hhcmatt

Connor looked to be out of his funk tonight

Somehow played better than Sam tonight

He is Thomas Allen-ing through his last season

Gavin's basketball IQ so low he didn't even launch that last shot

Griffiths dribbling up and throwing the ball off of Morgan's feet level game

One thing I should have mentioned/considered is that Penn State hasn't played since a home game on Saturday

Ulis throwing that into the bottom of the rim level of game

Seems more like a low basketball IQ thing

Meah was walking to check in after he picked up his first and couldn't get in fast enough

This is Nebraska, you have to bring your own shirt lol

Nebraska 79 - Penn State 73

Don't misunderstand, I appreciate it and was explaining this particular issue.

Don't have to look very far back to remember them coming back on us at the Barn. They're a team too dumb to know they're not supposed to win games.

I just don't think that you're going to get any sort of publicly available figure because you're not going to get that from any school and thus it puts Nebraska at a competitive disadvantage to have that number out there. Seems pretty reasonable to me that we're in the middle to low end of the conference because you can start picking out the teams like Oregon, Michigan, Indiana, etc that plainly have money and you pick out teams like Minnesota, Penn St, Northwestern, Iowa that don't. Being in the middle or whatever doesn't mean there is a scale there....it's more like tiers of teams. We got Andrew Morgan because we're better off than Minnesota. Seems like Wisconsin getting poached for Chucky probably has them in a similar tier as us but then they had the money to get Tonje to rip up his deal with New Mexico. Sometimes your misfortune is your fortune. Speaking of New Mexico, you're not just recruiting against teams in your conference, you're recruiting against everyone (which is not a new development). In some ways, recruiting is the exact same as it's always been except now we publicly talk about guys getting paid. As always, even if you're in a pinch you can always have a guy and hit up a few people to see if you can bridge the gap. To me if you really want to find out what's going on you need to be in that circle, or as with boat ownership, be someone who knows someone in that circle. Else the best you're likely to do is infer it from what is going on.

So sometimes I actually write these a little bit in advance but I need to set a publish date. Most times I set this for a day in advance so they won't publish but I set this one for midnight. I'm almost there but yes didn't pick a final score yet nor have a set a graphic that you see on the front page

