Stuck in a Tailspin
by BSD on Feb 12, 2009 12:00 PM EST
in Basketball
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There's no other way to describe it. After pulling the improbable upset against Michigan State, the Nittany Lions have lost three in a row and their season is in a tailspin. There were signs of life in the first half as Penn State briefly held a 22-16 advantage, but they layed down and died in the second half. It took nearly eight minutes for Penn State to register their second bucket. By that point Purdue had a 17 point lead and the game was already put away.
The Good
We got solid contributions from several role players. Jones and Babb gave us six points each. Morrissey, Woodyard, Jackson, and Brooks each gave us one or two buckets. But it's not enough. Every night we need someone from this group to step up and give us 10-12 points and it's not happening.
The Bad
Talor Battle is obviously in a funk. For the first time this season he didn't score a point. Not only that, but he just didn't look like his usual self. There's no smile. No cockiness in his step. He looks like a beaten kid that hates losing but knows it's going to happen. During the game the announcers relayed a story that right after the Michigan game last week Talor came home to find out his mom was in the hospital. So he and an assistant coach drove all night back to Albany so he could help take care of his six younger siblings. Thankfully, his mother was discharged and he could return to the team. But it gives us some insight as to why he may be dealing with a lot of distractions at this point in the season.
It seems that the Big Ten has figured out Talor Battle. In the last three games they harass him wherever he gets the ball to neutralize his speed. They're not letting him dribble and half court and get a head of steam on his charge to the basket. They get in his face and force him to get rid of the ball. When he comes around a screen they'll step out and double team him to prevent him from driving the lane. They're making someone else on the Penn State offense create a shot and so far nobody can do it. He's got to figure out a way to play through it.
The Ugly
Purdue's tiny 5'9" walkon guard Bobby "Buckets" Riddell came in and abused Danny Morrissey in the second half. He had 13 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists, a steal and a block. If I were Ed, I would replay that tape for my guards over and over. Riddell is a short kid that doesn't have blazing speed, but he was really smart. He used his screens effectively to get himself open. Toward the end of half Penn State tried guarding him with Pringle, so Riddell used crisp passes to feed his teammates easy baskets. Our guards don't look anything like that. They just try to blow past their opponent and plow through the trees in the paint to throw up a shot and hope it goes in.
Penn State's half court offense in general is just terrible. They telegraph their screens and seem like they're only setting the screen because coach told them they have to. The guy coming around the screen seems to hardly ever use it giving the defender plenty of room to get around it. Since they're never open coming around the screen the guards never pass them the ball, which I'm sure doesn't give them any incentive to make a better screen next time.
The end result is what we've seen the past few games. Dribble around. Dribble dribble dribble. Oh what? The shot clock is down to ten already? Ok. Drive to the hoop and throw it up. Oh there's no opening? Ok. I'll just throw it up from 25 feet then.
Next Up
I hate to say it, but maybe it's time to pull back our expectations. The NCAA tournament is a pipe dream the way we're playing right now. I don't see any way we're going to win one of our next three games against Minnesota, Illinois, and Ohio State. Rest up Cornley, Battle, and Pringle. Get them healthy for the last three games against Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. Get some experience for the younger guys and get back to basics on offense. Let's focus on winning those three games to build some momentum for the Big Ten tournament and the NIT.
And let's just not talk about next year when Pringle and Cornley are gone.
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And you it's bad when
Boiled Sports is saying things like:
Another important aspect of tonight’s win is that it allowed the team to rest.
BSD
It's up to Ed
to find answers on offense as far as finding new sets and strategies they can use. He has to get other people in the game regardless, because the grind is catching up to the big 3.
Is it not abundantly fair...
…to question whether DeChellis is the guy to lead this team next year? Yes, he walked into an awful situation. Yes, the university doesn’t seem to give a crap about the program. Still, they don’t look particularly well-coached in any aspect of the game.
--
Mr. Bob Dobalina
by Run Up The Score on Feb 12, 2009 1:14 PM EST reply actions
But
you can’t hold a coach responsible for the play of a few, uninspired athletes. For if you do, then shouldn’t we blame the whole athletic department? And if the whole athletic department is guilty, then isn’t this an indictment of our educational institutions in general? I put it to you, RUTS – isn’t this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do whatever you want to Ed, but we’re not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America. Gentlemen!
[walking out of room]
BSD
Ed
I’m not ready to pull the trigger on Ed yet. We’re clearly improved from last year. He seems to have a decent recruiting class coming in. Or at least better than we’re used to seeing.
I think more than anything we’re seeing our lack of depth come to bite us in the ass. Going from absolutely nothing to being a contender has different phases. The first thing Ed had to do was just turn around the attitude of the program. His first few years it was all he could do to keep kids from abandoning the team. Kids were using Penn State to prove they could play in the Big Ten. Then they transferred to go play somewhere else. Ed got that turned around.
