Bill Edwards is experiencing some tough luck in his first semester as a Penn State basketball player.
After Sat-urday's game against Temple, the freshman forward left his knee brace on the bus back to State College. Edwards missed Sunday's practice without it. The bus company ended up returning the brace for Monday's practice.
This came after he suffered a partially-torn medial collateral ligament (MCL) that sidelined him for the team's first four games. And then he suffered a floor burn during practice last week that left Edwards with a quarter-sized blister on his hand. Then he jammed his wrist two days later, coach Ed DeChellis said.
All these factors have limited Edwards to only six practices, which has stifled his production for the Nittany Lions, but DeChellis is still excited about the forward's potential.
"We think he's a kid who can score and can rebound and he's a good passer," DeChellis said Monday during his weekly press conference. "I'm hoping that he has a good practice today and a couple more at the end of the week so we can get him in the flow of things."
Following Saturday's 45-42 loss to Temple, Edwards said he was about 20 percent away from playing at full strength. DeChellis trusted the freshman with the ball in the final minute of the game and down by one point. After the lefty scored twice on plays to the left side, DeChellis drew up a similar play for Edwards. The execution just wasn't there and Edwards turned the ball over with an offensive foul.
Despite not playing at full strength, Edwards is contributing all over the floor as the team's fourth-leading scorer (7.5 ppg) and the third-leading rebounder (5.0 rpg).
Looking for a crunch time performer
DeChellis said the coaching staff has been patient with this team so far.
"You can have a certain level of patience, but then you have to get stuff done," he said. "We lost two games we easily could have won. Last year, if you look at the makeup of our team, we had some guys who made some plays who aren't here anymore."
The Lions are still looking for players to step up in crunch time. It will be a season-long process, DeChellis said.
The coach said the last portion of practice would be focused on putting the team through late-game situations and running drills simulating the final minutes of a game.
"It's a level of confidence the guys have to get to, because they haven't been in that position before," he said. "And when you haven't been in that position before, you have to grow into it."
The mood after a loss
"Very disappointed" was how DeChellis described the locker room after Saturday's loss.
"We had won at Virginia, and we knew it was a tough part of the schedule," DeChellis said. "But we thought we could go in there and win. I thought we had our chance to. We just didn't."
Junior forward D.J. Jackson said the players weren't too down on themselves after the loss and added they can't dwell on the result. Otherwise, the after-effects of the loss will linger into tonight's game.
"We know we made some mistakes and give credit to Temple for capitalizing on them," he said. "But with the game [tonight], we don't have too much time to soak about that game."
