Penn State men’s basketball dropped its second straight game Wednesday night, falling 80-72 to Michigan State at the Bryce Jordan Center. The Nittany Lions couldn’t slow the Spartans down in the first half trailing 45-31 at the break and couldn’t quite get enough stops despite shooting just over 54% from the field in the final 20 minutes of play. Ace Baldwin led the way with 15 points while Nick Kern continued his strong play with 14 of his own on 6-of-7 shooting. Zach Hicks was also steady going an impressive 5-for-6 from beyond the arc in the effort. The Nittany Lions will next head to Nebraska for a Saturday contest.
Ace Woes: Prior to the last two games Ace Baldwin Jr had shot 45% or better from the field in five of the previous six contests and had turned a corner from a more passive to a much more active scorer. Since then Baldwin has seemingly come back down to Earth shooting a combined 7-for-24 from the field between Wednesday night and a weekend loss to Northwestern. Baldwin still makes up for it with elite free throw shooting – going 8-for-8 against the Spartans – but getting fouled is a skill in its own right and one that you can’t always control. If Baldwin can’t find an efficient stroke, and if Kanye Clary can’t get his groove back, this slide could get a whole lot longer.
Spartan Security: Michigan State coughed up the ball just three times on Wednesday night, the lowest turnover total for a Penn State opponent this season. In fact all year long opponents have turned the ball over against Penn State a single-digit number of times on just four occasions with two of those now coming in back-to-back games. There are a lot of reasons why a team might have good ball security, but creating offense out of defense, especially steals, is a big part of what makes Penn State tick. If the Nittany Lions aren’t creating extra possessions through turnovers, they’ll have a hard time doing the things that have made them so good at times.
Low Volume: Kanye Clary has been a shell of his former self offensively since coming back from injury and while a 3-for-6 outing with five assists isn’t the worst thing in the world, it isn’t the level of play Penn State needs out of him right now. Clary has attempted eight or fewer shots in three-straight games after attempting double-digits in the 12 previous games and 16 of his 20 appearances this season. There’s something to be said for find a more efficient way to score, but Clary is still shooting 46% on the year in spite of some high volume nights. Penn State did play some of its best basketball of the year while he was hurt, so there’s a balance in there somewhere, especially as Hicks and Kern continue to produce at a high level and Clary can pick his spots.
In Deep: Michigan State out scored Penn State 40-22 in the paint, a stat that doesn’t really come as a surprise anymore for this group of Nittany Lions but is worth noting on occasion that it hasn’t gotten much better. In fairness Penn State has generally been a better rebounding team (although it did go -10 on the glass Wednesday) as of late, but between struggling to contain the glass on the defensive end or stop anyone in close from scoring, it’s not wonder opponents are getting a jump on this team. So far this season only Rutgers and Michigan have failed to score 39+ against Penn State in at least one half.
Making The Most Of It: Penn State was a perfect 12-for-12 from the free throw line which will add to a team average 74.3% from the line on the year. That mark is good enough for 70th-best in the nation, which sounds better when you remember that list goes to No. 351. Penn State is tied for 98th in attempts per game, a figure that could only go up if Mike Rhoades had his way about things. There’s something to be said for the Nittany Lions’ success from the line, especially as a team that sometimes struggles to score from the run of play. Add in better shooting to elite free throw talent and Penn State could have a very different record. Then again “if the team was simply better” is a pretty standard wish for any team that has happened to lose a few close ones.
