Basics:
Who: Michigan (13-5) at Penn State (14-5)
Where: Bryce Jordan Center, University Park, PA
When: Tuesday, January 20th 9:00 ET
TV: BTN
Spread: PSU by 2.5
Preview: Stat Sheet, U-M KenPom Profile, Penn State KenPom Profile
Radio: MGoBlue, WWJ-AM (950), WTKA-AM (1050)
Opposition Blog: Crispin and Cream
Michigan heads to the Bryce Jordan Center to take on the Nittany Lions in a battle of 3-3 Big Ten teams. I hate to call a game in January a “must win” but this is one that Michigan could really use. Of course there will be chances to make it up down the road but it won’t be easy. Michigan is on their first losing streak of the year and coming off probably their most disappointing game to date. No matter how badly Michigan needs a win, it’s not going to be easy because Penn State is no pushover.
Penn State has been tough at home all year. They have already knocked off Purdue, the conference’s preseason favorite, and also lost a close one to Michigan State. Bryce Jordan Center isn’t overwhelming in terms of home court advantage but a Big Ten road game is a Big Ten road game and nothing will come easy.
On offense the Nittany Lions do a great job holding on to the ball (their turnover rate of 16.6% ranks 7th nationally) while shooting a high percentage from three point range (38.7 3pt% ranks 24th nationally). While they shoot a high percentage from long range they don’t take an overwhelming percentage (35.8%, 98th nationally) of their shots from behind the arc. They also struggle at the free throw line where they are shooting only 66.5%. Overall their adjusted offensive efficiency of 110.3 ranks 6th in the Big Ten. They also like to play a very similar tempo to Michigan right around 65 possessions per game.
Defensively the Nittany Lions are a great rebounding team, they only allow their opponents to rebound 26.9% of their misses (9th nationally). Penn State doesn’t have lots of height but they get after it on the boards and it’s going to be critical for Michigan to come out ready to play hard and hustle. Penn State doesn’t force many turnovers but they defend the three point shot very well, their opponents shoot only 31.3% from long range. Overall, Penn State’s defense is the only defense in the Big Ten that ranks worse than Michigan’s in terms of adjusted efficiency.
The big three for Penn State are Talor Battle, Stanley Pringle and Jamelle Cornley. Battle’s 18.6 ppg is good for second in the Big Ten and he shoots 40.3% from long range while dishing out 5.4 assists per game. Pringle is shooting 50% from long range and averaging 14.4 ppg. Both guards can get hot in a hurry and from what I have seen can hit some pretty difficult shots inside and outside as well. In the paint the Nittany Lions rely on 6-foot-5 240 pound big man Jamelle Cornley to do their scoring and dirty work. Cornley is averaging 14.7 ppg while pulling down 6.6 rpg and shooting just over 50% from the field. Cornley definitely isn’t tall but he is a physical player who can impose his will on a game.
After the big three, Penn State doesn’t have much more in terms of scoring punch. 6-foot-9 Andrew Jones III starts inside and averages 5.2 ppg and 5.5 rpg. 6-foot-6 forward David Jackson was the fifth starter for the Nits and averages 4.6 ppg and 3.6 rpg but he was replaced by Jeff Brooks at the start of Big Ten play. The 6-foot-8 sophomore is averaging 3.5 points per game in his 6 starts. 6th man Danny Morrissey is a career 38% shooter from long range but he is shooting only 32% from behind the arc this year and really hasn’t got going.
Michigan’s last two games have left them with more questions than answers. The offense that was deadly at times early this season has been shut down and the always questionable defense has been giving up points in droves. Michigan isn’t ready to panic but fans are certainly getting nervous. Last week’s conversations about NCAA tournament seeding are now focused on the bubble. DeShawn Sims has made 7 of his last 27 shots and Laval Lucas-Perry hasn’t been much better, making 5 of his last 17. Michigan needs their second and third leading scorers to find their stroke because Manny Harris can’t beat teams on his own.
Let’s hear your thoughts, comments, predictions, and in-game discussion in the comments.
69-62 good guys. Peedi will get it together putting in 15, Manny will do is usual, and Novak is going to go crazy.
Go Blue!
If M can win this game then the NCAA tourney campaign is right back on track. But that is a big IF.
My heart says M wins, but my mind says otherwise.
PSU 65 – M 56
Dylan, are you liveblogging? Let the WLA guys know on twitter.