Then Ed had to put together a decent starting five. He has done that with Battle, Pringle, Jones, and Cornley. Really, he did it last year, but when Claxton went down that set his team back a year from competing.
The next step is to build depth. Get three or four guys that can come off the bench and give you a solid ten minutes or step into a starting role if need be. We’re not there yet, but he has been recruiting well and I think we’re a year or two away from being there.
It’s important to note that though it seems like they have been around forever, Jones, Jackson, Brooks, and Battle are only sophomores. Babb and Woodyard are freshmen. Billy Oliver will hopefully give us some help down low next year. We’ve got three solid kids coming in next year. If I looked at this team and didn’t see talent coming in I would be concerned. But the talent is there, so I think Ed should get a pass. I’m even expecting a small step back next year as all these freshmen learn how to play. We’re going to kind of be in the same boat with four junior starters and a bunch of underclassmen. But looking at this team I would expect to make the tournament in 2011. If that doesn’t happen Ed needs to go. I don’t see Ed being fired after 2010 unless players like Brooks, Jones, and Jackson see no progress and we take a major step backwards.
Mike
Black Shoe Diaries
Recruiting has obviously improved.
I’m not a traditional “Fire Ed!” guy, and I really think there’s a good case to be made either way. Recruiting has improved. This is true. However, I do not see DeChellis making good use of the players he does have. There is no discernable offensive gameplan — that worries me a lot. A team that is below the average talent level of the rest of the conference needs to do the little things in order to improve. We’ve been dead last in FT shooting all year long, and now by a huge margin. Our FG percentage is 9th out of 11 teams in conference play. Our players can’t get open, and mostly because they run awful offensive sets.
There are two rather obvious areas in which the team has improved — rebounding and 3-pt defense. There’s no shot blocking presence, and the team ranks 10th out of 11 in steals and assists.
Again, I realize DeChellis walked into an impossible situation that practically no other coach would have undertaken. Considering he was slumming at ETSU, I’m not sure he should necessarily be commended for taking the PSU job. He has guided the program through incremental improvement. I’m not sure he’s the guy to take the current situation and improve upon it. I just don’t see it.
--
Mr. Bob Dobalina
by Run Up The Score on Feb 12, 2009 2:14 PM EST up reply actions
You may be right
Ed may not be the guy that can take us to the next step up. But do you think he’s been given a chance yet? I mean, we’ve really just now gotten to the point we can put a decent five players on the court at once and win some games with them. That’s where we are this season. Now he has to work on adding bodies to the bench and developing the talent. Except for Cornley, nobody on this team has played a full two seasons yet. If they’re all playing like this when they are seniors and we don’t see any improvement I’ll agree. Ed can’t get it done. I’m just not ready to say that yet. I need to see more. And I’m willing to give him a pass next year because of the talent we’re losing. But not much of one. When I say that, I expect to finish just over 0.500. I’m not expecting to win 20 games, but I think she should still be an NIT team. I still expect to win six or seven conference games. If he pulls in another losing season he needs to go.
Mike
Black Shoe Diaries
But it's been six years.
Six years! How is that not being given a chance? We’re talking about a small roster, it’s not like trying to deal with 85 scholarships.
And it could be that PSU is totally happy because they’re running a profitable basketball program on the cheap. That’s their right.
(But it ain’t right.)
--
Mr. Bob Dobalina
by Run Up The Score on Feb 12, 2009 2:30 PM EST up reply actions
Six years of progress though
Like I said, it took Ed a long time just to get out of the gate. Penn State’s problems were more than just talent level. He had an attitude problem. His players hated coming to practice. Nobody bought into the program or the system. Every year his best player would transfer someplace else. That alone took a few years to turn around.
I give him a complete pass for those years. I imagine he probably hated going to work every day. I can’t imagine there was anything fun about trying to coach a bunch of kids that didn’t want to be there. Really, when I look at Ed’s progress I just look at the last four years. We were an NIT team in 2006. We sucked in 2007 because we were just a two man team of Cornley and Claxton. We added Battle last year and things were looking up until Claxton went down. This year we’re probably an NIT team. I think the progress over the last three years is pretty good.
We’ll lose Cornley and Pringle next year, but we have three solid kids plus Billy Oliver coming in. That’s four for two. If Frazier and Marshall can equal 1.5 Pringles and Oliver and Sasa can add up to 1.2 Cornleys we’ll come out ahead.
I saw something on the BWI message board that kind of cheered me up this afternoon. It’s our depth chart for next year.
