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[ Monday, Jan. 17, 2000 ]
Lions plot comeback against Hawkeyes
By Geoff Dodd
Collegian Staff Writer
Friday, Jon Crispin told reporters the Penn State men's basketball team needed to have the attitude that it was the better team every time it walked onto the floor.
Apparently, the freshman guard told the same thing to his teammates at halftime of Saturday's Penn State-Iowa matchup at The Bryce Jordan Center. Down seven at the break, the Nittany Lions (10-5, 2-2 Big Ten) rallied behind a sizzling run from behind the arc to overcome the Hawkeyes, 73-61.
Crispin, his brother Joe and freshman point guard Brandon Watkins helped teammate Jarrett Stephens, who was doubled down inside all day, by dropping six of 11 from downtown in the second half.
PHOTO:J.M. Boyer
/Collegian
Penn State’s Joe Crispin looks downcourt for a pass.
It was Watkins' trey at 11:05 in the second half that allowed the Lions to take the lead for good at 51-48. Lions guard Titus Ivory, who was sick for most of the game, kicked the ball out from inside to the freshman waiting in the far corner, all by himself.
That wide-open bomb was one of many defensive lapses that clearly frustrated Iowa men's basketball coach Steve Alford following the game.
"We're a soft team. We're not mentally tough," Alford said. "And when you're soft and you're not mentally tough, you can't get 40 minutes out of it."
Iowa's perimeter defense had to bother Alford the most, especially after watching his Hawkeyes collapse after swallowing the Lions from outside in the first half. In that first 20 minutes, Iowa (7-8, 1-3) limited Penn State to just one of 10 from long range.
Still, Alford's ire came not only from his team's lighter defense, but also from its inability to establish a consistent offense, especially in the second half.
"We don't hit 3s, we don't hit 15-footers, we don't hit layups," Alford added, visibly annoyed. "So yeah, I think it's getting around that we don't shoot the ball that well."
Other than big man Jacob Jaacks, who used his wide, 6-foot-8 frame to dominate the paint for 21 points, the Hawkeyes never got anything going. In fact, the Lions held guard Dean Oliver to just 12 points, leaving those two as the only Iowa players in double figures.
"They (the Lions) made shots and played defense," Penn State men's basketball coach Jerry Dunn said. "It sounds simple, but it's a big difference."
And just as Alford pointed out, it was exactly what kept Iowa out of the game in the second half.
The biggest asset for the Lions, however, might have been the crowd of 12,000-plus. When Jaacks yanked down a rebound in front of Stephens at 13:19 in the second half, Stephens nearly caught an elbow in the face from the frantic center. The boos started and never subsided, and Jaacks never was the same.
Jon Crispin took the inbound pass off Jaacks' turnover and dropped a 3 from about 25 feet, his second in a row. On the next trip down the court, however, he provided perhaps the game's funniest moment, launching an airball off the head of teammate Carl Jackson.
"I hit him in the head pretty good," Crispin said. "He should have been looking. He had good position — had it hit the rim."
Luckily for Crispin and the Lions, though, most of their shots hit the rim and a little more — such as the bottom of the net. Penn State shot 41 percent for the game, but 52 percent in the second half.
Penn State carries its two-game Big Ten winning streak into the Jordan Center once again Wednesday night to face Wisconsin. The Badgers are coming off two close losses to Ohio State and Purdue last week, but still carry a 9-7 record with the nation's third-toughest schedule.
