2025-26 PSU MBB Thread
- Thread starter Tom McAndrew
- Start date
They are just way more athletic. I don’t necessarily think it’s that we’re not prepared. It’s just that we’re trying to trap a little bit and therefore kids aren’t breaking down defensively and then outside of Mingo our guards aren’t exceptionally quick. They did a great job to cut it the one and then The kid number seven just hit two daggers.
Just didn’t play very well (Dillione had a good game and Mirtic was solid, but needed more from elsewhere). Providence’s size and athleticism really forced us into bad shots…they had numerous dunks, and we had to work for everything.
I missed a few minutes doing some stuff in the house but did rice play after the first couple minutes?
This team is not very athletic so their defensive game plan should probably be more zone where they don’t get beat so bad off the triple on ball screens. Mingo had his first game where he struggled, the key to me is how he reacts after this.
This team is not very athletic so their defensive game plan should probably be more zone where they don’t get beat so bad off the triple on ball screens. Mingo had his first game where he struggled, the key to me is how he reacts after this.
True but this wasn’t a bad team. They faced atop half of the big east team that is pretty good. They’re not gonna beat UConn or St. John’s but they’ll win double figure games in the conference I think. There’s a few teams in the conference that aren’t as good or as athletic as that team we played today, Penn State just needs to be able to compete in those games this year.
I believe they have 31 games on the schedule and then the Big Ten tournament, if they take care of business winning the ones they should and can get potentially an upset somewhere along the line they will finish with about 13 wins.
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I think there are 3 parts to being physically outplayed.
- Age. These kids are young and still developing physically. I expect them to be stronger as sophomores and juniors.
- Attitude. Play at this level requires more focus and determination than they've needed in the past.
- Your opponents are just more physically gifted athletes.
It seems as if PSU basketball teams are perpetually physically outmanned regardless of whether they’re an inexperienced or experienced team. Why is that?
Strangely enough even though this team won't win many conference games, I do feel like they will improve, and I still think this coach is a good one. It just takes longer at Penn State. I don't even know exactly why though. I honestly wish the program had a better home court to play on, because every time I have been to the BJC it is just cavernous and the sight lines are awful.
The issue is that in this age of college basketball, those players being stronger as sophomores and juniors is likely happening somewhere other than PSU (well, and that it's laughable that someone like Miric is listed as a Freshman).
Is the BJC any worse than OSU’s cavernous arena or Wisconsin’s cavernous arena, yet those two schools usually put very representative Big 10 teams on the court, and especially Wisconsin? The problem with the BJC is that it’s the size of a pro arena in a college town, and the sport that plays in it often is played on winter weeknights when people who even live in a close city like Altoona are not going to make often treacherous drives to see a basketball game.
The same reason that it looks like Purdue or Northwestern usually is outmanned when they play against the top teams in the conference on the football field.
A packed BJC is a great environment. OSU and Wisconsin pack their arenas night in and night out. We don't come close.
Yeah, but in basketball, you’re only talking about upwards of eight or nine players who play rather than sixty in football, so it shouldn’t be as big a issue in basketball just based on pure numbers.
Why? If the top schools are picking who they want and we're getting a lower tier of players, whether it's 3 guys on the court/field or 100, they are going to most likely have the better assortment of talent.
Rutgers had two of the top 5-8 players in the country last year, and the rest of the team was outmanned enough that it didn't matter. Making the jump isn't easy.
Okay, but how does that affect the players on PSU getting into the weight room and putting on good muscle? I can understand if PSU’s players aren’t as talented as MSU’s players, but it doesn’t take talent to put on good weight; it just takes a lot off court hard work.
MSU has freakish athletes that come in big and only get bigger. We need to pick from guys that might have the physical tools but not the skills or the skills but not the physical tools.
Do you realize how hard these guys work as D1 athletes? It goes way beyond just "work harder and they can look like the MSU's players".
Is Bruce branch, who just reclassified to 2026 the son of former PSU player?
I'm optimistic about the future if they can keep Mingo, Juric, and add a big PF. Dillione & Tunca have another year too.
True...but I never heard the PSU CB referred to as "Bruce Branch Jr". And our CB was under 6' tall...the kid would have hit the gene pool lottery to be 6'7" at 17 years old.
Boston just beat Harvard by 1 on a neutral over the weekend...though I've still got Harvard a few points better than them.
Biggest key defensively is to stay home and not get caught in slow rotations...their two leading scorers aren't 3 point shooters, but they've got 3 guys in the rotation that can beat us from deep (McNair, Hugues, Roy), and that's their best chance against us. They have been awful defensively this year (especially when guarding the 3). They will want to slow the game down and make it a slog (they play at the 6th slowest tempo in the country). I think that Mingo can have a good night against Roy.
Come out with intensity (in what I'm sure will be a morgue) and don't let Boston hang around!
Biggest key defensively is to stay home and not get caught in slow rotations...their two leading scorers aren't 3 point shooters, but they've got 3 guys in the rotation that can beat us from deep (McNair, Hugues, Roy), and that's their best chance against us. They have been awful defensively this year (especially when guarding the 3). They will want to slow the game down and make it a slog (they play at the 6th slowest tempo in the country). I think that Mingo can have a good night against Roy.
Come out with intensity (in what I'm sure will be a morgue) and don't let Boston hang around!
Great job at the offensive end moving the ball, playing inside out, etc. The majority of our looks were at the rim or wide open 3s.
Still too slow on defensive rotations. The only way they beat us is making a lot of open 3s, so please take that away!
As an aside, I need to ask Ken Pomeroy to run the numbers on coaches not using a timeout in the first half. I’ve never seen a coach ignore the use it or lose it as much as Rhoades.
Still too slow on defensive rotations. The only way they beat us is making a lot of open 3s, so please take that away!
As an aside, I need to ask Ken Pomeroy to run the numbers on coaches not using a timeout in the first half. I’ve never seen a coach ignore the use it or lose it as much as Rhoades.