PG – Battle/Frazier
SG – Babb/Woodyard
SF – Brooks/Jackson/Marshall
PF – Oliver/Sasa
C – Jones/Ott
That’s 11 guys I would expect to all contribute solid minutes. I can’t ever recall a time when Penn State was ever that deep. And the really interesting thing is that none of these guys graduate after next season, so we’ll keep this team together for two full seasons. The Big Ten better watch out for Penn State in 2010-2011.
Mike
Black Shoe Diaries
I saw a similar depth chart and wanted to cry.
We know Battle’s very good, but he can’t do everything. Frazier’s a 3-star PG and you have to assume he’s decent, but he’ll be a true freshman. Babb and Woodyard haven’t really shown much to think they can take up Pringle’s scoring and defense next year. All three of those SF guys…I mean, what do we really have there? I have to think that Brooks will eventually improve.
As for Oliver/Sushi, who knows what we’ll have there. I like Jones. Ott should be playing 6-8 mpg max. He can be useful in small doses.
We may be okay in 2010-11. We’re likely going to suck next year.
--
Mr. Bob Dobalina
by Run Up The Score on Feb 12, 2009 3:27 PM EST up reply actions
However, I'll say this.
If Ed wants to revert to his up-tempo ETSU days, next year might be a time to try it. Just throw everyone out there for 10-15 minutes (except Battle, obviously) and run, run, run. It’s not like we have any reason to wait for the big guys to get down the court.
--
Mr. Bob Dobalina
by Run Up The Score on Feb 12, 2009 3:29 PM EST up reply actions
I figured out the problem
“Then Ed had to put together a decent starting five. He has done that with Battle, Pringle, Jones, and Cornley.”
We’ve been playing with only 4 guys on the court.
Add another – problem solved.
"The sea was angry that day, my friends." G. Costanza
best picture of a strugglebus yet!
next stop, the NIT!!!
by The JuggerNitt on Feb 13, 2009 1:20 PM EST up reply actions
Very interesting Arguement
Good work by RUTS and Mike, both made some excellent points. I have had the pleasure of meeting so many ex-players, coaches, and Ed on numerous times, and I consider some of them my very good friends. I also have played basketball my whole life and have had talks with many players about the team, so I feel like I know a lot about basketball and this team in general.
Ed is honestly one of the nicest, most genuine men around; an all-around class act. He has done wonders for the actual basketball institution and as a result I think Penn State will at least be mediocre almost every year from here on out until he leaves. We are getting the best recruits in school history and the fan base is dying for something to latch onto in the winter. It really is a sleeping giant, especially with how close we are to Philly, New York, and Maryland.
However, Ed has shown an inability to adjust in the Big 10. The key to conference play is coaching because everyone is tired and everyone knows each other so well. in February, teams have learned to stop us, but we have made no offensive adjustments. Also in games we look like at times we are coach-less on both offense and defense. Last night the entire game was screaming for a zone to be played against Purdue, but it didn’t happen until 8 minutes left in the game. This calls into question the caliber of coach he is. Maybe he just isn’t good enough to coach in the Big 10; like Mike said we will know more in a few short seasons.
He is also too loyal. Last year we inexplicably continued to play Mikey Walker (also an absolute great guy and all-time person). He was simply not good enough for this league. This year it’s Danny. You cannot watch these games and tell me Babb is not better than him. A walk-on was abusing Danny last night. All he can do is shoot, and that hasn’t been happening. Worse yet, he is slow and has a slow release, which means against good competition he may get 2 looks a game. I just don;t know why he plays.
All in all, this has been a great season for Penn State. If we beat Iowa and Indiana and maybe steal another game to get to 9, that will be a successful season. I hope I am wrong about Ed because as I said he is such a great guy and easy to root for.
by STU Boy on Feb 12, 2009 6:28 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
Banter
Thanks for the Big Ed discussion. It really frustrates me watching this team on offense. If his style is run and gun then he needs the personnel that can run that offense. Sure he has Battle and Pringle, they can run but I don’t think they have the skills to distribute and drive to the hoop and create plays by either making the layup, drawing the foul, or dishing it out for the jumper. I haven’t seen it. They also struggle throwing it down to the big men down low. Simple passes to the post. Why can’t Battle draw a foul when he drives to the hoop. Also every time we get under 10 seconds on the shot clock he drives in with some crazy shot. If Pringle could dribble with his head up he’d be the better point guard. I’m just rambling. Just frustrated. But also excited to be able to actually watch more than 3 games a year since I just got BTN this year. They way the team is playing right now our only win may be against Indiana. Or maybe we can turn it around and get hot again to give us hope for a birth in the tourney. Hey I never thought we’d win 4 straight. 4-2 the rest of the way! Believe! What else do we got… Men’s Volleyball tourney!
Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.
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