By Kevin Wesley
You didn’t have to hear a word Talor Battle said Sunday afternoon in the Bryce Jordan Center media room. His body language and tone of voice made his frustration abundantly, even painfully, clear.
“We played soft. We lacked toughness. We didn’t make plays; we turned the ball over,” Battle told the assembled press. “I ain’t gonna beat round the bush. We deserved to lose today.”
Battle all but spit out the words, disgusted less by his team’s 65-62 loss to Michigan than by the nature of the defeat. This on a day the Nittany Lions played without dynamic forward Jeff Brooks, on a day when Battle scored 31 points and added seven rebounds and committed just one turnover, arguably his best statistical game of the season. But his team’s built-in excuse and his own stellar play didn’t matter to Battle. This was about a result, and about time running out.
“For us seniors, this is the end of it. We’re not freshmen and sophomores, got so many games left—no, no, no no,” Battle said. “I’m upset about this one. I’m just so disappointed.”
A conference loss in early February rarely defines a season, and this one doesn’t have to, but for Battle, it’s painful nonetheless. Now 12-10 overall and 5-6 in the Big Ten, Penn State saw its already precarious postseason hopes dealt a serious blow Sunday afternoon. The Lions’ remaining conference schedule includes seven games, four of them against teams currently ranked in the national top 20. Nearly every one of them now looks like a must-win.
Last Tuesday, they lost on the road to a very good Illinois team, and only then after Brooks went down late in the first half of a close game with a dislocated shoulder. Nobody held that loss against Penn State. But Sunday? Even with Brooks out against Michigan, the Lions built double-digit leads in each half. And in each half, they fumbled away those leads. Brooks’ absence and the Wolverines’ streaky shooting could easily be blamed, but Battle wasn’t interested in excuses. Neither was his coach.
“We scored 62 points. Coming in, I thought 62 points would be enough to win the game,” Ed DeChellis said afterward. “We scored enough points to win. That wasn’t the problem. We made some really bad decisions, and then we just didn’t guard them the last ten minutes of the game.”
It’s to both Battle’s and DeChellis’ credit that they didn’t blame the loss on the team’s weakened lineup, reasoning that if they were good enough Sunday without Brooks to build a 10-point lead with 8:15 left in the game, they were good enough to win it. As it was, junior Cam Woodyard came close to matching Brooks’ statistical output, scoring 10 points and grabbing seven rebounds in his second start of the season. But Woodyard couldn’t match Brooks’ versatility and defensive intensity—particularly his shot-blocking—and those qualities were sorely missed.
Brooks warmed up with the team before the game and was in uniform on the bench, but DeChellis said afterward that the 6-foot-8 senior was never going to get into Sunday’s game. The coach said the delicate nature of a dislocated shoulder meant he had no idea when Brooks might return; with arguably the thinnest bench in Division I basketball, the Nittany Lions can do little to fill the void while he’s out.
That leaves seniors David Jackson and Andrew Jones (who combined for just 12 points Sunday), sophomore guard Tim Frazier (seven points and an impressive eight assists) and Woodyard to step up. Mostly, though, it leaves Battle. Penn State has been so tough to beat in Big Ten play because Battle has had plenty of help the past six weeks. On Sunday, he was all but alone when it counted, playing all 40 minutes and putting up the sort of stellar numbers that have spoiled Nittany Lion fans these last four years.
And it wasn’t enough.
“All it comes down to is lack of toughness, no sense of urgency,” Battle said afterward. For all the things a critic could accuse Battle of—spotty shot selection, or occasionally losing focus on defense—a lack of toughness has never been one of them. This is a gamer, a 5-foot-10 guard who last season led his team in rebounding, and who might lead the nation this year in minutes per game. Battle’s toughness is beyond question.
And that sense of urgency? Battle looks at the Nittany Lions’ schedule and sees seven regular-season games remaining, plus one more guaranteed in the Big Ten Tournament. To go any farther, Penn State has to win nearly every one of them. Battle knows it. The question is whether he can do enough—and pull enough out of his teammates—to turn urgency into results.
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