Penn State basketball: Three takeaways from PSU's big-time win over Indiana

Penn State head basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry locked down his first Big Ten win on Sunday.

The Nittany Lions (6-5, 1-2 Big Ten) took down Indiana (10-3, 1-2 Big Ten) at the Bryce Jordan Center, 61-58, coming out of a three-week layoff period.

Let’s dive into three takeaways from the game.

1. Penn State finds the difference at the 3-point line

The game of basketball doesn’t have to be complicated, and it wasn’t for Penn State on Sunday.

The Nittany Lions connected on 11 of their 22 attempts from 3-point range. The Hoosiers made just four of 17.

It was Penn State’s best conversion rate from distance on the season, besting a 44 percent mark against Cornell.

“We did a good job of executing, and we made timely shots,” Shrewsberry said.

The Penn State head coach said he tweaked the Nittany Lions offense to account for the length and athleticism Indiana boasted on defense. Indiana coach Mike Woodson lamented his team’s inability to cope with pick-and-roll coverages.

“They do a great job of taking away three-pointers, but we had to find a way to get them,” Shrewsberry said. “We gotta play them again, so I can’t tell you exactly how we did it. But what we saw on film, and the way to attack it, we tried to do it. That was a big part of it. We gotta make open threes.”

Myles Dread, most notably, came off the bench to connect on four of his five 3-point attempts. Jalen Pickett hit three of six. Sam Sessoms drained two of three.

Not all of them were the pretty, uncontested looks coaches love. There were some prayers thrown up there, too, which turned into huge points for the Nittany Lions.

“Pickett, he made three, but he threw a couple in,” Shrewsberry said. “[One] was almost like a, get back on defense [shot]. He just kickballed it. But those count, man. Those count.”

2. Lions cope with Harrar absence down the stretch

For several minutes, it seemed like Penn State’s worst-case scenario was about to play out.

Star big man John Harrar came down on the foot of an Indiana player and hurt his ankle, and needed to be helped off the floor.

He left the game with 7:24 left, heading over to the training table to receive attention from the medical staff.

Penn State held a slim 51-46 lead when he left the floor, and managed to stay ahead by the time he came back in with 3:14 to go.

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“Nobody ever wants to see somebody get hurt, but to have such a big part of our team go down, we needed to have a next-man-up mentality,” Dread said. “Jalanni White came in and provided amazing minutes in that time period.”

Harrar’s knock coincided with a solid stretch from Indiana big man Trayce Jackson-Davis, who did his best to will the Hoosiers to a win in the second half.

The Nittany Lions missed his presence on the defensive end of the court, especially, Shrewsberry said.

He expressed optimism that Harrar won’t need to miss any time.

“He’ll be OK,” Shrewsberry said. “I’m not worried about him one bit. He’s probably in the weight room now, he’s probably going to go get a cold tub, get some ice, go home.

“He’s gonna come back and practice like nothing ever happened. When other guys see that, that’s inspiring.”

3. PSU bounces back from layoff

It had been 22 days since the Nittany Lions last played. Penn State endured positive COVID-19 test results that canceled two games, and another game against Delaware State was canceled due to similar problems with the opposition.

Pickett noted the Nittany Lions used the time off to dive into film, and Shrewsberry said he analyzed what Penn State could do differently coming out of the break.

Penn State returned to practice a week ago, and went into two-a-day sessions last week in an attempt to regain fitness before Sunday’s contest.

“Hats off to our guys,” Shrewsberry said. “It probably wasn’t the most pleasant thing for them, especially after sitting out for so long.

“We had training camp, a bunch of two-a-days. They came in the morning, we practiced, they went home, they slept, they ate and we practiced again. It wasn’t like we were going to get a couple shots up. We competed.

“That’s how you have to play, and that’s how you have to win in this league. That’s what those guys did.”