March 27, 2015
By Matt Allibone, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK. Pa. - It was a short offseason for the Penn State men's basketball team.
Following a run to the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals, head coach Patrick Chambers gave his players a week off to clear their heads and reflect on the season. Starting this week, however, the Lions wanted to get back into the gym.
"We're excited and we've already started," Chambers said. "We already started our spring workouts and our guys wanted to get back in the gym. That's exciting, especially for me. We're going to start lifting [Monday] and I think they're in a good place heading into the offseason."
While Penn State went through plenty of ups and downs this season, three straight wins in March, including two in the conference tournament, offer plenty to build on for the future. With six players who averaged double-digit minutes returning next season, the Lions will have plenty of experience entering their next campaign.
At the same time, there will clearly be big shoes to fill with leading scorer D.J. Newbill graduating. Not only was Newbill the unquestioned leader of the Lions, he scored nearly 31 percent of the teams points (20.7 per-game) in 2014-'15.
As much as the team relied on Newbill the past three seasons, Coach Chambers doesn't want a single player scoring the majority of the team's points next season. In the Big Ten Tournament, the Lions got double-digit scoring efforts from senior forward Ross Travis, sophomore guard Geno Thorpe and freshman guard Shep Garner, a trend Chambers hopes continues in the future.
"We were close to averaging four guys the last six games in double-digits," Chambers said. "I'd like to see us play like that. I'd like to see really good production. Now do I want to see the disparity between the leading scorer and the second leading scorer? No, I don't. If we can get it to [five different players averaging] 14, 12, 11, 10, 10, that's going to make us a very difficult team to guard."
Even without one dominant scorer, it is likely that Penn State will continue to get a bulk of its offense from its backcourt. Garner and Thorpe, two players that showed exceptional growth this season, will be counted on even more.
A true freshman, Garner started every game at point guard and scored in double figures 15 times, while Thorpe showed such offensive improvement that Chambers inserted the team's sixth man and defensive ace into the starting lineup even though that meant shifting Newbill from shooting guard to small forward.
Still, that doesn't mean that both players don't have room for improvement. Garner, who averaged 9.1 points-per-game, will have even more ball handling responsibility and will need to be more consistent. Thorpe, who improved his scoring average from 3.2 to 8.8 from his freshman to sophomore campaign, will need to continue to adjust to being relied upon on offense, as well as defense.
"We're going to count on them a lot, for different things," Chambers said. "Off the court first, leadership. And they have a lot to get better at and they know that. We're just scratching the surface with both of them.
"Geno really shot the ball well at the end of the season, he was close to 40 percent from three the last six or seven games. Shep gave us that roller coaster ride but a maybe a little more consistent towards the end. I think his assist to turnover ratio was outstanding the last six games."
Although Penn State has had a host of high-scoring guards in recent years, it will be paramount for the Nittany Lions frontcourt to help them carry the load next season. In Jordan Dickerson, Donovon Jack and Brandon Taylor, the Lions have three rising seniors that Chambers believes are capable of doing it.
Out of the three, Taylor is the most accomplished scorer, having finished second on the team in scoring this year with 9.3 points. His ability to score in the paint and from the outside is shared by the 6-foot-9 Jack, while the 7-foot Dickerson will look to further develop his postgame this summer.
"I think Jordan is coming, he shot 60 percent from the floor the last six games," Chambers said. "This offseason is going to be critical for him. We need to put the ball inside, because it's going to put you on the free throw line, but they've got to make their free throws too."
Overall, there will certainly be some transitioning to do as the Lions get used to life without Newbill. With a top recruiting class featuring two ESPN top 100 recruits in Josh Reaves and Mike Watkins and Lithuanian star Deividas Zemgulis, as well as rising sophomores like Julian Moore and Payton Banks, Penn State has more than it's share of young talent.
The goal however, is still to win. Players come and go every year in college basketball, and Chambers is excited to coach the group that he has now.
"I think [the Big Ten Tournament] taught our program and our younger guys that we can compete and we are good enough," Chambers said. "After that game (season ending loss to Purdue), I didn't see a dry eye and I knew we were closer than we've been. We're gonna be young but we're coming."