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Penn State Basketball Players Ready for Better Performance Against Pitt
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- Penn State Basketball Players Ready for Better Performance Against Pitt
(USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)
Penn State basketball has played well to start the season, though there are still many questions about how this team is going to look when it gets into Big Ten play and takes on some better opponents.
Ultimately, going 2-0 to start the season is a step in the right direction, but nobody is going to crown the Nittany Lions national championship contenders because they were able to beat Chattanooga and Canisius.
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We will get a better feel for what Penn State is as a team over the next few days to weeks, including on Sunday when the Nittany Lions take on Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh isn't a world-beater in basketball as well, but it is a decent program. At the very least, it would be a very nice sign to beat a team that Penn State has had a long rivalry with.
Pittsburgh is coming into this one at 2-0 on the season, playing some decent basketball against below-average opponents. Pittsburgh beat Rider 95-57 and beat a decent Buffalo team, 80-61.
Pittsburgh and Penn State met a season ago, with the Panthers coming away with an 80-46 win. It's very understandable why guys on the roster and Mike Rhoades aren't happy at all about what went on a year ago, and how they understand that things are going to have to change if Penn State wants to come away with a win this time around.
"They're high-character guys, so they're going to want more, and they're going to want to move forward and get better," Rhoades said , per the Daily Collegian. "They know for us to be successful moving forward against the schedule that we have, that we can't beat ourselves, and we continue to make that a huge emphasis and work on it."
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"We understand what happened in the Pitt game last year," Thomas Allard said. "We're gonna be focused on Sunday night, and it's (all) fixable stuff, so we'll be prepared."
It's understandable that Rhoades had these comments to make after Penn State gave up a ridiculous 93 points against Chattanooga, including 62 of those coming in the second half.
I'm curious to see whether Penn State can do enough on the defensive side of the ball against a much better Pittsburgh team than any other it has played to start the season.
At the same time, I also have some hope that things are going to be a bit different this year. I don't know if Penn State is going to come away with the win, but at least we've seen some promising signs.
Losing is one thing, but there's no way Penn State can get blown out like last year. It would be a horrible sign that nothing has changed.
