Big Ten: The silver lining for Penn State

Several Big Ten teams can claim missed opportunities during the 2007-08 season – Minnesota, Ohio State, Michigan State – but only Penn State has a valid ‘excuse’ for why it has failed to live up to lofty preseason expectations.

As it entered mid-January with a 10-5 mark, Penn State was still very much considered a Big Ten contender in control of its own destiny. Then the Nittany Lions’ season ended abruptly when, only a few minutes into its contest against Wisconsin, star guard Geary Claxton fell to the ground anguishing with pain. The prognosis was even uglier than the scene: a torn ACL in his left knee, out for the rest of the year.

No other Big Ten player had been as responsible for his team’s success, and without Claxton it was clear the Nittany Lions would find very little success during the season’s final eight weeks. To illustrate Claxton’s value to his offense, in the 15 games with him in the lineup the Nittany Lions scored 65 or more points 12 times. In the 14 games that have followed, including that loss to Wisconsin in January, Penn State has reached the total just five times. And, expectedly, the team has had its share of embarrassments since then.

But if there is a silver lining it’s that Penn State’s cast of role players have fought and clawed through the second-half of their hopeless season, and they’ve won a number of moral victories along the way. Last week the team beat Michigan 69-61 thanks to a 28-point performance from freshman Talor Battle. In the game before that, fellow freshman D.J. Jackson scored three of his five points in the game’s final 20 seconds to give Penn State a 65-64 win over Iowa.

Penn State probably won’t reach their 15th win this season (their remaining contest is a home date with Indiana) and the Big Dance is out of the question, but the team and coach Ed DeChellis should be credited for stealing a few wins away from opponents who probably should have rolled the Claxton-less squad.

Years from now the record will be easy to forget, but the fact that Penn State never threw in the towel (and they easily could have) will be hard to forget next fall when the Nittany Lions are preparing for another season.

Rising team: Wisconsin

Why? Because every other team around the Badgers has tripped up in the past week. But not the Badgers. Bo Ryan has his team focused, and Wednesday’s win over Penn State guaranteed at least a share of the regular season Big Ten title.

Falling team: Indiana

Not trying to jump the gun, but … a 29-point loss to Michigan State!? Look, Indiana is still the Big Ten’s most talented team and its most likely Final Four candidate (and, yes, that includes Wisconsin and Purdue). The Hoosiers need to overcome last week’s embarrassing loss to the Spartans, and the win over mid-level Minnesota — and this week’s likely win over Penn State — will not help to remedy the situation.

Player of the week: Goran Suton, C, Michigan State

The junior was the Spartans’ lone bright spot in an ugly loss to Wisconsin (14 points, 15 rebounds). Then, in a reversal of fortune, Michigan State pounded Indiana in the following game; Suton tied for second in team points that game (17 on 6-of-7 shooting) and led the Spartans in rebounding.

Freshman of the week: Talor Battle, G, Penn State

The 5-foot-11 guard posted season highs in the win over Michigan (28 points, 13 rebounds) and he added 10 points in the ugly loss against Wisconsin. In a week in which Eric Gordon twice scored 20-plus, and Iowa’s Jake Kelly make four-of-five three-point attempts in a win over Northwestern, Battle’s performance against the Wolverines’ was the highlight.

Stats of the week

86.3: Percentage of Justin Johnson’s 22 field goal attempts in two games this past week that were from three-point range (19-of-22 attempts).

83: Number of blocks this season by Big Ten leader Ekpe Udoh of Michigan.

13.3: Shooting percentage of Michigan forward DeShawn Sims over his team’s last three outings (4-of-30).

They said it

“At one point, Terrance Crump, their point guard, told me, they (the other eight players) are going to be playing four-on-four all night because you’re not going to get the ball,” – Ohio State senior guard Jamar Butler commenting on his recent 25-point performance in a win over Purdue.

Key upcoming games

Thursday, March 6
Michigan State at Illinois, 8 p.m. CST
Can Illinois score more than 41 this time around? If so, the Illini will need to shoot better than they did in the Jan. 30 meeting (30 percent from the field, 36.8 percent from the line).

Sunday, March 9
Michigan State at Ohio State, 12 p.m. EST
This meeting now has more meaning after Michigan State upset Indiana and the Buckeyes beat heavily-favored Purdue. In the first meeting, Michigan State’s 13-point halftime lead was too much for the Buckeyes to overcome.

Wisconsin-based writer Mike Beacom covers the Big Ten for Athlon

Del.icio.us | Digg it | Athlon Sports RSS Feeds