Minnesota's lead was due in large part to the hot shooting of senior guard Aaron Robinson, who hit his first five three point shots and finished game 6-of-9 from the outside, and a dominating performance from senior center Jeff Hagen.
Hagen was unquestionably the best player on the floor for the Gophers. He finished perfect from the field (8-of-8) and was the main reason for Minnesota's domination on the interior (a 34-12 advantage in points in the paint). He also finished with eight rebounds and four blocked shots.
"I thought early on, they shot well. They are a good team," Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said in a Minnesota press release. "They are well coached and they play with a lot of energy. I was impressed with their older guys, Hagen especially. Aaron Robinson shot the ball well and [junior guard Vincent] Grier gives them another dimension. That's a completely different team than last year. There are new pieces to the puzzle. Their seniors are doing very well. Mix in Grier and that team can be very good."
Penn State didn't help its cause very much. After opening the game shooting 6-of-8 from the field, the Lions made just six of their next 30 shots. Junior forward Aaron Johnson, and freshmen Danny Morrissey and Geary Claxton combined to shoot 9-for-27 (33 percent).
Shooting was the least of Penn State's problems last night. When the game was tight early in the first half, the Lions couldn't rebound the ball like a Big Ten team should. It was during the first 10 minutes of the game when Minnesota was shooting lights out that Penn State was unable to grab key rebounds that could have made the game look a lot different.
"They got to the glass a lot better than we did," DeChellis said. "We play three or four freshmen and they don't understand the intensity we need to rebound and to win in the Big Ten."
Those three or four freshmen were put into key roles last night, as the flu bug struck again. This time it took out one of the Penn State's better players in sophomore Marlon Smith, who stayed in State College. This shortened an already short bench considerably and forced DeChellis to play three freshmen, a junior college transfer, and an end-of-the-bench player at one point in the game. As one would think, this would not equal to a lot of clean play, but Penn State had only 14 turnovers against the Gophers, who lead the Big Ten in steals per game.
There was one bright spot late in the game for Penn State: the hustle of Danny Morrissey when the game was completely out of reach. He had two or three great plays where he stole rebounds away from Minnesota players and grabbed another loose-ball rebound.
The Lions still haven't figured out how to close out games (see, blown 17-point lead against Texas A&M on Jan. 2) or how to control another team's big run in the second half.
DeChellis said he knows why.
"We need to grow up," he said on the Penn State Radio Network after the game.
"At times I think it's bad body language. A guy makes a mistake, and guys kind of look and say, 'What did you do that for?' instead of just patting them on the back and moving on. It's just some young guys trying to do stuff and making mistakes ... we just don't respond very well."
Stat of the Week
Penn State has given up 47 points in the paint in its first two Big Ten games, the exact combined margin of defeat of the two contests.
