Tag: Puff Johnson

Best photos from the Penn State 2023-24 men’s basketball season

Let’s take a look back at some of the best photos we gathered from throughout the men’s basketball season.

Penn State came into the 2023-24 season with a new head coach and a reworked roster, but the goal remained the same; to make it back to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. That goal ultimately was unfulfilled as Penn State went through a challenging year without much luck on the road or on a neutral court, and the first season under new head coach Mike Rhoades has come to a close.

But the season was not without its bright spots and moments worth cherishing and remembering moving into the offseason. It was unexpected Penn State would have much success this year given the circumstances, but the work is already being done to build a program that will be more competitive in the years to come with more frequent trips to the NCAA postseason hopefully on the horizon. But before we look ahead, let’s take a few moments to look back.

Here is a look back at some of the best photos we gathered from this past men’s basketball season.

Penn State seniors surge past Maryland in regular-season finale (photos)

Check out the best photos from Penn State basketball’s regular-season finale and senior night victory over Maryland.

Penn State honored its seniors on the basketball court on Sunday night and the seniors led the way to a home win against Maryland with a massive second-half effort. Penn State led Maryland by four points at halftime but pulled away in the second half as the regular season came to a close with a 49-37 scoring advantage in the second half of an 85-69 victory over the Terrapins.

Penn State’s seniors combined for 65 points in the win powered by a double-double from [autotag]Qudus Wahab[/autotag] (19 points, 15 rebounds) and [autotag]Ace Baldwin Jr.[/autotag] (17 points, 11 assists). [autotag]RayQuawndis Mitchell[/autotag] (14 points), [autotag]Puff Johnson[/autotag] (13 points), and [autotag]Nick Kern Jr.[/autotag] (10 points) all scored in double figures for the Nittany Lions.

This marked the seventh straight home win for Penn State over Maryland. Now both teams will be heading off to the Big Ten men’s basketball tournament this week in Minnesota, with each being paired up in a first-round matchup.

Next up for Penn State is a first-round matchup in the Big Ten conference tournament against Michigan on Wednesday, March 13. A win will set up a second-round matchup with Indiana. Maryland will face Rutgers in the first round with the winner set to face Wisconsin in the second round.

Here are some of the best photos from the regular-season finale against Maryland.

Penn State vs Maryland men’s basketball: How to watch on TV and live stream on Sunday

Penn State looks for a win in their final home game of the season

Penn State men’s basketball is looking to avoid limping into the Big Ten Tournament after dropping their last two games. The Nittany Lions welcome in the Maryland Terrapins on Sunday evening, hoping to keep hold of the Big Ten Tournament’s No. 11 seed and possibly move up a seed line if other games fall Penn State’s way.

Maryland sits right behind Penn State in conference standings, making the matchup that much more impactful.

It is senior night in Happy Valley, and the Nittany Lions will honor seven seniors, including players like [autotag]Ace Baldwin Jr.[/autotag], [autotag]Qudas Wuhab[/autotag], and [autotag]Puff Johnson[/autotag].

Baldwin Jr. looks like the frontrunner for Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. He leads the Big Ten and ranks fourth in the country in steals (83) and fifth in the country in steals per game (2.77). His 2.77 steals per game rank second amongst Power Six conference players and track to be the most by a Big Ten player in a single season in the last 31 years (since 1993 – Pat Baldwin (Northwestern) 2.96 steals per game).

Baldwin Jr.’s defensive matchup this evening will be Maryland star guard Jahmir Young, who leads the Terps, scoring 20.9 points per game and 28 points in the two program’s matchup earlier this season.

A win would mark nine conference wins for the Nittany Lions under first-year head coach [autotag]Mike Rhoades[/autotag] and would give Penn State a much-needed boost entering the Big Ten Tournament.

Penn State vs. Maryland Men’s Basketball

  • Date: Sunday, March 10
  • Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
  • Channel: Big Ten Network
  • Live Stream: fuboTV (watch here)

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Best photos as Penn State basketball tops Indiana in the Bryce Jordan Center

Take a look at some of the best photos as Penn State completed a regular-season sweep of Indiana.

Penn State continued to frustrate Indiana on the basketball court on Saturday with an 83-74 victory in the Bryce Jordan Center. The win was a pivotal one for the Nittany Lions as they continue to fight to improve their seeding situation in the upcoming Big Ten men’s basketball tournament. The win was fueled by a balanced scoring effort from the entire starting lineup and led by Ace Baldwin Jr.’s 23 points and solid defensive efforts.

