gets a D with 6 pts and 1 rebound. 3 TOs and 1-10 from 3.
I guess any win is a good win but the defense was very weak and PSU won't be able to bully their way to the basket and make 43 FTs against B10 teams. If Bowen can't get into the paint and create for his teammates we're in for a long season. I read that UTC is projected to finish 10-19 (7-11 in the Southern Conference). RPI 297.
UTC is a much better fundamental team than PSU. They are quick off the dribble and able to kick it out to wide open shooters. They reverse the ball really well. PSU's defense was really bad. They gave a lot of easy lanes to the basket, back door cuts, and wide open 3s after UTC reversed the ball.
PSU won by 4 because they're physically bigger and stronger made 43 FTs vs 14 for UTC (+29).
Player assessment:
Juric gets an A with 15 pts and 10 rebounds.
Reed gets an A with 25 pts and 5 rebounds.
Bowen gets a B- with 13 pts and 7 rebounds. Only 3 assists and unable to create on offense but otherwise solid player.
Prkacin gets a C+ with 13 pts and 6 rebounds. 3 TO and reaches on D instead of playing with feet.
Allard gets a C- with 11 pts and 2 rebounds. Some poor shots late and 3 TO. Weak on D.
Byers gets a D with 6 pts and 1 rebound. 3 TOs and 1-10 from 3.
I guess any win is a good win but the defense was very weak and PSU won't be able to bully their way to the basket and make 43 FTs against B10 teams. If Bowen can't get into the paint and create for his teammates we're in for a long season. I read that UTC is projected to finish 10-19 (7-11 in the Southern Conference). RPI 297.
I wouldn’t give Juric an A, gave up too many easy shots inside and missed some bunnies or at least had it knocked out of his hands.
They will almost certainly be better than that…that’s an extremely low projection of them.
PSU needs to go hard to recruit a real PG who can take people off the dribble and penetrate and dish or kick out. Should have paid Mingo. That's on Kraft with his attitude toward Bball.
Agree about playing zone with this team. Rhoades needs to get over his stubborness.
They didn't totally get dismantled by Louisville. Did to them like they did to us......beat us in second half.
Now that I have a little more time to add more info to it...
They were picked to finish 5th in the SoCon preseason poll (it's an 11 team conference, which Pomeroy ranks 18th of the 32). Ken has them going 18-14 (10-10), and 230th. Torvik doesn't like them quite as much, but he's got them at 16-16 (9-11), and 277th. I've got them rated higher than both (about 215th).
Their blueprint the first two games was pretty similar...got down really big early. Louisville was up on them 37-14 half way through the first half, and it ended up as a 14 point game. If Dan can get them out of the blocks quicker, they've got a nice team for the SoCon.
I appreciate your data but PSU really exposed their weaknesses.
On offense they don't have a playmaker who can break down the defense and create opportunities for teammates.
UTC guards easily blew by defenders and got to the rim. I like Juric but he's not a rim protector.
UTC guards also kicked out to wide open shooters. PSU defenders were slow to recover when UTC reversed the ball.
Pitt will be a challenge. PSU won't be able to bully them at the rim and I don't know how they're going to stop Ndongo from getting to the rim.
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