Failure in East Lansing

The weekend got off to a great start on Friday night, when some buddies and I went to see Penn State's basketball team dismantle the Golden Griffins of Canisius College 93-40. It was a good night for the Lions, who satisfied those fans who felt that they didn't beat St. Francis by enough points on opening night. As usual, Geary Claxton headlined with a double-double. Amazingly, he notched 20 points and 10 rebounds in just 22 minutes on the floor. More surprisingly was Talor Battle's presence in the starting lineup. He took Walker's usual spot and played reasonably well. We still haven't seen very good long-range shooting from Battle, but his aggressive offense style is encouraging. He finished with 5 assists and looked great running the floor during PSU's many fast break opportunities. Also of note was Danny Morrissey, who caught fire from downtown (5/7) and Schyler King, who looked surprisingly competent in limited time, with 7 points and 3 rebounds. He'll do a great job filling in for Claxton in garbage time this year.

With everyone leaving for Thanksgiving break, there wasn't much to do on Friday night, so I decided to tune my Slingbox to the Knicks v. Kings game. This was not a great idea. It was Kevin Martin's turn to light up the Knicks, and he did this from both short- and long-range. When Martin's defender stepped back to respect his dribble-drive, he'd just shoot it right over the top. It wasn't until Stephon Marbury stepped up with some top-notch ball denial skills in the 4th quarter that the Knicks were able to come back and send the game to overtime. There, the Knicks narrowly missed a victory when Jamal Crawford and David Lee rimmed shots on the last possession. In double OT, the Kings took a 7-point lead and held on despite another Knicks comeback attempt.

Here are some more Knicks notes:

• Eddie Curry just can't play defense at all. It's rare that a player can be so effective on the offensive glass, but so invisible on the other end. He finished with 6 offensive rebounds but only 9 total. Eddie also has trouble defending drives to the basket.
  
• Unfortunately, Isaiah must play Eddie because he's so good offensively. Hopefully David Lee continues his impressive play (24 points, 16 rebounds) so that we can play someone who performs at both ends
• Apparently Steph can play D when he wants to. His hustle against Martin in the 4th was admirable. I'm having second thoughts about wishing he would leave the team. His ability to penetrate the key makes New York less dependent on Eddie Curry
• Is Crawford better than Stephon? He's certainly a better jump shooter, but Starbury has the edge in passing and defense. Plus Crawford goes solo too often for my taste.

On Saturday morning I drove back to Jersey just in time to see Penn State's most popular team endure one of it's worst losses in recent memory. The Lions took a 24-7 lead over Michigan State on the 1st possession of the 2nd half, and eventually LOSSED 35-31. This was mostly due to Penn State's refusal to blitz MSU QB Brian Hoyer. Every time Hoyer dropped back, he had plenty of time to survey the field and find an open target. Although Hoyer threw 2 picks in the 1st half, he settled down and averaged a 12.2 yards per attempt average for the entire game. The only time Penn State was able to stop MSU in the 2nd half was when they fumbled a snap late in the 3rd quarter. It only delayed the inevitable.

The loss seems even worse when you consider the turnover ratio was +3 in favor of Penn State.

The silver lining for the Lions was Rodney Kinlaw rushing for a 4.5 average on 28 carries. He was consistent all game long (his longest rush was just 15 yards), and provided much-needed support to Anthony Morelli.

Speaking of AM, he can have a bad game without throwing a pick, as he demonstrated today. A minuscule 5.4 YPA was not what we needed, although the loss can hardly be blamed on the offense.

More notes:

• Leading 17-7 early in the 2nd half, Penn State lined up for a field goal, but snapped the ball to kicker Kevin Kelly, who ran in for the 5-yard score.
• The Spartans responded with a fake punt run that turned a 3-and-out into a TD drive.
• Twice the Lions showed a strange formation in which AM split out wide and left Darryl Clark and Derrick Williams in the backfield. The result was two awful draw plays (one to Williams and one a Clark keeper).
• Junior WR Devin Thomas was Hoyer's favorite target, with 7 catches for 139 yards and 3 TDs. On the year, he has 68 catches for 1,087 yards.
• Morelli's only TD pass was a sweet play-action mini-bomb to Deon Butler on a 3rd and 1 in the 1st quarter.

Some post game rants:
Black Shoe Diaries, The Nittany Notebook

I think they're overreacting a little bit. The bottom line is that Josh Gaines and Mo Evans are not as good as we thought they were. The line can't get pressure by themselves against the better O-lines in college football. This was evident in the OSU and MSU games. Tom Bradley needs to mix it up some more and throw in some blitzes. We didn't recruit King and Wallace so we can put them in zones and depend on our safeties for deep coverage. Those guys are there so we can blitz, but Bradley hasn't blitzed enough.