Penn State Basketball: 3 improvements Nittany Lions must make next season
By Evan Smith
Figure out how to be road warriors
The 2021-2022 Nittany Lions played in a significant amount of close games and their struggles were well documented finishing some of these games.
However, often overlooked were the close wins, especially at home in the conference (Indiana, Iowa, Michigan State, and Northwestern).
Penn State Basketball’s record in close games is actually very reflective of its overall record.
Due to Shrewsberry’s insistance on playing a slow down version of the game, it was always likely to be involved in more close games than average.
What Penn State Basketball really struggled to do was win on the road this year.
It started getting with creamed at UMass (aka the Trent Buttrick Revenge Game), and only got worse all season. Penn State Basketball won one road game this year, at Northwestern.
The Lions won just three more games away from the Bryce Jordan Center, and two of those came in the last four days in the Big Ten Tournament.
Making matters worse, that one road win was basically a neutral site game anyway, being played over the holiday break with no student presence and right before a snowstorm (2,764 listed attendance and it was far smaller than that).
Simply put, the Nittany Lions must learn to win away from the Bryce Jordan Center.
Penn State Basketball was a respectable 6-4 at home in conference play, but the 1-9 road record leaves a lot to be desired.
It’s easy to explain that disparity on a first-time head coach, but the Nittany Lions were the fifth most experienced team in the nation. These are players that won numerous road games over their careers.
With a likely heavy reliance on incoming freshmen and transfer portal players, road games will not be any easier in 2022-2023.