Penn State Men’s Basketball to take on Nebraska

Story posted January 18, 2013 in CommRadio, Sports by Ryan Stevens

When one talks about Penn State and Nebraska playing each other most think of the gridiron.  However both these teams share an intense rivalry on the hardwood as well.  Both Nebraska and Penn State come into the Bryce Jordan Center on Saturday in search of their first conference win of the season. Both teams are also looking to end their current five game losing streaks.  These are two teams that have struggled all year on the offensive end but both have been starting to show signs of improvement.   In a conference where games are known to be played in the 50s and the 60s, it may be the first team to 40 that could walk out with a win.


In just over a week, Coach Pat Chambers may have found what it takes to turn the Nittany Lions around.  On Sunday in West Lafayette, Penn State scored 42 points the entire game shooting just 26% from the field.  Now fast forward to this Wednesday when Penn State took on No. 22 Michigan State.  Only trailing by four points heading into halftime, the Nittany Lion offense went to new limits scoring 42 points in an eventual 81-72 loss.  Jermaine Marshall and D.J. Newbill carried the load once again scoring 29 and 27 points respectively while the rest of the team was only able to contribute 16 points.  Penn State got to the free throw line 27 times and shot 48% from the field.  

In Tim Miles’ first season in Lincoln, the Cornhuskers seem to be a much different team at home then on the road.  Nebraska is 7-3 at home, but a dismal 2-6 on the road and in neutral site locations this year.  Led by 6’ 5” senior guard Dylan Talley’s 13.2 points per game and 6’2’’ junior guard Ray Gallegos 13.1 points per game, Nebraska plays a very tight 7 to 8 man rotation that features both upperclassmen and  underclassmen.   Nebraska is on another level in terms of scoring. The Cornhuskers are ranked 332nd in offense scoring only 58 points per game while shooting 41% from the field.  One player to watch is the 6’ 11’’ 310 pound Brazilian Andre Almeida who had 8 points on Wednesday vs. Purdue.

Nebraska’s late rally to cut Purdue’s lead from twenty points to five points in the 2nd half showed positive signs heading into Saturday’s game where they may still be out with forward Brandon Ubel for a third straight game.  Penn State was competitive in the 2nd half of a game on Wednesday vs. Michigan State for the first time in  2013, but somebody else will have to step up and take some pressure off Newbill and Marshall on the scoring side.  No matter what the outcome on Saturday, one thing will be known for sure in terms of the Big Ten’s “unvictorious”, there will only be one.

Ryan Stevens is a freshman majoring in telecommunications.  To contact him, e-mail rvs5276@psu.edu.

About the Contributors

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Ryan Stevens

Senior / Broadcast Journalism

Ryan is a senior from Bloomington, Illinois majoring in broadcast journalism with a minor in english.  He has been involved with numerous radio shows, play-by-plays, beat writes and producing various Penn State athletics events since his first days of being on campus in the fall of 2012 with ComRadio. Since the fall of 2013, Ryan has been involved with State College’s ESPN Radio 1450 as an assistant producer intern and high school football reporter.

During the summer of 2014, Ryan co-hosted Sports Central with Cory Giger streaming over Altoona, Pa. and State College Pa. markets. Ryan also assisted USA Basketball media coverage in New York for World Cup of Basketball exhibition games.

Ryan was the marketing & communications intern for USA Track & Field at the national office in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was the media contact for the 2015 USATF Hershey Youth Outdoor Championships as well as the 2015 National Junior Olympics.

Ryan is also a member of the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism. He can be reached via email at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and following him on twitter @RyanAStevens.