Tuesday, Feb. 4, 1997

Cagers take personnel questions into next match

By DON WAGNER
Collegian Sports Writer

It is said hindsight is 20-20. For Jerry Dunn, looking back on the end of the Purdue game Saturday, he stands by the decisions he made -- namely the final call of the game when Pete Lisicky lost control of the ball.

"I would have probably run the same play at the end of the game," Dunn said yesterday at his weekly news conference. "We were looking at 16 or 17 seconds on the clock, and when we inbounded the ball I did not want to use another timeout to give Purdue a chance to set up."

But now that game is in the past, and Dunn is looking forward to his team's next opponent: the Minnesota Golden Gophers. The Gophers are one of the hottest teams in the Big Ten and sit atop the conference at 8-1. The trip to Minneapolis is going to be tough for the Nittany Lions because of their current lack of scoring continuity.

Much of that this season can be attributed to the Lions' shuffling their lineup, which was necessitated by the many injuries. This influx, and outflux, of players has made it difficult for the Lions to develop any kind of offensive consistency.

"Sometimes the lack of continuity in terms of putting points on the board comes from not having played with the same bunch of guys for any long stretch of the season," Dunn said. "Having the same guys on the floor makes a difference in the guys knowing each other, and that is not an excuse, it's reality."

Penn State men's basketball

Besides a lack of continuity, Dunn's young team has had some problems sucking it up and hustling at the end of games, when weariness begins to set in.

"I'm not sure some of the younger guys understand what sucking it up and pushing through that part of it is," Dunn said. "I think that comes with time."

Something that will not come with time is a replacement for redshirt sophomore Aaron Jack. On media day in October, Jack suffered his third concussion in two years and consequently was forced to sit out. After being reevaluated by the Penn State medical staff during Christmas break, Jack decided to leave Penn State, but his destination was unknown.

However, it has been learned Jack is at Texas A & M and may be playing basketball next season. Dunn said he heard from other schools, such as Tulsa and Oklahoma, asking about Jack's medical situation but never the Aggies. But that isn't what bothers him most about the situation.

"The only thing that bothers me is that what we tried to do here was in (Jack's) best interest in terms of his health," Dunn said, "and he's put himself in a situation that could be very detrimental to him."