Nebraska Cornhuskers (17-9) at Penn State Nittany Lions (13-13) Date: Wednesday Feb. 19th, 2025 Time: 5:30 pm CST Arena: Bryce Jordan Center Broadcast: BTN (Ed Cohen and Shon Morris) Penn St. Info Head Coach: Mike Rhodes (year 2) Location: University Park, PA Conference: B1G Nickname: Nittany Lions Mascot: The Nittany Lion Line: Nebraska by 1 Last Time Out: Lost to Washington Typical Rotation Depth: 7+ KenPom rank: 75 Nota bene: Mike Rhoades came to Penn St from VCU but he grew up in central Pennsylvania where he attended basketball camps at Penn St and was a D-III star guard Ace Baldwin and Nick Kern followed Mike Rhodes from VCU to Penn St Penn St brought back most of their veteran squad from last season. They rank 29th in KenPom minutes continuity and 57th in D-1 experience Penn St played the 358th "hardest" non-con schedule, only exceeded by Maryland's 360th ranking out of 364 D-1 teams Former Husker Eli Rice transferred to Penn St but was limited to 1 game due to injury Mike Rhodes confirmed that a hand injury suffered on Jan 16th by Puff Johnson will keep him out the rest of the season Player to watch: Ace Baldwin The 5th year senior leads the Lions in points, assists, and steals. Baldwin at best is a streaky shooter since injuring his back in early January, but gets to the FT line at a similar rate to Brice Williams. Look for him to try his hand at guarding Williams as one of the best on-ball defenders in the conference. Player to watch: Zach Hicks Easily the biggest 3pt threat on a team that lacks them, Hicks is shooting 39.7% from deep with 62 makes. Hicks' numbers from deep mirror what Connor Essegian has accomplished from deep this season with the caveat that Hicks plays more minutes and thus isn't as aggressive a scorer as Connor. Player to watch: Yanic Konan Niederhauser The Swiss center is the sort of shot blocker you need to anchor your rim in this pressure heavy defense and currently leads the conference at 2.1 per game. Lead the Nittany Lions in rebounds and Baldwin is able to weaponize him into 12.2 points per game. Like most centers, YKN fouls a lot but draws contact on the other end Penn State's Roster Player # Class Pos Height Weight Summary Ace Baldwin 1 SR G 6-0 190 14.0 Pts 2.6 Reb 7.2 Ast Nicholas Kern 3 SR G 6-6 190 12.2 Pts 5.2 Reb 2.3 Ast Zach Hicks 24 SR F 6-7 185 11.7 Pts 4.6 Reb 1.8 Ast Yanic Konan Niederhauser 14 JR F 6-10 215 12.2 Pts 6.2 Reb 0.7 Ast Freddie Dilione 4 SO G 6-5 195 9.2 Pts 2.7 Reb 1.6 Ast D'Marco Dunn 2 SR G 6-4 185 7.2 Pts 2.4 Reb 0.9 Ast Puff Johnson 5 SR G 6-8 190 10.2 Pts 4.4 Reb 0.6 Ast Kachi Nzeh 15 SO C 6-8 230 3.0 Pts 2.5 Reb 0.0 Ast Dominick Stewart 7 FR G 6-5 195 3.4 Pts 1.3 Reb 0.5 Ast Jahvin Carter 0 FR G 6-3 185 2.4 Pts 0.7 Reb 0.7 Ast Miles Goodman 8 FR F 6-11 225 1.4 Pts 1.6 Reb 0.2 Ast Nicholas Kern is statistically an undersized center as he scores inside and rebounds well but can't shoot a lick from outside; sometimes he'll operate as a small ball 5 if Penn St wants 4 shooters on the court. Freddie Dilione is a 5 star athlete with a 2 star shot. D'Marco Dunn is the other Lion who shoots better than Juwan Gary from 3, hitting at 39.1% from deep in conference. On the flipside, Dunn is turnover and foul prone. Xavier transfer Kachi Nzeh and true Freshman Miles Goodman are your depth at the center position. Nzeh has been a foul machine and Goodman has been pretty bad across the board. If you see anyone else on the floor not yet mentioned, that's bad for Penn State. UNL Game Notes Roster/infirmary report 9 Forward Berke Büyüktuncel 6-10 244 lbs Sophomore - Ankle OUT Possible starters for Nebraska 3 Guard Brice Williams 6-7 214 lbs Senior 4 Forward Juwan Gary 6-6 226 lbs Senior 24 Guard Rollie Worster 6-5 210 lbs Senior 23 Forward Andrew Morgan 6-10 242 lbs Senior 1 Guard Sam Hoiberg 6-0 185 lbs Junior Bench 0 Guard Connor Essegian 6-4 190 lbs Junior 2 Guard Ahron Ulis 6-3 190 lbs Senior 34 Center Braxton Meah 7-1 264 lbs Senior 31 Guard Cale Jacobsen 6-4 195 lbs Sophomore 12 Guard Gavin Griffiths 6-7 193 lbs Sophomore 5 Forward Braden Frager 6-7 220 lbs Freshman 8 Guard Jeffrey Grace III 6-3 200 lbs Junior 20 Forward Justin Bolis 6-8 225 lbs Sophomore 25 Guard Nick Janowski 6-4 208 lbs Freshman 35 Forward Henry Burt 6-7 222 lbs Sophomore Out for year 51 Forward Rienk Mast 6-10 260 lbs Senior The Skinny: Mike Rhodes is running the same sort of gambling type #RiskyRhodes pressure defense that has been successful at VCU for over a decade but likely would have gotten Brad Underwood fired had he not changed. The B1G tends to be a league with ball handlers so despite the relative success of Rhodes Season 1, Penn State's style is likely one of the factors contributing to Penn State losing 11 of their last 12 games. Injuries and illness, including Ace Baldwin's bad back, also contribute to a lack of firepower and inability to hold a lead. Not really sure that the team that beat Purdue by 11 is still in there. The Penn St defense is built around generating steals and Nebraska is at least competent in this hanging onto the ball. Expect to see more minutes from Ahron Ulis in this one, assuming he doesn't quickly play himself off the court again. Penn State's defense puts them out of position so there should be a chances for second chance points and Nebraska can win the rebounding margin. Open 3s are available against this squad so perhaps Connor Essegian recovers from a shooting/sickness slump. Offensively Penn St is trying for easy buckets off of turnovers and pounding the offensive boards for second chance points. The true test here will be how well Nebraska can handle Penn St pick and rolling towards the rim. Penn St is #1 in the conference in generating FTA/FGA while Nebraska is #1 at denying them. Nebraska typically comes out of the gate slow whereas Penn State typically crumbles at some point. While it would be nice to play ahead for the first time in a minute, anyway Nebraska can pull out a win on the road will be fine. Prediction: Nebraska 79 - Penn State 73 View full article

I did see that it's happened 6 times since 1920 but I don't know what years.

Sorry, I should have worded that a lot better. I was curious what our analytics are on defending this action.

Injuries and illness with the simplest explanation that Ace Baldwin hasn't been the same since injuring his back on Jan 8th