How Penn State Basketball Statistically Compared to Its Competition

We have already uncovered earlier this season that the Penn State men’s basketball team had the youngest, Power Five Conference roster in America with an average player age of 18.85.

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Now, let’s take an in-depth look at how the team statistically compared to its competition in a number of categories.

First, though, let’s establish what the national team average is for the 361 Division 1 basketball programs in America for the following categories:

Points Scored Per Game:  76.2 ppg.

Field Goal Shooting Percentage:  45.5%

3-Point Shooting Percentage:  34.5%

Free Throw Shooting Percentage:  71%

Rebounds Per Game:  35 rpg.

Assists Per Game:  13 apg.

Turnovers Per Game:  11 tpg.

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Steals Per Game:  6.5 spg.

Blocks Per Game:  3.0 bpg.

Below, is a chart highlighting the same categories, but breaking down how Penn State performed compared to its competition across all 32 games played, compared to only Big Ten competition and the Nittany Lion who led in that specific category.

Penn State’s 3-point shooting percentage needs to be better, especially how college teams nowadays live and die by the three-point shot. The college, 3-point distance from the center of the basket is 22 ft., 1 3/4 inches with three-point shots from the corner measuring at 21 ft., 7 7/8 inches. This distance is a chip shot for a lot of today’s big, strong athletes.

This chart also highlights how dominant the Big Ten Conference was this year. The conference currently has nine teams projected to make this year’s March Madness Tournament: Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, UCLA, Nebraska and Ohio State.

Rebounding, both offensively and defensively, was also an issue this year. This statistic needs to improve to not give top-tier teams more offensive possessions…the same goes for turnovers.

Overall, Penn State finished the season 12-20 and 3-17 in conference play (3-18 counting the Big Ten tournament). There’s no sugarcoating it: That’s not good enough.

Penn State’s athletic program and its donors will also need to be supportive of the men’s basketball program in order to be able to compete and adapt in today’s college sports’ landscape of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) to help bring in highly-talented players from around the world to compete at a high level.