The three matchups to watch will be Taylor Battle vs. Manny Harris, Jamelle Cornley vs. Deshawn Sims, and Stanley Pringle vs. Zack Novak.
Michigan needs Manny to outscore Battle, Deshawn to outmuscle Cornley, and Novak to outshoot Pringle.
Also… Crispin and Cream points out that Gus Johnson is doing the game…
new banner is cool
I would love to chat durng the game too, this game is HUGE for the season no matter how you look at it.
I’ll be providing comments here during the game and encourage others to. Not exactly a chat but I think it’ll work.
ILL/OSU on ESPN right now. Should be an interesting one, especially considering we just played both of em.
Very excited for Gus Johnson. Also very excited about the new banner on top of the site, I love how simple it is and yet it makes a statement.
The liveblogs have been fun so far but everytime I seem to be in them, the team does awful, so I’m glad we’re sticking to the comments alone for this game.
I was at PSU last year for the game, and man… they can REALLY heat up in a hurry. I couldn’t believe some of the threes that Battle and Pringle were dropping. Last year Manny was equally impressive, hitting 3 or 4 threes himself, so let’s hope he brings it again tonight.
89 title game is on BTN right now also if you are looking for some pregame viewing. I think I have LiveBlogged the first Duke game and the IU and ILL road games… Maybe the team just can’t handle the pressure of the LiveBlog.
This is a measuring stick game for sure. Hope Deshawn gets out of his funk. We’re due for a game where multiple people are bombing three’s. Stu, LLP, Grady and Novak all in double figures would be outstanding and would bring home a win. Need to come out with intensity on defense right away. I think we get ‘em by a bunch.
Illinois is just pounding OSU… up 18 in the second half.
After watching Illnois almost beat MSU at the Breslin Center over the weekend and now throttle OSU tonight, I think I’m putting them solidly in the Big Ten Top 4. Who will join them? Right now it looks like MSU, Purdue, and Minnesota, although the Gophers still have a lot to prove. That would leave us, OSU, Wisconsin, and PSU fighting for 2 or 3 more bids to the Tourney. It doesn’t help that we lost to 2 of those 3 teams at home already…
Yeah, go figure. OSU would play out of it’s mind against us and then return to unspectacular form. We need this game tonight in a bad way. It’s not a must win, but it would be a big one. Go Blue!
UM by 5.
The losses against OSU and Wisco at home definitely hurt but the win over Illinois looks pretty good right now. If Michigan gets to 500 I still think they are in no matter who the wins are against, especially with their big non-conference wins.
Also… Evan Turner didn’t get to the line once against Illinois…
They don’t play out of their mind, they just expose a very glaring weakness on our team, which is lack of a post presence. I mean look at Illinois, even a 7 footer as soft as Mike Tisdale makes a team that much more competitive. That’s why I’m hoping that even if Michigan struggles down the stretch this year, getting some more big guys like Cronin and Morgan next season could put us over the top.
Agreed they definitely took advantage of our lack of size, but B.J. Mullens lit us up purely because of his size. I haven’t seen him play a decent game all year until he played against us. Which is definitely because of our lack of size, but in that sense he did play well above his normal output, which is what I really meant about “playing out of their mind.”
I know it sounds like sour grapes, but Big Ten officiating is aweful. There’s no consistency whatsoever. If anything, it should be a bit biased toward the home team and consistent. On one end they’ll call a touch foul up top, but the next trip to the other end of the floor, a guy can get knocked flat on his butt and they don’t call anything. I’ve said it during every Big Ten game I’ve watched this year, regardless of whether UM is playing. It’s really sickening.
Anyway, enough of this discussion. Let’s focus on the now: Go Blue!
My undying optimism says that Michigan wins this one 72-66.
The 1-3-1 works well in the second half to help us push ahead for good.
The kid on OSU who is really showing me something is William Buford. He has stepped up in the early Big Ten season. That team still has so much all american talent it is ridiculous.
The #1 LLP Hype-man Tim McCormick with Gus Johnson. Here’s to a fast start.
Bryce Jordan, like always, looks pretty empty.
Yes, Battle with a sore groin!!!
By the way, like the maize jerseys here…
Wow, “big game Maize” uni’s on the road?
LLP shot still MIA. Peedi hustling on the glass, love to see that.
Two early TOs for PSU too.
