Centre Daily Times | 01/05/2005 | Penn State faces experienced Spartans:
“With six points tonight, Michigan State senior guard Kelvin Torbert will hit 1,000 for his career. Penn State’s four guards, sophomores Marlon Smith and Ben Luber and freshmen Mike Walker and Danny Morrissey, enter tonight’s game with 926 combined career points.
“Oh, and Torbert comes off the bench for the Spartans.
“The experience factor that the Nittany Lions (6-7) are facing during this Big Ten season doesn’t get any more pronounced than it will at 7 p.m. today against No. 20 Michigan State (8-2), which will try to make it seven straight wins at the Bryce Jordan Center.
“Five of the Spartans’ top eight players are juniors or seniors. Of the Nittany Lions’ first eight players, only junior Aaron Johnson has played more than one Big Ten season.
Inside, the Spartans have 6-10 junior center Paul Davis, the Big Ten’s most polished post man. Outside, there are guards Maurice Ager and Shannon Brown, who can take you off the dribble, and Chris Hill, a savvy senior point guard who is hitting 46 percent of his 3-point shots.
” ‘Everybody can score on the floor, there’s not a guy that can’t score,’ Penn State men’s basketball coach Ed DeChellis said. ‘You look at their scoring, and it’s very, very balanced. They really push the ball, maybe as well as anybody that we’ve played, and that’ll be a challenge for us.’ …”