Michigan’s Dusty May didn’t take long to speak about problems Penn State is dealing with, and frankly, he put them a lot better than I would’ve or most fans would.
Following the Nittany Lions’ 110-69 loss to Michigan, May spoke about Penn State’s performance, but he also acknowledged the injuries the Nittany Lions are dealing with and the specific matchup problems that happened because of them.
“Obviously, they're injury depleted,” May said, per 247. “[Ivan Jurić] had his way with us up there. We were looking for the challenge to see if we could do a better job on him because he's strong, he punishes switches, he made a couple of threes against us.”
Ivan Juric not playing for Penn State certainly didn’t help but I doubt it would’ve changed much in a 40-plus point loss. Even with Penn State shorthanded, it played just as poorly as anyone could’ve imagined and it wouldn’t have been saved by any player being out there.
May said that limiting perimeter makes was an emphasis entering the matchup, and that was clear as Penn State shot 2-20 from 3-point range.
However, the Nittany Lions didn’t get the type of clean looks from beyond the arc that most teams do, and May was happy about that.
“But even in the first half, when maybe they were 0 for whatever, six or seven at a timeout, I asked a couple of the staffers, I said, ‘Have they gotten any clean looks?’” May said. “I don't remember them getting a clean three point shot, except we overhelped. But then even on that one, Yax flew and contested the three.”
“So in my mind, they didn't generate clean three point looks,” he continued. “Now they did put their head down and get to the paint too frequently. But I do think we were disciplined and staying at home and eliminating good clean threes.”
While Penn State struggled to create anything from deep, it also wasn’t great in any other part of the game. This was yet another embarrassing loss in a season that’s been as bad as anyone could’ve imagined.