I think one of my favorite things about basketball is that it is not — in the broadest sense — a difficult sport to comprehend.
You shoot the ball and it goes in, or it doesn’t.
In reality there are nuances to this point because there are talented players who shoot better and athletic ones that can move their bodies in ways others can’t. Those things matter, but the great equalizer is that the ball doesn’t care who is shooting it.
So sure, there are plays and schemes, concepts and philosophies but it all boils down to trying to do the same thing. In basketball you might know what is coming, you might even see it before it happens, but the only thing that might be able to stop it from happening is the person with the ball.
It goes in, or it doesn’t.
You grab the rebound or you don’t.
You’re in good defensive position or you aren’t.
For Penn State basketball the challenge has historically been doing the simple things at a high level long enough that wins will come. This year in particular, up until February, the Nittany Lions have been an athletic team full of speed and potential, but they have -for many reasons- lost. They have come up short.
But in five of the last seven games, they’ve made the simplicity of the game look simple, and they’ve been rewarded for it.
Penn State’s 78-61 victory over No. 17 Maryland on Wednesday night was just the latest in the Nittany Lions’ barrage of quality basketball, taking a 42-20 lead into the half and never looking back.
Lamar Stevens would lead the way with 24 points while Myles Dread added 17 of his own an Myreon Jones poured in 10 to go with it. In total the Nittany Lions shot 45.8-percent from the field and 35-percent from beyond the arc while the Terps made just two of 19 shots from deep.
It was competent basketball on both ends with Penn State scoring 26 points off of Maryland turnovers, 17 on the fast break and 12 second chance points on top of it all.
‘I think the first half of conference play, our young guys really had to learn how to win in the Big Ten,’ Stevens said afterwards. ‘I think it’s just a whole other level. It’s the best league in the country. Once everyone dialed in and believed in Coach Chambers is when we were able to get over that hump. We knew we were talented but it’s just another level of toughness and focus you need to dial in to, to win in this league.’
The win is Penn State’s third-straight, and nearly a third-straight wire-to-wire victory if not for some back and forth action against Illinois. It is true that the Nittany Lions may have founds themselves too late, that they have more to play for in terms of pride than they might in more tangible ways.
Too-little-too-late it might be, but Penn State has spent much of the month of February making a simple game look simple.
And there is something to be said for that.
