Indiana will try to avoid an 0-3 start in Big Ten road games when it travels to University Park, Pennsylvania, to take on Penn State Wednesday night. The Nittany Lions are 11-5 overall and 2-3 in conference games.
Wednesday’s game is set for a 7 p.m. ET tip on BTN:
After two tough losses to Iowa and Northwestern last week, Indiana is staring at a three-game conference losing streak if it can’t figure things out defensively.
The Hoosiers, one of the Big Ten favorites in the preseason, are down two starters and fell out of the Associated Press top 25 poll this week for the first time this season.
Indiana is 7-2 over its last nine games against Penn State but fell to the Nittany Lions last season at the Bryce Jordan Center. At No. 54 in the KenPom ratings as of Tuesday morning, Penn State appears to be headed in the right direction under second-year coach Micah Shrewsberry.
MEET THE NITTANY LIONS
Penn State guard Jalen Pickett is among the best lead guards in the country and controls the game from the backcourt. This is Pickett’s second season playing for the Nittany Lions after transferring in from Siena prior to last season.
He leads the team in all three major categories at 17.9 points, 7.6 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game. His 35.1 minutes per game also lead the Nittany Lions. At 6-foot-4, Pickett has the size to take smaller defenders into the paint and score over them. He’s shooting 54.2 percent on 2s and 34 percent on 3s. When scoring opportunities aren’t there, he’s one of the best facilitators in the country. Pickett is third in the country in assist rate (44.2 percent). Pickett wasn’t a household name in college basketball before the season, but he’s currently the best point guard in the conference.
Senior wing Seth Lundy is second on the team in scoring at 13.7 points per game and has morphed into an efficient offensive player. The 6-foot-6 Lundy is shooting 57.9 on 2s (mostly all in the paint) and 40.2 percent on 3s. He’s also taken a team-high 50 free throws and is connecting at an 82 percent clip. Lundy is also one of the league’s better wing defenders.
Drexel transfer Camren Wynter gives Shrewsberry a second capable ball handler in the backcourt. His 9.3 points per game are fourth on the team and he’s connecting at a 37.5 clip from distance. Wynter had been starting all season, but came off the bench in the last game against Purdue.
Another transfer, Andrew Funk, is an elite 3-point shooter who benefits…