Game Grades: Penn State vs. Iowa

Story posted February 4, 2018 in CommRadio, Sports by Patrick Murphy

The Penn State Men’s Basketball team routed the Iowa Hawkeyes at the Bryce-Jordan Center by a score of 82-58 on Saturday.

The Nittany Lions were explosive on the offensive end in the first half and managed to build up a big enough lead to carry them to an easy win.

My game grades are as follows:

Offense: A

Penn State put on an offensive clinic on an Iowa team that has a propensity to allow points. Shep Garner was the only Nittany Lions starter to not go into double figures in the game, yet he still wound up with nine points.

The Nittany Lions had 47 points in the first half, and though they slowed down a bit in the second half, they still left Iowa scrambling defensively.

The Hawkeyes put a full-court press on the Nittany Lions in the second half and caused a bit of trouble for a little while. However, the one minute that the press rattled the Nittany Lions wasn’t nearly enough to warrant giving the offense a B grade.

Beyond the efficient 54.7 percent the Nittany Lions shot from the floor, and the 82 point tally, the offense was just fun to watch. Nazeer Bostick posterized Nicholas Baer, Josh Reaves threw down the most vicious posterizing dunk the BJC has ever seen, and Lamar Stevens threw down a 360 dunk on a fast break. Of course, Mike Watkins had his fair share of alley-oop finishes as well.

The high flying offense provided a good spark to the team in other facets of the game and kept the crowd rowdy throughout the entire game.

Defense: A

Anytime a defense can hold an opponent under 60 points it is an impressive feat. Tyler Cook managed to shake loose for 19 points, but Penn State held every other threat the Hawkeyes had in check.

Jordan Bohannon scored four points while Nicholas Baer only managed two. The two sharpshooters couldn’t find a shot they liked all game and only shot 1-6 from beyond the arc between the two of them.

As a team, the Nittany Lions held the Hawkeyes to 38.2 percent from the floor and 10 percent from outside- which is usually their weapon of choice.

Penn State tallied six blocks on the night to further demoralize the struggling Iowa offense.

Coaching: B

When Iowa applied the press in the second half, Pat Chambers took a bit too much time to call a timeout and adjust his team accordingly. He may have wanted his team to figure it out on their own given that they had a large lead at the time.

Otherwise, Chambers did nothing worth questioning.

His team came out firing and were well prepared for the Hawkeyes. He managed to keep them from having a let-down after the near upset against the Spartans in East Lansing, which would have been quite easy to do.

Chambers called timeouts and re-energized his team at the correct times and kept them riding their large lead comfortably throughout the game.

 

Patrick Murphy is a freshman majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email pqm5315@psu.edu.