Penn State has now won four consecutive games against the Hoosiers, which is pretty remarkable given the two histories between the two programs overall and in head-to-head meetings over the years. After taking an earlier road game in Bloomington, Penn State has its first sweep of the Hoosier sin a regular season since 2009.

Here are some of the best photos from Saturday’s latest win against the Hoosiers.

Hoosier daddy? Penn State continues winning ways against Indiana

Penn State basketball picked up another big home win with a victory over Indiana.

Maybe Penn State men’s basketball has one more run in them right before the end of the regular season. Days after pulling an upset of Illinois in Rec Hall, Penn State continued their winning ways at home on Saturday afternoon with an 83-74 victory over Indiana in the Bryce Jordan Center. [autotag]Ace Baldwin Jr.[/autotag] led the way with 23 points and 9 assists with four rebounds and four steals.

The two teams played a back-and-forth first half for the most part, but the Nittany Lions went on a timely 8-1 run to close out the first half and managed to keep Indiana at bay for the remainder of the afternoon. The visiting Hoosiers did pull to within two points in the second half but a [autotag]Zach Hicks[/autotag] three-pointer and a basket by [autotag]Puff Johnson[/autotag] gave Penn State some breathing room and allowed them to put the game in a comfortable spot the rest of the way.

Penn State got a balanced offensive outing from its starting lineup with each starter scoring in double figures. [autotag]Qudus Wahab[/autotag] had a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Penn State basketball has now found the upper hand against Indiana on the basketball court it would seem. Penn State has won four in a row and five of the past six meetings with the Hoosiers, including a Big Ten tournament matchup last season.

This marks the first time since 2009 that Penn State completed a regular season sweep of Indiana. It also helped move Penn State up into 8th place in the updated Big Ten standings. Along with Iowa losing to Illinois on Saturday, the Nittany Lions moved up a spot ahead of the Hawkeyes.

And that sets up Penn State’s next game, which will carry a little more weight in the Big Ten tournament seeding outlook down the final stretch. Penn State visits Iowa on Tuesday evening.

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Puff Johnson helps Penn State pull off massive upset with late steal, layup

Former UNC basketball player Puff Johnson, who now plays for Penn State, helped his new team to a massive upset win on Wednesday night.

Puff Johnson is one of those basketball players I really wish worked out for the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Puff, the younger brother of former UNC standout Cameron Johnson, only started two of the 65 games he played in Chapel Hill. Tar Heel fans got extended glimpses of Puff’s potential last year, but Hubert Davis’ failure to play his bench helped Puff decide to play at Penn State.

While we sometimes wish that former players could’ve stayed, we’re happy to see their success elsewhere.

During Wednesday’s game, Johnson got a late steal and converted on the layup to cut the Illinois lead to 2. It would also help setup a Nittany Lions’ 90-89 upset victory over ranked Illinois.

Puff finished his night with seven points, including a 3-of-3 mark on free throws.

For a Penn State (13-14, 7-9) squad that’s under .500 overall and in Big 10 play, this was a much-needed win. The Nittany Lions essentially need to win out, including the conference tournament, but this Quad 1 victory goes a long way towards that goal.

Puff has played significantly more minutes during his time in Happy Valley, starting 10 out of Penn State’s 23 games on the season. He’s scored in double-digits four times, with the most recent occurance coming on Jan. 20 against Ohio State.

Being a Pennsylvania native, I can imagine Puff is happy to be playing closer to home. I’m happy to see him succeed, as he provided our Tar Heels with rare, valuable depth it lacked last season.

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Penn State basketball can’t keep pace in loss at Nebraska (photos)

Penn State men’s basketball falls to two games under .500 after its latest road loss at Nebraska.

Penn State’s road woes on the basketball court continued to haunt them on Saturday afternoon in Lincoln, Nebraska. Penn State saw yet another loss on the road in Big Ten play as they came up short at Nebraska, 68-49. The loss dropped Penn State to two games under .500 with time running out in the regular season to string together any hope of playing in the NCAA tournament this season.

[autotag]Zach Hicks[/autotag] led the Nittany Lions with 13 points on a tough afternoon for the Penn State offense. [autotag]Ace Baldwin Jr.[/autotag] was the only other player to score in double figures for Penn State with 10 points. Penn State shot just 5-of-23 from three-point range and just 8-of-16 from the free point line.

Nebraska’s Keisei Tominaga led the Huskers with 17 points and hit timely shots to help stall any opportunity for momentum by Penn State. That included three three-pointers to help the Huskers pull away for the conference win.

Penn State will return home this week for a game against Illinois in Rec Hall on Wednesday.

Here are the best photos from Penn State’s loss at Nebraska on Saturday.

