At their absolute best the Nittany Lions are a team which thrives on the contributions of the many. A group with a multitude of options, and no shortage of players willing and -more importantly, able- to step up if someone else is struggling. Even forward Lamar Stevens had benefited from a simple reality: he is the star on this team, but he has not had to be the star every night.
It’s an equation that has worked out well this season as Penn State rushed out to the 20-win mark faster than ever before, and for at least a brief moment in time a Top 10 ranking and legitimate Big Ten Title hopes to go with it.
But at their worst they are a reminder of what they used to be.
When the shots don’t fall they rely on Stevens to hero-ball the Nittany Lions to victory. An otherwise potent offense relegated to the kind of play which has been the hallmark of years gone by. In truth this is the case for nearly any team that loses a step, but one which Penn State fans are all the more familiar with. Tony Carr taking over, Talor Battle willing the Nittany Lions across the finish line, DJ Newbill shooting jumper after jumper, Tim Frazier doing his best to do it all.
Lamar Stevens scoring 29 on Sunday to help erase a 19-point deficit only to lose by eight on the road at Indiana 68-60.
Of course it was not an effort without context, Penn State playing its fifth-straight game without Myreon Jones, the Nittany Lions’ most efficient scorer and perhaps most versatile offensive weapon. Without Jones, Penn State has gone 3-2 in Big Ten play and to the Nittany Lions’ credit they have at moments looked as confident as ever in his absence.
There has been a certain inevitability to a Jones-less Penn State team though. Stevens is not an overly efficient scorer, Myles Dread is inconsistent offensively, Curtis Jones Jr has lost his touch from deep while Seth Lundy and Izaiah Brockington are complementary but not overpowering assets on both ends of the floor. Anchoring it all a talented but often yo-yo of emotions in Mike Watkins and the admirable efforts of John Harrar who seems to perpetually be butting up against his ceiling as the year goes along.
The results can be two-fold. Without Jones it takes that entire contingent working together to find wins. It takes a hot night from deep and solid defense to make up for his absence.
And Penn State has gotten those moments. Wins against Minnesota and Purdue in particular a testament to the depth and ability of this bunch when it clicks.
From a distance though it appears that those moments are not to be the norm without their second-leading scorer. A loss this past weekend to Illinois was not without effort, but lacked the same kind of potency as wins over Purdue and Michigan State. Again on Saturday the Nittany Lions missed Jones’ abilities, first half turnovers, fouls and missed shots digging Penn State into a 37-24 hole at the break, seemingly all of the Nittany Lions’ points coming from Stevens.
In the second half it should have been more of the same, but instead Dread scored 10, Stevens bullied his way to the rim and Penn State’s defense forced stop after stop. A once 19-point deficit would eventually turn into a six point lead with 11 minutes to go, an 18-0 run rallying the troops to believe in one more remarkable Jones-free effort.
The problem with comebacks though is that they require a lot of energy, effort and result in being ahead by only a few baskets despite such a swing in the scoring. Aside from Stevens’ 29 and Dread’s 10, Mike Watkins’ seven points were the only baskets of real consequence on a team that has prided itself in balanced offense. In turn there is so little gas left in the tank, and a game’s larger sweeping narratives have only been masked, not erased.
So the result, was what you might expect from a boxscore like that. Indiana landed enough counterpunches and trailing by 10 in the game’s final seconds, a meaningless Jamari Wheeler basket cut it to just eight.
Penn State will host Rutgers on Wednesday looking to steady the ship in the final four regular season games of the year. It will hope to have Jones -who warmed up with the team on Saturday- back in the rotation.
The Nittany Lions’ Big Ten hopes are likely gone, but one could argue that they were already riding on house money to begin with. Instead it will be up to Pat Chambers and the rest of his staff to hit a quick restart button, and hope for the best when Jones returns.
Penn State can still be the Sweet Sixteen team is has shown it can be, but it’s increasingly unlikely it can do that without Jones, and sometimes it’s not any more complicated than that.
