As if Penn State has not had enough struggles on the road this season, they may have to play a Big Ten road game on Wednesday night without its leading scorer. [autotag]Kanye Clary[/autotag], who was injured in Penn State’s weekend loss to Minnesota, is day-to-day with an undisclosed injury according to Penn State men’s basketball head coach [autotag]Mike Rhoades[/autotag].
Rhoades updated the status of Clary during his regularly scheduled press conference on Monday. In addition to an update on the status of Clary, Rhoades also announced [autotag]Nick Kern Jr.[/autotag] should be available for Penn State’s road game at Rutgers on Wednesday evening.
“Kanye is day-to-day, we’ll leave it at that,” Rhoades said. “And Nick will be available, so we’ll go from there.”
Both players were banged up in Saturday evening’s home game against Minnesota, leaving their status for Wednesday night’s road game in some doubt. Judging by his comments on Monday, Rhoades is far more confident in having Kern available than Clary. If Clary is unable to be on the court, that will likely mean D’Marco Dunn will get a chance to get in the starting lineup for the Nittany Lions.
With Kanye Clary's status up in the air for Wednesday, D'Marco Dunn could step into a starting role. Rhoades said getting him back in rhythm will be crucial:
"If we can get a more consistent D'Marco, we're a better team"
— Joe Tuman (@JTuman21) January 29, 2024
Clary leads Penn State with an average of 18.1 points per game. Dunn has appeared in all 20 games played by Penn State this season, and he is averaging 6.7 ppg in 16.4 minutes per game.
Kern has been averaging 23.6 minutes per game and 8.1 ppg with 4.3 rebounds per game. Kern is also averaging 1.1 steals per game, which is the second-highest average behind only Ace Baldwin Jr. and his 2.8 steals per game.
Penn State is still searching for its first road win this season when they travel to New Jersey to face the Scarlet Knights. Penn State is 0-4 on the road in Big Ten play and just 1-8 in games played away from the Bryce Jordan Center. Penn State’s only win outside of Happy Valley came against Michigan in Philadelphia earlier this month. The game is classified as a home game, but that has been the only win for the Nittany Lions outside of central PA this season.
Rutgers is 10-9 this season but is just 2-6 in Big Ten play (Penn State is 3-6 in conference play).
Penn State and Rutgers are scheduled to tipoff at 8:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Jan. 31 on Big Ten Network from Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, NJ.
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