Penn State set for 'measuring stick' meeting with Clemson

Penn State is off to a 6-1 start on its 2022-23 season, most recently notching a win over Lafayette on Friday. On top of wins against Winthrop, Loyola Maryland, Butler, Furman, and Colorado State, it has propelled the Nittany Lions to their best start since the 2019-20 season. 

Tuesday night, they’ll look to build on it.

Traveling to Clemson, the two teams will battle at 7 p.m. in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge at Littlejohn Coliseum. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU.

ACC opponent No. 2

To earn a win, though, the Nittany Lions will have to get past a Clemson team that represents one of the best opponents they’ve faced thus far. Falling only to Virginia Tech in the Charleston Classic 12 days ago, Penn State will meet another mid-tier ACC opponent in the Tigers and look to avoid the same fate.

“They are a sound, system-based program,” said Penn State head coach Micah Shrewsberry on Monday. “Defensively, they’re tough, physical. Offensively, that’s how they play. They’re tough and they’re physical.”

Led by head coach Brad Brownell, with whom Shrewsberry is familiar as a DePauw grad, where he got his coaching start, as an opponent at Wright State when Shrewsberry was at Butler, and as an opponent at Clemson when Shrewsberry was at Purdue, the Nittany Lions are expecting to be tested. The Tigers have used that physicality en route to a 5-2 start, losing only a 60-58 decision at South Carolina and a 74-71 game against Iowa at the Emerald Coast Classic last weekend, and will be primed to do it again Tuesday night.

“He’s such a good coach,” Shrewsberry said. “He’s going to go back and watch, I would expect them to try and beat us up in the paint. That’s what they do. They do it no matter who it is. So we got to be ready for that.”

Clemson scout

Shrewsberry highlighted guard Chase Hunter, who leads the Tigers in scoring at 16.6 per game. Pointing to his pick-and-roll efficiency and effectiveness, Hunter’s team-leading 60 percent 3-point shooting (18 of 30) creates a difficult versatility to defend. 

Alex Hemenway also represents a threat from beyond the arc, good for 14 makes from deep so far this season and 9.1 ppg. And though center P.J. Hall is recovering from injury, yet to start a game but averaging 17.2 minutes over six appearances off the bench, Shrewsberry is still anticipating a tough matchup defending the paint. 

“He’s not playing a bunch of minutes right now but he’s an All-ACC guy. He got 10 shots up in about 15 minutes the other night. He’s a guy that’s a go-to guy for them,” Shrewsberry said. “So they have a bunch of ways that they can attack you. We got to be solid in all five positions that are on the court to kind of take away what they want to do.”

On the other end of the floor, Penn State will see a physical defense, but not one that has been particularly tested so far this season outside of its matchup with Iowa. Instead, allowing 32.5 percent 3-point shooting (172nd nationally), the Nittany Lions will look to continue their 9th-ranked 3-point percentage (42.2), 3rd-ranked 3-point makes (12.3 per game), and attempts. 

Penn State road woes

They’ll also look to notch a win in an area that hasn’t been a strength under Shrewsberry’s direction of the program, yet. Finishing with a 1-10 record in true road games in his debut season, only knocking off Northwestern on Jan. 5, 2022, in Evanston, Ill., Penn State is determined to reverse that trend this season.

“Going into somebody else’s gym is always a challenge,” said senior guard Myles Dread. “I was always taught you almost have to be 10 points better than what you normally are, on the road. You got to play defense a little bit harder, you got to listen and follow instructions just that much more because there’s a lot less room for error on the road. 

“When all those things come together on the road, getting the road win is like the best feeling because you know that your preparation and you know that the practices leading up to it paid off and that gives the team even more confidence moving forward.”

The first true road game of the season for Penn State, it’s a test the Nittany Lions understand for its challenge, one they’re looking forward to measuring up against.

“It’s a great measuring stick game for us,” said Shrewsberry. “We gotta continue to play how we’ve played. And we have to take it on the road with us and do that. We didn’t have success on the road last year. Now, we need to show maturity, we need to show some toughness, and play the same exact way as we do at home on the road.”