It is generally customary to take anything good or bad that Penn State men’s basketball does with a grain of salt. This is not Micah Shrewsberry’s fault, nor Pat Chambers’, nor Ed DeChellis’ or Jerry Dunn’s. It’s simply the result of a long and winding road paved by a program that occasionally does just enough to suck in the casual viewer with hopes of something better only to – usually – come up short of those dreams.
As a result it makes things like NIT titles and hopeful NCAA Tournament appearances far more noteworthy than some programs might regard them. It is a rare moment when all of Penn State’s hopes and promises of something, anything good finally turn into reality. It’s what turns Madison Square Garden into a Penn State home court advantage as Tony Carr hoists an NIT Trophy over his head. It’s what makes being on the NCAA Tournament bubble feel like an appearance all on its own.
The joy for fans is often found in the moment when the expected failures turn into a brief moment of success.
Penn State’s 67-46 victory over Minnesota on Thursday afternoon – a product of rescheduled game thanks to COVID-19 – was a moment to start that kind of moment. A moment when you raise your eyebrow a bit and look at the Big Ten standings.
The Nittany Lions are now 6-9 in Big Ten play, and winning a seventh game (with at least six games to go) in conference play would be mark that has only been bettered six times since 1992. Winning anything more than seven would turn a fairly innocuous feeling season into something fairly significant for a program with few memorable Big Ten seasons.
Thursday’s game in and of itself came less than 48 hours following an upset victory over Michigan State, albeit with far less drama.
Penn State punched the Gophers early and often behind a tenacious defense and timely shooting. With 10 minutes left in the half the Nittany Lions were already ahead 18-5 and would respond to any Minnesota runs with one of their own, heading into the half ahead 27-19.
The second half was more of the same as John Harrar dominated in the paint and Jalen Pickett offered up a steady 20-point performance on 9-of-14 shooting. By the end of the afternoon’s proceedings Penn State would post 40 points in the paint while Minnesota would post 46 points overall. The Gophers were helpless just five days prior to a 76-70 win over the Nittany Lions in Minneapolis as Penn State shot 53.8% from the field, Myles Dread adding 13 points on an efficient 5-of-6 shooting night of his own.
Overall Penn State sits at 11-12 on the year, which is where the Nittany Lions’ success feels far different than the numbers next to their name.
But if you consider three games canceled due to COVID-19, very winnable contests against VCU, Delaware State and Quinnipiac – albeit VCU sits at 17 wins – that very easily could add three more wins to Penn State’s 11-win total. Suddenly the Nittany Lions are a 14-12 team with six games to go.
Certainly games that never happened, let alone awarding teams wins that never happened is dangerously close to becoming an unreasonable thought exercise. That said, if Penn State was sitting at 14 wins with six games to go, it would need to only win three of those games to hit the 17-mark, a win total Penn State has only bettered three times in the last 10 seasons.
“We wish we had those game to be able to play and look at it a little bit differently but at the same time, I want us to be improving at the end of the year,” Shrewsberry said on Thursday. “And it might [change] how our record looks and everything else but if we’re not improving, it doesn’t really matter. I feel like we’re improving. I feel like each and every game we’re getting better and better and better. And guys are getting comfortable and we’re doing the right things. So I wish we could have gotten a couple of those back, right. We tried. It didn’t quite work out.”
In the end, short of a remarkable run, this Penn State season will fall somewhere in the middle of the pack of things the program has done in recent years. The Nittany Lions have good wins, good performances in defeat and will try to fight for an NIT qualifying .500 record in the final few weeks of the year.
That said, Penn State’s performance on Tuesday and then again on Thursday was a nothing to scoff at. Add in a few games that never happened and you’re looking a team that is in the process of posting a record a bit better than its currently getting credit for.
“I feel good about where we’re at,” Shrewsberry added. “I can’t tell you right now, until I look at the box score I have no idea what our record is. I know our conference record is because I look at it and I’m trying to figure out where we’re going to be, where we need to go, what’s upcoming and everything else but our overall record [I don’t know].”
And that’s maybe the best way to judge this Penn State team at the end of the day. The die has been cast with three games – and possibly three wins – being erased from the schedule, but the Nittany Lions are looking more and more the part.
How much you want to hold your breath and get your hopes up is up to you.
