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Centre Daily Times | 01/11/2005 | Backcourt has taken Illini to the top:

“It doesn’t seem fair, having that much talent in one backcourt.

Penn State has for much of the season struggled to trot two healthy starting guards onto the floor. Illinois has three who could easily wind up first-team All-Big Ten selections.

“Need a bucket? A steal? An assist? Pick one.

“No. 1 Illinois (16-0), two wins away from its best start ever, is loaded at every position, but the Fighting Illini who figure to do the most damage when the shorthanded Nittany Lions visit Assembly Hall on Wednesday are senior

Luther Head and juniors Dee Brown and Deron Williams, the nation’s best backcourt and maybe the best guard trio in conference history.

“Head, Williams and Brown are 1-2-3 in scoring for the Illini, in that order, combining for 42.9 of Illinois’ 81.6 points per game. All rank in the Big Ten’s top 20 in scoring and top five in assists. … “

Smith to miss more time:

“To say things haven’t been looking good for the Penn State men’s basketball team would be an understatement.

“After starting the season 5-2, the Nittany Lions (6-9, 0-2 Big Ten) have lost seven of their last eight contests. In the team’s two most recent outings, it has fallen to Big Ten foes Michigan State and Minnesota by more than 20 points each.

“Oh yeah, and the Lions travel to play the top-ranked team in the country, undefeated Illinois (16-0, 2-0), tomorrow night.

“Sounds a little daunting, doesn’t it?

” ‘We’re still trying to climb the mountain one step at a time, one day at a time,’ Penn State head coach Ed DeChellis said yesterday at his weekly press conference.

” ‘When you have as many guys on the floor that have not played Big Ten basketball before [as his team has], you just have breakdowns. Athletically, we have breakdowns, and then mentally we have breakdowns.’

“Making matters worse, DeChellis said sophomore guard Marlon Smith will miss his second straight game tomorrow due to illness.

“The coach said the sophomore was doing better but there is still no timetable for his return.

“The loss of Smith only makes things tougher for the Lions.

” ‘He’s just a guy who can break you down with the dribble and get somebody else a shot,’ DeChellis said. ‘He helps you defensively because he knows what [the team is] doing on the floor.'”

PSU’s struggles continue in 2005:

“The calendar has flipped to 2005, but the Penn State men’s basketball team is still playing like the 2004 version of itself.

“The Nittany Lions (6-9, 0-2 Big Ten) lost Saturday night in Minneapolis, their second consecutive Big Ten loss by 20-plus points, falling 83-62 to the upstart Minnesota Golden Gophers (11-3, 1-0).

“In a fashion similar to that of its 84-58 loss to Michigan State Wednesday, Penn State played the Gophers close for the first 12 minutes. The Lions were within one point, 22-21, before Minnesota blew the game wide open.”

Centre Daily Times | 01/09/2005 | Gophers eat up Nittany Lions:

“A different Penn State team went on the road in search of a conference win Saturday night. It found the same, all-too-familiar result as its predecessors.

“The Nittany Lions lost their first Big Ten road game of the season and 25th consecutive conference road game overall, 83-62 to Minnesota at Williams Arena.

“The Golden Gophers (11-3, 1-0 Big Ten) won their ninth straight, getting 19 points from senior point guard Aaron Robinson and 18 from senior center Jeff Hagen, never trailed and led by as many as 29. The Nittany Lions (6-9, 0-2) have lost three in a row and seven of eight.

“‘They were a good team, and we just continue to let one mistake lead to another mistake,’ Penn State men’s basketball coach Ed DeChellis said. ‘We don’t pull it together on the floor, and they made some big shots.'”

AP Wire | 01/08/2005 | Minnesota 83, Penn St. 62:

“One game into the Big Ten season, the Minnesota Gophers already have surpassed most people’s expectations.

“‘Two months ago, people said we wouldn’t win a game, let alone a Big Ten game,’ Gophers coach Dan Monson said.

“How about nine in row?

“Aaron Robinson hit six 3-pointers to finish with 19 points, Jeff Hagen added 18 and Minnesota opened conference play with its ninth straight victory, beating Penn State 83-62 on Saturday night.

“The Gophers’ winning streak is the longest under Monson, whose team hasn’t lost since falling 70-69 to Florida State on Nov. 30. Minnesota last won nine in a row in 1997, when the Gophers had 12 straight victories. That season was wiped from the record books, though, after the Clem Haskins academic fraud scandal.

“This year’s team probably would prefer to delete last season, also. A year ago, Minnesota lost its Big Ten opener to the Nittany Lions, the first of nine straight conference losses. Hagen said the team had high expectations last year.

“‘This year it’s nice to be able to back it up,’ he said with a grin. ‘We’re actually going to do well this year.’

“Minnesota (11-3, 1-0 Big Ten) entered this season with extremely low expectations with the losses of forward Kris Humphries to the NBA, point guard Adam Boone to a torn biceps tendon and guard Moe Hargrow to ineligibility.

