How Penn State basketball's big men made the difference against Iowa
Penn State’s starting lineup Monday evening against Iowa suggested it would go small.
Shifty guard Dallion Johnson drew into the starting five in place of 6-foot-9 forward Greg Lee, leaving John Harrar as the only true big man in the Nittany Lions’ lineup for the first time since December 11.
Whether that was diversionary or coincidental, what ensued was anything but small ball. Penn State put on one of its strongest displays of battering, bruising, bully ball in recent memory, leaning heavily on both Lee and Harrar in a 90-86 double-overtime win over Iowa at the Bryce Jordan Center.
“I think we know now, in the Big Ten, you gotta be physical,” Harrar said. “It’s a dog fight. We can punish people on the glass.”
The Nittany Lions outrebounded the Hawkeyes 53-43, and, perhaps more crucially, outscored them 44-28 in the paint.
Lee, coming off the bench to play 27 minutes, had his best game in a Penn State uniform. He made six of his seven shots from the field on his way to 16 points, and grabbed five offensive rebounds, too.
Not to be outdone, Harrar contributed a career-high 19 points, as the two combined for 35. It’s the first time since at least 2004-5 that the Nittany Lions have had two players 6-foot-9 or taller score 15 points or more in the same game.
Many of those points were forged out of sheer grit. There were multiple examples of Harrar shrugging off two or three defenders to put the ball in the basket. Lee skied for offensive rebounds and converted them into points a handful of times, too. Skill is important, but make no mistake — Lee and Harrar used willpower and physicality to make the difference for the Nittany Lions.
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“That’s a true Big Ten game,” guard Myles Dread said. “That is an exemplary Big Ten basketball game right there.”
And it’s a game that, throughout its history, Penn State often finds itself on the wrong side of.
Iowa entered Monday’s contest at No. 22 in KenPom’s ratings. Common sense would have dictated that the Nittany Lions would need an efficient performance from 3-point range and a bounce or two to go their way in order to achieve the upset. Three-point shooting in college basketball is, after all, the great equalizer upon which many surprising victories have been built.
Instead, Penn State shot 6-27 from long range while Iowa shot 11-31, outscoring the Nittany Lions by 15 points.
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Penn State simply had no need for that wild card. Harrar and Lee pulled the Nittany Lions to victory with brute force.
“Second-chance points helped us,” Penn State coach Micah Shrewsberry said. “We had 15 offensive rebounds and some kick-outs. And we got to the rim at a pretty good rate. Our threes just didn’t fall.
“We made plays around the rim. Our spacing helped us be able to have opportunities to get in there.”
With 44 points in the paint, the Nittany Lions more than doubled their scoring output in the painted area over their three game losing streak, having averaged just 20.67.
They head to Wisconsin on Saturday, in hopes of beginning a different type of streak. It won’t be easy, but then again, neither was what Harrar and Lee did Monday.
“We have a game to prepare for in Wisconsin,” Harrar said. “We gotta get the job done somehow, some way.”
