With lighter wallet, Ferry’s zone fails, Penn State Basketball falls to Illinois
By Evan Smith
B1G trouble on the horizon …
Going into this season we knew the Penn State front court would be an issue.
Illinois is a big team. So Head Coach Jim Ferry inserted Trent Buttrick into the starting line-up and played a 2-3 zone almost the entire first half. From the tip, it was obvious this was a miscalculation on Ferry’s part.
The Illini scored 42 first half points and pretty much got any look they wanted. Chalk this up to “nice try but no dice.”
Penn State Basketball also committed two fouls in the first 40 seconds (resulting in Dick Jeradi on the radio call exasperatedly saying “of course” after the second foul). A late Lundy charge also drew the ire of Jeradi, saying “horrible, just horrible … it’s just ruining the game and it’s dumb.”
Look, the officials aren’t the reason Penn State lost this game. But, we’ve now reached a danger zone.
The officials know that the Nittany Lions commit the most fouls in the B1G. The officials know the Lions don’t get to the free throw line, like ever. This is what Pat Chambers fought for NINE years. Jim Ferry, welcome to the “Penn State Basketball reputation” issue.
Ferry was fined $10,000 earlier in the day for his comments in Sunday’s post-game when asked about his technical against Purdue. Penn State isn’t going to get a single 50-50 call all year. That’s just the way it is. With two minutes left, Penn State committed another 26 fouls tonight to just 18 for the Illini. But there’s a bigger issue …