STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – It is often said offense sells tickets and defense wins championships.
In the case of Penn State men's basketball, a good bit of both would do a world of good either way.
The Nittany Lions had the sixth-best scoring offense in the Big Ten at 75.1 points per game. However, with a defense that ranked fourth in points allowed, that offense could only do so much to get to 16 wins in Mike Rhoades' first season in Happy Valley.
Diving deeper into the numbers, the Nittany Lions ranked third-worst in the Big Ten in field goal percentage (43.8), fourth-worst in 3-point field goal percentage and fourth-worst in assists per game (12.6); a mark that Ace Baldwin Jr. accounted for about half of at six per game.
While the Nittany Lions weren't a high turnover team, giving it away only 11.1 times per game, they weren't great at generating a lot of extra opportunities with offensive rebounds– ranking fourth-worst in the conference at 9.6 a game.
The offense will be something to keep an eye on as Rhoades returns exactly 58.8% of his scoring from a season ago, led by Baldwin along with Nick Kern Jr., Zach Hicks, D'Marco Dunn and Puff Johnson.
Firstly, with that type of continuity back, the Nittany Lions should have a clearer sense of where the ball needs to go. Prior to Kanye Clary's dismissal from the team, the offense featured two dominant ball-handlers who liked to attack defenses and create havoc.
With Clary out of the picture, Penn State operated with Baldwin as the primary creator and the offense improved despite losing Clary's 16.7 points per game. The team managed to generate more quality looks from beyond the arc, but also played a more traditional style with 6-11 Qudus Wahab in the middle.
Playing through Baldwin and Wahab had its peaks and valleys as Baldwin took some time to get his outside shot to fall and possessions often ended once the ball got to Wahab, who despite his efficiency, wasn't prone to kick the ball out when he got it in the post.
The team's newest transfer portal additions and prized freshman recruits should allow Rhoades to have more options and versatility offensively.
Swiss seven-footer Yanic Neiderhauser is a much different center than Wahab. While Wahab did all his damage as a back-to-the-basket bruiser, Neiderhauser brings a unique blend of low-post functionality, high-post passing prowess and a splash of outside shooting capability– a skill set that should unlock a new component to Rhoades' uptempo system.
"We'll probably spread five out more," Rhoades said. "We'll still have a post presence, but we could play through the post because we have a post player like Yanic that can pass and can catch the ball away from the basket and face up and be different and be comfortable with it.
"I just think you put the defense on their heels sometimes when you go five out and you bring a big guy away from the basket and he's uncomfortable. It messes up help defense. It messes up rim protection. So, we'll just play differently that way, but we'll play through our big guys because I think they're talented."
Former Penn State great and Rhoades' offensive coordinator Joe Crispin doubled down on Rhoades' outlook on Neiderhauser's potential impact this season, citing basketball's trending toward playing through big men that operate well away from the basket.
"It changes everything," Crispin said. "One of the biggest common denominators of great offensive teams are bigs who can play on the perimeter, even if they're not shooting the ball all the time, just a comfort level moving the ball, moving guys with cuts, the two-man game and all different things. When bigs can move the game on the perimeter, it just opens up so much more space. Now, (Neiderhauser) also can shoot, so if he can hit a few jumpers every now and again, it'll make the lives of the guards way easier."
In addition to Neiderhauser, the additions of Freddie Dilione, Eli Rice as well as freshmen Jahvin Carter, Miles Goodman and Dominick Stewart add to the potency of Rhoades playing a more spread offensive style.
Dilione and Rice are both big wings that can attack downhill, while Carter and Stewart are knockdown shooters that can keep the ball moving on offense. Goodman, at 6-foot-11, can finish plays above the rim– opening up vertical spacing as a lob threat whenever he's on the floor.
Rhoades also added 6-foot-8 forward Kachi Nzeh from the portal, an energetic and versatile post player with a knack for offensive rebounding during his time at Xavier.
Crispin acknowledges that the offense looked quite capable more times than not against Big Ten competition in the second half of the season.
The key, Crispin said, is to improve at the things the team was already good at while becoming more dynamic and faster-paced overall.
"After we really started evaluating things, we just want to be better at the things we're already doing," Crispin said. "We felt like, especially with our returning guys, their numbers in the second half of the year were significantly better. Between the first half, they were figuring out the flow we wanted to play, the pace and even for Ace, it was different. We're playing at a faster pace than he was at VCU, and you can see he settled in that second part of the year.
"A lot of the things that we were doing were pretty dynamic. We were trying to stay away from sets and playing slow. We wanted to get into really dynamic actions and create more possessions and more tempo, so we can get better at the things we already do and get the new guys on board quickly."
