Penn State Set for Saturday Night Showdown at MinnesotaPenn State Set for Saturday Night Showdown at Minnesota
Jaydyn Isiminger

Penn State Set for Saturday Night Showdown at Minnesota

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State men's basketball team travels to Minnesota Saturday night for an 8:30 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. CT showdown against the Gophers on Big Ten Network. The 2021-22 Penn State men's basketball season is presented by Highmark Health.
 
FOLLOW ALONG

OPENING TIPS

  • Penn State hits the road for the fifth time in the last seven games Saturday night for the first of two meetings with Minnesota in the next five days.
  • The Nittany Lions looks to get back on track after back-to-back close losses at #11 Wisconsin (49-51) and against Michigan (57-58).
  • Four Nittany Lions are averaging double-digit points, led by Jalen Pickett's 12.9 ppg. Seth Lundy (12.7 ppg) and Sam Sessoms (11.5 ppg) follow, while John Harrar is nearly averaging a double-double with 10.2 ppg and 9.4 rpg.

 
IF PENN STATE BEATS MINNESOTA

  • The Nittany Lions would earn their first road win at Minnesota since a 79-76 victory on March 8, 2015, and just their fourth-ever road win against the Gophers.
  • Penn State would earn its second true road win of the season.

 
SCOUTING THE GOPHERS

  • The Gophers are 11-10 on the season, but sit at 2-10 in Big Ten play.
  • Minnesota has lost its last five games, including a 78-65 loss at Nebraska in its most recent contest Wednesday night.
  • The Gophers have given up 73.7 points per Big Ten while scoring just 65.3 points per conference game. Both of those marks rank 13th of 14 conference teams.
  • Jamison Battle leads the team with 17.2 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. Peyton Willis follows with 16.5 points per game and a team-best 54 made three-pointers.

 
AGAINST MINNESOTA

  • Penn State has won the last two matchups against Minnesota.
  • The Nittany Lions will be looking for their first road win against the Gophers since a 79-76 victory at Williams Arena on March 8, 2015.
  • The Nittany Lions won last season's lone meeting 84-65 on March 3, 2021 inside the Bryce Jordan Center. Penn State raced out to a 46-28 halftime lead and never looked back. John Harrar tallied 12 points and 11 rebounds for a double-double in the Senior Day victory.

 
ROAD WARRIORS

  • Saturday's game at Minnesota is Penn State's fifth road contest in the last seven games.
  • Penn State gets a reprieve from the brutal road stretch following the trip to Minnesota, playing four of its next five games at home from Feb. 15-27.

 
BACK-TO-BACK HEARTBREAKERS

  • Penn State is coming off back-to-back losses that came down to the final minute.
  • The Nittany Lions ran into travel troubles last Saturday at then-#11 Wisconsin before taking the Badgers to the wire in a two-point, 49-51, loss. Flight issues caused severe travel delays and the Nittany Lions arrived in Madison just 2.5 hours before tipoff. The Nittany Lions leaned on their defense in Madison and had a 3-point attempt to win it at the end, but the top-15 ranked Badgers survived for the two-point win.
  • The Nittany Lions then suffered a one-point loss at home to Michigan Tuesday night while playing without key big man Greg Lee (7.8 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 24.6 mpg). Penn State led by 11 with 3:56 to play in the first half, but the Wolverines rallied to tie the game at 34-34 at halftime. Neither team led by more than six in the second half, and the game once again came down to the final seconds as Michigan left Happy Valley with a 58-57 win.
  • Four of Penn State's eight Big Ten losses have come by seven points or less: #3 Purdue (67-74), at #16 Ohio State (56-61), at #11 Wisconsin (49-51) and Michigan (57-58).

 
DE-FENSE!

  • The Nittany Lions allow just 65.4 points per game overall, the third-best mark in the Big Ten.
  • Penn State's defense has held 13 of its last 17 opponents at least 10 points under (in regulation - not including OT periods) their season scoring averages entering the game.
  • Penn State has held its opponents to a dismal average of 61.6 points per game in its nine wins. Nittany Lion opponents have shot just 38.2 percent (207-542) from the floor and 31.7 percent (64-202) from 3-point range in Penn State's nine wins.

 
STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE

  • Penn State sits 10th in the nation in both NET and KenPom strength of schedule metrics.
  • Wisconsin sits ninth in both analytics, making the Badgers and Nittany Lions the only two Big Ten teams in the top 10 of strength of schedule in both metrics. Penn State and Wisconsin are the only two Big Ten teams in the top 20 of the NET strength of schedule rankings.
  • A tough schedule is nothing new for Penn State, as the Nittany Lions finished the 2020-21 season with the No. 1 spot in KenPom's strength of schedule metric.

 
LOCKDOWN LUNDY

  • Junior Seth Lundy is the team's second-leading scorer and averaging 12.7 points per game. But it's his defense that has stolen the show as he proves himself as a legitimate two-way player in the Big Ten. Take a look at the work he's done on some of the nation's best that he has been tasked with guarding:
Team – Player Guarded by Lundy Season Average Vs. Penn State
Michigan – Caleb Houstan 10.5 ppg, 40.4 FG% 6 points, 1-4 FG
Wisconsin – Johnny Davis 20.8 ppg, 43.0 FG% 4 points, 2-13 FG
Rutgers – Ron Harper Jr. 15.4 ppg, 42.1 FG% 7 points, 2-9 FG
Purdue – Jaden Ivey 17.7 ppg, 48.4 FG% 12 points, 5-15 FG
Ohio State – EJ Liddell 19.7 ppg, 51.9 FG% 14 points, 4-9 FG
Miami (Fla.) – Kam McGusty 17.6 ppg, 46.7 FG% 12 points, 5-10 FG
LSU – Darius Days 13.2 ppg, 41.9 FG% 8 points, 4-14 FG

 
PICKETT'S POP

  • Senior transfer Jalen Pickett is averaging 14.6 points, 3.8 assists and 3.5 rebounds per Big Ten contest.
  • Pickett has played 152.5 minutes over the last four games with 12 assists and just two turnovers during that four-game stretch. Pickett's 37.57 minutes per conference game leads the Big Ten.
  • Pickett secured the first points-assists double-double by a Big Ten player in a conference game this season when he went off for 21 points and 10 assists against #3 Purdue on Jan. 8.

 
B1G JOHN

  • Penn State graduate student John Harrar owns season-long marks of 10.2 points and 9.4 rebounds per game. His 9.4 rebounds per game rank second in the Big Ten.
  • The Wallingford, Pa. native has tallied six double-doubles thus far, pulled down double-digit rebounds in nine contests, and is shooting 64.7 percent (75-116) from the field. Harrar owns 12 career double-doubles, making him one of just 17 Penn State players all-time to register double-digit double-doubles in their Penn State career.
  • Harrar has played in 135 games throughout his Nittany Lion career, just six games shy of tying and seven games shy of breaking the Penn State career games played record of 141 that is currently held by Julian Moore (2013-18).

 
UP NEXT

  • Penn State returns home for four of its next five games, beginning with a Tuesday night tilt against #17 Michigan State at the Bryce Jordan Center. Tipoff is slated for 6:30 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.