The thing that made Tiger Woods so good at golf wasn’t just his booming drives, the ability to stripe an eight iron within a few feet, or draining long treacherous putts – it was his ability to do all of those things on a regular basis.
In the world of sports everyone has their moments when it all clicks. Not to get too sidetracked, but golf is a great example of that. Golfers come and go, winning in spurts before fading back into something more normal. Woods was one of the few who could turn in the same kind of performance each week. The challenge is being able to summon those moments on a regular basis, Woods might have been better than everyone from the outset, but being that good and playing that well are two different things.
This was in a roundabout way on display Tuesday night as Penn State hosted Michigan, eventually falling to the Wolverines 58-57. The final score coming from a meaningless Myles Dread three falling at the buzzer a few days after a far more meaningful three by Dread would have given the Nittany Lions the upset win at Wisconsin.
Penn State was both its good and bad versions on Tuesday night, shooting the ball at a 57.7% clip in the first half only to see that drop to 24% in the second half. The Nittany Lions moved the ball well in the first half, but struggled to move it in the second and struggled even more to finish around the rim like they had in the first.
Things were good, and then they weren’t so good, at least on the offensive end. Penn State never trailed by more than six points and held Michigan to under 50 points for 37 of the games’ 40 minutes. It has never really been Penn State’s defense that has struggled under Micah Shrewsberry [Penn State has lost four games in Big Ten play in which it held its opponent to 70 or fewer points, also losing to Purdue 74-67 in a game closer than its final score. Penn State’s losses to Miami and LSU both also featured fewer than 70 points allowed] but rather than ability to do anything on offense at a consistency high enough to turn great defense into great wins.
Jalen Pickett was efficient in the first half, less so in the second. Sam Sessoms had eight first half points before shooting a dismal 1-for-10 from the field in the second. Seth Lundy didn’t attempt a shot in the second half until there were just 30 seconds remaining. John Harrar was solid on the glass but eventually undone by NBA bound big man Hunter Dickinson.
It’s a frustrating existence to be able to do it, and then not. Sessoms perhaps took it the hardest, returning to the court after the game to get a few more shots up, shots he knows he can make and yet somehow didn’t.
“It just sort of felt like during the game like I was missing all the layups that I usually make,” Sessoms said. “And I work every day and that’s why I was so frustrated with myself. I vividly remember a handful of opportunities where I missed a layup where it was more me than the defender. So I wanted to go out there and just end the day on a good note and just move forward.”
That’s the issue the has alway plauged Penn State in the past. It has never been accurate to say the Nittany Lions simply aren’t talented even if they aren’t talented enough some nights. If they simply weren’t talented at all they would be just like all those teams the rest of the Big Ten runs over during the out of conference portion of the schedule. Teams that lose by just a few points might not be as good as their counterparts, or as talented, but they aren’t bad.
The challenge is consistency, albeit that is often a product of talent. Penn State can put together a good half, but it’s far harder to put together good games, at least regularly.
“We were struggling turning the ball over a lot this season and now we’re getting it down into single digits where we want to be,” Pickett said after the game. [Now] we’re just missing a lot of shots and you got to keep hitting the gym, keep working.”
That’s the challenge for Micah Shrewsberry moving forward, figuring out a way to take what he has – be it now or in the future – and generate consistency. Penn State’s loss on Tuesday night is not terribly complicated to recap; the Nittany Lions played well in the first half and leaned on their defense in the second half, hoping that the shots would start to fall – but they never did.
The good news for Shrewsberry is that in theory it could just take an influx of talent to turn hardworking efforts on defense into wins as the offense improves.
The bad news for Shrewsberry is that this has been the case for Penn State basketball long before he ever took the job.