What’s with the rim clinging noise?
7 missed threes = rim clinging noises..
I actually really like the way we came out… hustling for rebounds (I think Peedi has more boards tonight than he did against OSU), “forcing” TOs, crisp passing… we just can’t put the ball in the bucket from long range. It will come though.
Laval, what happened man? His shot looked like a gift from God in his first three games, since then it’s been flat out ugly…
At this rate we could get 100 extra shots and still lose by 20 if they’re hitting the few shots they take.
Damn, so many wide open looks from long range. Just not falling. Feels a bit like the IU game right now… Gotta just keep shooting I guess.
I like Peedi’s effort so far but Cornley is a load.
It seems weird that the camera is on the same side as the benches. Is this normal?
1-12 shooting from 3 equals 14-2 run for Penn State.
Were the “Rise and Fire” girls hand-picked to be behind the announcers? They look much better than anything I’ve seen in the Rage
So much for a fast start…
PSU is living in the paint and Michigan can’t really stop em. The bottom line is that we just have to make our shots… Hopefully they can turn it around quickly.
Getting outshot 60% to 23.5% is not a recipe for success on the road.
Nobody can knock down a three and Sims can not finish. We are lucky PSU has been so sloppy with the ball..
Jevohn Shepherd sighting!
We are down 6 and shooting 2/15 from three… Not all bad.
SHEP!!!!!
Shepherd – and 1!!!
I retract every bad thing i’ve said or thought about shep being the answer! Go Shep!
Shepherd giveth, Shepherd taketh away…
2 of 16 from three point range? I understand that when the shots aren’t falling you have to keep shooting, but it wouldn’t hurt to get a few layups in there.
Awful shooting first half… 2/16 from three…. I don’t know. Not a good half to say the least… At least we are only down 7? We easily missed three 3 pointers that were wide open at least… Frustrating.
We can’t guard them inside either so it will be tough to come back.
Yeah, it seems as if the guys have decided to shoot threes and that’s all they think about. We were playing our best ball when we would have LLP, Grady, and Harris driving the lane.
Also.. we could have cut it to three on that possession where Shep airballed, instead it went the other way for an easy 2. Those are the type of possessions that kill, especially late in the half.
The good:
- Peedi showed up
- We’re taking care of the ball, PSU is not
- Shep providing athleticism off the bench
The bad:
- Battle will get his points eventually
- LLP MIA again
- Cornley outmuscling everyone down low
The ugly:
- Shooting
Pfft. Not the way you want to start a half.
We are missing Ekpe now!
We actually look like the most overhyped, overrated team in the nation right now. I mean, we don’t look any better than last year at this point. Just awful.
I guess this is the problem with Beilein coached teams, you can beat and lose to absolutely anyone, the problem is how do you know which is which?
Somehow we’ve just lost our edge. I’m guessing it’s the physicality and size of the Big Ten wearing us down mentally.
Anyone who said we couldn’t have used Ekpe, take it back. You all see Cornley killing us because we don’t have one damn player who can alter a shot.
Secondly, God, why can you never ever let us make the NCAA tournament? We’ve been put through this BS year after year. I feel like I never find myself screaming at the TV and throwing things like I do during Michigan basketball games.
Unbelievable. Where is the team from early in the year? This team hasn’t looked anything like them since the conference season started, with the exception of maybe the Iowa/Illinois (home) game.
I think you get rid of some of the variability of Beilein’s system by having better shooters. Bringing in Morris, Vogrich, and McLimans – and continued development of current roster – will help with that.
The defense is awful. But geez, these shots aren’t good looks.
Just realized I didn’t set my DVR for the game. Anyone know when/if the BTN replays games?
We already have some good shooters……We need to improve our defense, rebounding and shot blocking…..Morgan and a healthy Cronin should help next year..
Dylan, we’ll forgive you if you don’t watch the game again and give us a breakdown. This is so so painful. I feel bad for you having to watch this mockery again.
Why can’t we make shots anymore?
4-6am, Dylan.
Teams have figured out that they can kill us down low. We have NO BIGS..Get used to this for the rest of the season. The only way we can compete is to shoot well and we are not.
LOL… Morrissey with another 3…. Guess it’s time to start on the post-game write up.
wow, this is shocking. The wheels have completely fallen off the team. They appear as incompetent and poor shooting as last year at this point.
