After Penn State basketball beat Buffalo Sunday, coach Mike Rhoades commented on his team’s response following its first loss of the season.
“I honestly wanted to be better at the times today,” Rhoades said postgame.
“I thought at times today we were a little lackluster and playing down… And now it gets real. The flagship program in our conference will be here, so we have to be ready. We have to play better than we did tonight, and we have to play much better than we did against Clemson.”
That top-tier program is none other than the national champion runner-up Purdue.
The Boilermakers are currently 7-1, riding a three-game winning streak. For PSU to earn a statement win, an area of importance will be ball security, something that was problematic in the last two games.
TAKING CARE OF THE BALL
Penn State has 27 turnovers over its last two outings. Its season-high 16 came against Clemson, a game that was tied with seven minutes left.
Mike Rhoades postgame on PSU’s season-high 16 turnovers against Clemson:
“You know, but you put yourself in a position about six minutes left. You know, you’re right there. It’s a one-two-possession game. And I just thought we shot ourselves in the foot.”
— Brennan Valladares (@Valladares7B) November 29, 2024
Against Buffalo, PSU recorded nine turnovers in the second half alone (26 percent of its possessions), allowing the Bulls to trim a 19-point lead to 10 before Penn State finally pulled away.
Although Penn State has a low turnover percentage relative to the rest of the country, it simply cannot sacrifice offensive opportunities against one of the best-scoring teams in the nation (Purdue ranks seventh in offensive efficiency per KenPom analytics). Additionally, Purdue plays at one of the slowest paces in Division I, making the clock an extra opponent if Penn State ends up trailing late in the game.
“(Our response to the Clemson loss) was a good, positive thing today,” Rhoades said, “but it has to be 10 times better.”
KONAN NIEDERHAUSER PLAYS ON A VERTICAL PLANE
Rhoades has emphasized his players giving each other the “gift of space”.
That mostly referred to the team’s use of the 3-point line but Yanic Konan Niederhauser has provided a different type of spacing; more vertical less horizontal.
In his career-high tying 27-point outing, Konan Niederhauser feasted off of lobs. Some of which should be posterized and hung up on a wall:
We are simply running out of captions for @YanicKonan at this point 😳
📺: @BigTenNetwork#WeAre pic.twitter.com/oilPn7gEzc
— Penn State Men’s Basketball (@PennStateMBB) December 1, 2024
Rhoades highlighted this perpendicular spacing postgame saying “…at the end of a roll or (him) being down there around the rim and you can throw it up there where rotation guys can’t jump up there vertically and compete with them, that’s to your advantage.”
And in that above highlight, you can see the two forms of spacing complement each other.
Four players start above the perimeter creating a two-on-one advantage once Freddie Dilione V turns the corner. Even though the pass is thrown prematurely, the slight shift of the defender toward Dilione gives Konan Niederhauser all the room he needs to slam it home.
As players like Dilione continue to get comfortable attacking the basket, there will be countless opportunities like that one created by Penn State’s improved shooting and Konan Niederhauser’s rim pressure.
But against a Purdue team with size and a willingness to sacrifice 3s, it will be interesting to see how many of these opportunities Konan Niederhauser gets around the basket.