“Only five lettermen are back from last year’s team. But Robinson and Hagen – two of those lettermen – provided Minnesota, which led by as many as 29 points, the impressive outside-inside combination on Saturday night the Gophers badly lacked in recent seasons. …”

Centre Daily Times | 01/08/2005 | Revamped Gophers await Nittany Lions:

“Looking for its first Big Ten road win in nearly four years, the Penn State men’s basketball team visits Williams Arena at 8 p.m. today to meet a Minnesota team vastly different than what the Nittany Lions saw last season.

“But the Nittany Lions (6-8, 0-1 Big Ten) will keep their focus squarely on the one team they’ve worried about all season long.

“Themselves.

” ‘They’re a solid team, but it’s not so much about them,’ Penn State junior forward Aaron Johnson said. ‘It’s much more about us, us playing defense and sticking together on the road.'”

FightOnState.com: Hoop Preview ? @ Minnesota:

“Penn State Notes:

• Penn State has lost 24 straight Big Ten road games. Including conference tournament action, the Nittany Lions have dropped 27 consecutive league outings away from the BJC.
  
• Penn State’s last Big Ten road win (quiz clue) was at Iowa (78-73) in the next to last game of the 2000-01 regular season. No one on the active roster played in the game. In fact, Jamaal Tate, now serving as a student assistant coach, is the only person in the entire program who was involved in that game.”

Centre Daily Times | 01/07/2005 | Izzo has luxury of detailing his team:

“The Nittany Lions were in trouble as soon as Tom Izzo rattled off Aaron Johnson’s rebounding average — offensive rebounding average, mind you — as if it were his social security number.

“Michigan State’s coach is energetic. He is driven. More than anything else, though, he is detail-oriented. That was as good a reason as any why his No. 20 Spartans strutted into the Bryce Jordan Center on Wednesday and strutted out two hours later with an easy-as-you-please 84-58 win.

“OK, so maybe reciting Johnson’s rebounding stats (4.0 offensive boards entering Wednesday’s game, by the way), as Izzo did during a Monday teleconference, isn’t that impressive. There isn’t a Big Ten coach that doesn’t know that HoJo is the conference’s leading rebounder as well as the Nittany Lions’ lone proven commodity.

“It was just another example, though, of the details that separate a seasoned, discliplined team like the Spartans from young, inconsistent Penn State, the details that are rarely noticeable in December but make all the difference in March.

“This is not to say that Nittany Lions coach Ed DeChellis doesn’t care about details. If and when his raw but talented team starts to put it together, you’ll see that DeChellis does. At this stage of his Penn State tenure, with his current personnel, he simply has different priorities.

“While Izzo has the luxury of getting his players to focus on things like making the extra pass or coming a certain way off a screen, DeChellis can only watch as his players struggle to complete the initial pass or actually set a solid screen. Penn State must master the rudimentary parts of the game — taking care of the basketball, blocking out, taking care of the basketball — before it can take on the subtleties.

” ‘Eddie’s going to have a good team,’ Izzo said after his team systematically picked the Nittany Lions apart. ‘He’s just gotta get a couple of those young kids now to be a little older. Unfortunately, that takes seasons.’ …”

Centre Daily Times | 01/06/2005 | PSU HOOPS: Spartans capitalize on PSU turnovers, beat Lions 84-58:

“It took a while for Michigan State to scrape the ice off the windshield and get the engine warm on a sleety Wednesday evening. Once it did, things got chilly for Penn State in a hurry.

“Trailing early in the first half, the No. 20 Spartans (9-2, 1-0 Big Ten) used a 17-2 run to put the Nittany Lions (6-8, 0-1) on ice, then pulled away in the second half in an 84-58 win in the conference opener for both teams at the Bryce Jordan Center.

“Penn State, which lost for the sixth time in seven games, led 16-13 at the 14-minute mark of the first half before the Spartans shook away the cobwebs from a week-long layoff and started slicing up the Nittany Lion defense. Michigan State led by 10 at the half and Penn State, which committed 13 of its 20 turnovers in the second half, would get no closer.

” ‘They got 33 points off our turnovers and there’s the game,’ Penn State men’s basketball coach Ed DeChellis said. ‘We just can’t continue to turn the basketball over, and we continue to do it every night.’ …”

Basketball: No. 20 Michigan State trounces Lions, 84-58:

“STATE COLLEGE — Michigan State looked sluggish in the first half against Penn State. Tom Izzo made sure that changed after halftime.

“Alan Anderson scored 17 points and Shannon Brown added 16 to lead No. 20 Michigan State to an 84-58 win over Penn State last night in the Big Ten opener for both teams.

” ‘We challenged them a bit because we weren’t happy with the energy,’ Izzo said. ‘We’ve had more energy in practice the last four days than we had at the beginning of the game. But sometimes when you have long layoffs — and that’s what we’re battling here, we’ve played so few games in so many days — they’re sick of practicing and sometimes they don’t carry it over.

” ‘It was a tough night with the weather and everything and a lot of excuses why we didn’t play as hard, but we’re going to have to.’

“Michigan State (9-2) shot 30-of-59 for the game and 16-of-17 from the free-throw line. With a 10-point lead at halftime, the Spartans outscored the Nittany Lions (6-8) 44-28 in the second half and held them to just eight field goals.”