Sitting at 1-0, Penn State enters the second week of the 2013 college basketball season with two games on the docket. One, this coming Wednesday against Bucknell, the other, a trip to the Palestra in Philadelphia to take on Penn, Saturday afternoon.
With the season just getting underway, the Nittany Lions are still working on chemistry and dealing with all of the little things that will make the difference between winning and losing down the road. Head coach Patrick Chambers spoke with the media prior to practice on Monday about a few housekeeping items, here are a few of the highlights.
- Chambers says he was pleased with the three point defense this past weekend. Wagner shot 6-of-20 from deep thanks in large part to Penn State’s defense. The Nittany Lions struggled all of last season defending the perimeter but now rank No. 7 in the nation in that category. It’s only one game in, but Chambers expects Wanger to be an NCAA tournament team come March, so it’s not a performance to forget.
- Terminology: Penn State fans have already heard all about “Philly Swagger” but now “Penn State guard” can be added to the list. What is a Penn State guard? One who can be a jack of all trades, rebounding, quickness, and toughness are all traits of a prototypical Penn State guard.
- Chambers says he wants to see his team average 13 or 14 assists per game. The Nittany Lions had 12 this past weekend. He also feels that his team could have finished off the game better, and understandably feels that end of game situations are crucial to winning.
- On the defensive front, Chambers feels that he has six players all on the same page defensively and that the team as a whole is farther along on defense now than it was at this time last year. In general, Chambers wants to get to a 9 or 10 man rotation when the team is at its peak.
- Injury Update: Chambers says that center/forward Julian Moore is cleared and ready to go after suffering a mild concussion but is bringing him back slowly. “You miss a lot when you miss a few practices.”
- Chambers says that he had a prior relationship with SMU coach Larry Brown while at Villanova because Brown was the head coach of the Sixers at the same time. As a result when now-Penn State big man Jordan Dickerson was looking to transfer from SMU (Brown’s current employer), the prior relationship helped smooth the ordeal out.
It’s In The Family:
Reid Travis, the cousin of current Nittany Lion, Ross Travis recently committed to Stanford. The No.40 ranked prospect in his class had offers from a number of big name schools such as Duke and Minnesota but decided to take his talents westward. Penn State’s own Travis was happy to have helped guide his fellow basketball playing family member through the process.
“Absolutely I helped him,” Travis said. “That’s my job as one of the old family members to answer any questions that he may have had and try and help him make the right decision and I think he did.”
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