Penn State Basketball: 2018-19 Season Preview

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NEWARK, NJ – DECEMBER 10: Mike Watkins #24 of the Penn State Nittany Lions battles Cameron Johnson #23 of the Pittsburgh Panthers for a loose ball during the second half of a college basketball game at Prudential Center on December 10, 2016 in Newark, New Jersey. Pitt defeated Penn State 81-73. (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images) /

Ball Movement

For a chunk of last season, the ball didn’t move as much as it needed to. There was a lot of isolation basketball going on, and there were several points throughout the season were Tony Carr shot the ball over 25 times.

Without a ball dominant point guard in the lineup, the ball should move a lot more, thus creating more open shots for shooters. I don’t expect to see a player on this team take more than 20 shots in a game more than a few times. When it happens, it will probably be Lamar Stevens, but don’t expect to see that often.

In the exhibition game vs West Virginia, six players shot the ball more than five times, and only two shot the ball more than ten times. The even distribution of shots taken as a result of better ball movement is going to help open up the Penn State offense tremendously.

This was a team in 2017-18 that ranked 165th in assists per game with 13.7. In the game vs. West Virginia, they had 16. Ball movement to create open shots is key, just look at the way phenomenal teams like Villanova and Duke spread the ball.

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