Penn State basketball drops home game to Michigan State (photos)

Penn State was unable to come from behind against Michigan State at home on Wednesday evening.

Things did not go according to plan for Penn State men’s basketball on Wednesday evening. In a season where Penn State has been far more successful at home, the Nittany Lions dug a big hole in the first half against Michigan State and was unable to pull off a comeback in an 80-72 loss in the Bryce Jordan Center.

Michigan State’s Malik Hall scored a career-high 29 points and Penn State had a rough night shooting the ball. Each time Penn State seemed to have a run in them in the second half, Michigan State had an answer to pull away. [autotag]Ace Baldwin Jr.[/autotag] and [autotag]Zach Hicks[/autotag] each scored 15 points for the Nittany Lions and [autotag]Nick Kern Jr.[/autotag] added 14 points.

Here are some of the best photos from the game.

Best photos from Penn State basketball’s road win at Rutgers

Check out the best photos from Penn State basketball’s first road win of the season from Wednesday night.

Penn State had been experiencing plenty of pain and suffering on the road this men’s college basketball season, but the Nittany Lions scrapped their way to a victory at Rutgers on Wednesday night. Penn State’s 61-46 victory at Rutgers was the first true road win of the season for the Nittany Lions. Prior to that, the only game Penn State had won away from State College was a matchup against Michigan in Philadelphia at The Palestra, where Penn State was officially playing a home-away-from-home game.

[autotag]Ace Baldwin Jr.[/autotag] rose to the occasion with 15 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds, and 5 forced turnovers. Penn State needed that effort as they were without leading scorer [autotag]Kanye Clary[/autotag] due to injury. The defense forced 20 turnovers by Rutgers and [autotag]D’Marco Dunn[/autotag] filled in for the injured Clary with a 14-point effort in a starting role. [autotag]Quduus Wahab[/autotag] had 11 rebounds on the night as Penn State took care of the basketball.

You can read more about Penn State’s road win in our recap post. Here are some of the best photos from the game.

Next up for Penn State is a tough road game this weekend at Indiana. Penn State visits the Hoosiers on Saturday, Feb. 3 for a noon eastern tipoff on FS1.

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Penn State faces its toughest test of the season against No. 1 Purdue

Penn State travels to take on top-ranked Purdue on Saturday

Depending on what type of Penn State basketball fan you are, you expected an 8-8 start to the season, or it’s a huge surprise. Mike Rhoades’s first season at the helm of the Nittany Lions has been underwhelming. Penn State will be looking for its first road win of the season when they face No. 1 Purdue for the first time since last year’s Big Ten Tournament Championship game.

The defense is the most alarming with a matchup against the top-ranked Boilermakers on Saturday, and it will be put through its most challenging test. Perhaps a reason for the lackluster defensive numbers is that Penn State’s roster is almost entirely new. The starting five, other than sophomore guard [autotag]Kanye Clary[/autotag], is spending their first year in Happy Valley.

The Nittany Lions are the 193rd-ranked scoring defense in the country and 11th worst in the Big Ten, giving up 72.2 points per game. Rhoades came to Penn State with a defense-first mentality, but that pedigree has yet to surface. Nine PSU opponents have scored more than 75 points, including a stretch of seven games, which ended with a 1-6 record.

Penn State faces the 19th-best scoring offense tomorrow in West Lafayette, so it’s in for a long afternoon if they can’t slow down Zach Edey’s high-scoring Boilermakers.

Offensively, the Nittany Lions are middle of the pack in the Big Ten, scoring on average 76.2 ppg. Kanye Clary leads the way with 18.8 ppg, while VCU transfer [autotag]Ace Baldwin Jr.[/autotag] averages 13.1. Perhaps North Carolina transfers [autotag]DeMarco Dunn[/autotag] or [autotag]Puff Johnson[/autotag] can get hot against Purdue, putting an upset on the table.

An upset of No. 1 Purdue would be a historic victory for Penn State’s basketball program. A win would mark the first time the Nittany Lions defeated the top-ranked team in the country and the first true road win of the [autotag]Mike Rhoades[/autotag] era. Penn State is 0-14 against the country’s top team, so getting that monkey off its back would be a massive moment for a program looking for a signature win.

Although the defense has been less than ideal, the Nittany Lions, led by Baldwin Jr., know how to take the ball away from their opposition. Penn State has forced its opponents into 16.8 turnovers per game, leading the Big Ten and ranking 114th in that nation. If they can force Purdue into 17-plus turnovers, they’ll have a chance to pull off the upset.

Tipoff for tomorrow’s matchup against the Boilermakers is set for 2:15 pm from Mackey Arena and will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network.

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