The Nittany Lions let a game against USC slip away on Sunday, now they head west to face the Pacific Northwest duo over the next two games. First up is Washington, who themselves sit on the lower half of the conference standings, yet at the top of that lower half.
Penn State has seen every possible way to lose a game materialize this season. One thing, however, has been certain each time. As soon as the Lions leave State College, what semblance of competence they seem to have goes right out the window, and they become a shell of the semi-decent outfit they resemble at home. If they look against Washington the way they have against the previous two road opponents, you may be able to go to bed at a reasonable time after all.
For their record, the Huskies are actually pretty good on both offense and defense. They’re 54th in adjusted offensive efficiency, and 51st on defense, which allows them to make the most out of their possessions. What seems to be their detriment is a combination of horrendous three-point shooting as a team (264th in the nation in that regard), coupled with an even worse defensive turnover rate (322nd). Although their team shooting performance is abysmal, they do have three individuals over 30 percent in Wesley Yates (37.5), Hannes Steinbach (35.1), and Zoom Diallo (32.7). And, given Penn State’s recent history, it won’t take much effort for any combination of the three, or all of them (plus some person who’s never seen the field before) to torch the Lions from beyond the arc anyway.
Not being able to turn the ball over, on the other hand, may prove to actually matter. Penn State doesn’t do many things well. In fact they do almost every thing horrendously, but they do tend to take care of the ball slightly better than average. If they can actually take shots in this game instead of coughing the ball up over and over, maybe they won’t lose by the 30+ they’re accustomed to.
How long – It took until the second half of the second half against Northwestern. It was out of hand from the jump against Michigan. What version of “they got blown out anyway” will we get in this one?
Who plays – The combination of sickness and injury has left the Lions with a depleted lineup. Eli Rice has reportedly been cleared to play, and Ivan Jurić returned on Sunday. Will that be enough for a cohesive team?
Progress – There isn’t much to salvage from this season. But, can we continue to see progress from the young players?
I’ll be nice and say they only lose by 12, but we all know 30 is the minimum. Washington 92, Penn State 80