This is the 10-22 team all over again. I can’t imagine how badly we’ll get crushed by Hasheem Thabeet, Delvon Roe, Ralph Samspon III, and at this rate even Kevin Coble!
not that reffing has anything to do with this game at all, but it seems like every game, manny doesn’t get many ‘superstar’ calls, and poor officiating usually seems at least slightly biased against. anyone else subscribe to the theory that maybe beilein is a bit of a pushover with the refs, and they usually give us the short end of the stick?
A bit funny to hear McCormick back track on LLP…
I feel your pain and frustration, Drew. How many years do we have to wait? The Duke and UCLA games were just a huge tease. I guess we can keep hope by looking at Beilein’s Elite 8 team. They had a horrible stretch of like 6 or 7 losses and then pulled it all together in the conference tourney. Somehow we just have to get cohesive enough that we can make a run like that, because we are not going to go .500 in this conference.
Would you really call the UCLA and Duke games a huge tease?
This team is what it is… We knew the weaknesses all along. I really think this team is pressing right now, when they were playing against Duke and UCLA they were playing loose and free. Now I think they are really trying to force things and they are struggling a bit with expetations.
yeah mccormicks annoying
That is true Ken… WVU had 7 losses in 9 games in the middle of the season, including a home loss to Marshall.
LLP is in a maaaaaajor slump. Wow, his confidence just looks shattered right now.
At least DeShawn is snapping out of his funk.
poor deshawn, he must feel completely alone out there…
deshawn 10-14
rest of team 8-37…makes me a saaad panda
When I said that Deshawn needed to show up tonight, I didn’t mean nobody except Deshawn.
anyone out there willing to rock me to sleep while I’m crying about this loss and life in general?
E-Pulla in the game!
Zack Gibson the countdown is on..Just wish you could take KG the chucka with you. There must be a force field that wont let these cats go inside the 3 point arc? HELLO the shot aint fallin, lets take a step inside please? Jimmy King says there shooting 51% 2pt fgs but still want to chuck nothing but 3′s. Tonight they cracked the 500 3pt attempts on the season! Come on Coach lets tweak it a little bit SOON! When was the last time you seen UM get a dunk? Every shot they make is hard.
I understand that we’re extremely limited down low and Novak has a great basketball mind and a fierce spirit, but I think the Novak-at-the-4 experiment has to end. He’s no longer in position to make much of an impact on the offensive end, even in transition, because he has to bang down low and rebound. The task of trying to defend guys like Dallas Lauderdale, Mike Smith, Marcus Landry, and Jamelle Cornley is clearly taking its toll on him.
My suggestion is to give Novak’s minutes at the 4 to Shep, give LLP’s minutes at the 2 to Novak, and give Merritt’s minutes to LLP (which doesn’t thrill me, because LLP is clearly not a point guard and often times loses his dribble on his own when driving). I also wouldn’t mind getting A-Wright some time. Let’s go back to what worked earlier in the year.
I agree completely Giddings, Novak needs to go back to the 2. Everyone relax though, as bad as this game was, we will not always shoot so poorly. Hell, if we would have just shot 35% on our 3′s we would have won the game!!! Keep the faith, all we need is 9 wins and we all know that this shooting funk will not last. Im not saying we are a great shooting team but if you look at the boxscores, if UM just shoots in the low to mid 30′s percentage wise(which is not high at all) we would have won 2 of our last 3 games.
Just 35% when was the last time we shot even that well?
We haven’t shot 35% or better from three-point range since the Oakland game.
Giddings… 100% right. Shep needs to start at the 4 and play significant minutes. Take your pick between LLP and Novach at the 2. We become a totally different team with that line up.
Playing time in 2010 is going to be very interesting. A lot of these guys are playing for their futures right now.
Side note, I wouldn’t mind seeing Beilein mix in a conventional 2-3 zone against some teams.
I know Merritt doesn’t have many fans on this blog so what are the opinions of Dougless and LLP at the 1. It seems like Grady is going to have his games where he’s just not fully with it. Personally I think Stu should get a couple more minutes at the 1. Novak splitting time at 4 and 2.
The only objection I have to Stu at the 1 is that he has nowhere near Grady’s skill in breaking the press. Stu has looked very timid bringing the ball up the court in a press situation, and he also wouldn’t push the ball as much as Grady. Of course, when’s the last time we scored a fast break basket?