Taking the Temperature of Penn State Basketball after first four games
By Evan Smith
Myles Dread
Let’s be fair, he was coming off an injury and is (still) being asked to play out of position (he’s not a B1G power forward).
Dread also battles hard defensively and isn’t afraid to challenge for rebounds against people that are consistently taller than him (2.8 per game), but he has been simply too cold offensively. He’s 4-18 from three point land, an ice cold 22%, which seems to be carrying over from last year. He’s only attemped one two point shot so he needs to shot well from beyond to contribute offensively.
Jaheam Cornwall
Cornwall shooting 29.4% from the field and a meager 3.8 points per game, despite getting 22 minutes per game. He’s as cold as Dread is from three (23% of 13 attempts) and has looked completely lost on defense, especially against Cornell, giving up numerous offensive rebounds by not boxing out on the wing. Cornwall was heralded as a great transfer pickup but has completley struggled adjusting to this level of basketball…and that was against the easiest part of the schedule.
Bench
This may not be their fault but the bench certainly has not met expectations.
Penn State Basketball is currently running a seven-man rotation, which isn’t going to be nearly enough depth as the competition increases, especially in conference play.
Dallion Johnson and Caleb Dorsey, figured to have real roles on this team, have played a combined 39 minutes. And no one else deeper on the bench has played at all. Four games in, only 9 players have seen the floor. Is this on those players for not showing enough in practice to earn playing time? Is it on Shrew for not giving them in-game chances? The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.
Metrics
For the past few years, despite mixed results, Penn State Basketball was a metric darling.
Let’s look a bit deeper into KenPom rankings and where Penn State Basketball stands:
2021 — #40
2020 — #26
2019 — #43
2018 — #19
Where is Penn State Basketball now? No. 89.
And that includes being ranked 30th in ‘luck’, a statistic Penn State struggled with under Chambers. The Nittany Lions are ranked decently on offense (76th) but worse defensively (107th) and a horriffic 299th in adjusted tempo. And the strength of schedule statistics are even worse (335th in the nation).