Hoops: Ferry prioritizes rest as Lions prepare for improved Nebraska team
Penn State interim head coach Jim Ferry has been said a few times recently that he feels his Nittany Lions have a run in them.
It's time to find out if he's right.
Penn State begins postseason play Wednesday in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament against 14th-seeded Nebraska. Tip-off is slated for approximately 9 p.m following the conclusion of Minnesota and Northwestern.
"We've stayed present all year, and it's one day at a time, one game at a time," Ferry said Tuesday. "In tournament situations, it's survive and advance. You've got to play well that night. So our focus is only on Nebraska, who's actually been playing really good basketball down the stretch."
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The Nittany Lions come into Wednesday winners of two straight and three of their last four, riding the high of a 16-point comeback victory on the road against Maryland.
Nebraska, considered for much of the season by many as a noncompetitive outlier in a loaded Big Ten conference, finished with three conference wins. They earned two of those wins in their final four games, blowing out Rutgers and very nearly beating Northwestern in the final game of their regular season.
Penn State split its season series with the Cornhuskers, falling 62-61 at home before grabbing an 86-83 win on the road.
Teddy Allen scored 41 points in that game in Lincoln, proving practically unguardable as he shot 16-24 from the field. Far and away Nebraska's leading scorer this season with 16.4 points per game, Allen abruptly left the program with three games to go in the regular season and will not participate Wednesday night.
Still, Ferry feels the Huskers are dangerous.
"Teddy's a real talented basketball player, real gifted kid with the ball," Ferry said. "Their offense has been playing so much better now that he's not there. The ball just moves. It's not sticking. They've become much harder to defend. They're flying around the place. They've had some wins. They're still a good team, even without Teddy."
Ferry said he's taken a measured approach to preparation for this week in an attempt to conserve the energy of his players.
The Nittany Lions returned from their Maryland trip very early Monday morning and needed to come to the facility for COVID-19 testing, but other than that they were given the day off to recuperate.
Tuesday, they practiced only for 45 minutes, spending about 35 of those minutes actually getting up and down the court.
"Jamari [Wheeler] is yelling at me, 'Come on coach, let us go. Let us go,'" Ferry said with a laugh. "I'm like, 'No. We're only going up and down for this amount of time. I have some experience with this. I know what I'm doing. Let's keep it a little bit shorter today so we have some juice.'"
Only the seniors among this group have ever won a game in the Big Ten Tournament. Last season, the Nittany Lions never got to play their scheduled game with Indiana due to the coronavirus shutdown. In 2019, they lost in the first round to Minnesota in overtime.
A run to the semifinals in 2018 at Madison Square Garden was Penn State's last taste of Big Ten Tournament victory, highlighted by a last-second, go-ahead dunk by Josh Reaves against Ohio State.
Ferry is optimistic that the brand of basketball he's tried to play with this group of Nittany Lions can bring more postseason success this year.
"I think it's good," Ferry said. "We're a high-paced team coming at you, and we're going to be aggressive on both ends of the floor. That's what you have to be. Obviously you're not going to change anything this time of year. It still comes down to defending and rebounding."
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