3 Things we’ve learned about Penn State Basketball so far this season
By Evan Smith
Penn State Basketball has been wildly inconsistent through the non-conference schedule, but there have already been some hard truths learned about the Nittany Lions
Penn State Basketball (4-3) has started the non-conference season with some ups and downs, but what have we really learned about this team thus far?
They’ve had some peaks (taking a team receiving votes nationally in LSU to overtime) but some valleys (getting destroyed in the Trent Buttrick Revenge Game at UMass).
Seven games into the year we’re starting to learn a bit about this new roster and the coaching philosophies of new Nittany Lions Head Coach Micah Shrewsberry.
Here are three things we’ve learned about Penn State Basketball so far
No. 1: Penn State Basketball is going to play slow
Perhaps we were used to the more frenetic pace of the Pat Chambers era, but Shrewsberry clearly wanted a different philosophy for this team.
Shrewsberry stated as much in the pre-season, stressing less gambling on defense. This means less steals and less fastbreak points.
Let’s look at how Penn State Basketball stacks up in KenPom tempo data:
2018-2019: 172nd in the nation
2019-2020: 54th
2020-2021: 125th
2021-2022: 352nd!!
There are 358 division one teams in the sport, meanining only EIGHT teams in the nation play slower than Penn State Basketball.
To be clear, this isn’t a ‘good/bad’ type of statistic.
Think of fellow B1G teams like Wisconsin, Rutgers and Shrew’s former home Purdue … there’s nothing wrong with playing slow. It can work and it’s not surprising that Shrewsberry wants the team to succeed that way.
But, it is a stark contrast to what we’ve been used to. Penn State averaged 7.9 steals a year ago compared to 3.6 steals a game this year.