Expectations play a strange role in sports. They can separate similar teams or mean that a coach can keep his job for another season. Tonight's Wisconsin-Penn State game pits two teams against each other who have gone different ways with regards to their preseason expectations.
The Wisconsin Badgers began the season with a top-10 ranking and have improved on that putting themselves in position to possibly get a No.1 seed in the NCAA tournament. The Nittany Lions of Penn State were expected to make a big jump from last season in a weak Big Ten but have struggled to a 10-13 record and now languish in the cellar of the conference.
Penn State's woes have come mostly from their zone defenses, which have had trouble against Big Ten competition. The Lions' opponents are shooting nearly 50 percent from the field and scoring over 70 points per contest. Both those figures rank as worst in the conference.
The Badgers will most likely use a smaller lineup against Penn State since the Lions have only two players taller than 6'5' in their rotation. This means more playing time for sophomore forwards Marcus Landry and Joe Krabbenhoft.
These teams have already met once this year, and the Badgers survived a slow start, winning 71-58. One of the big factors for Wisconsin was junior guard Michael Flowers who scored 12 points on 4-5 shooting and had season highs with seven rebounds and six assists. The game was also important for sophomore forward Kevin Gullikson, who logged his most minutes since Nov. 25.
Penn State's offense is led by junior Geary Claxton, who registered a double-double in the game against Wisconsin, and Jamelle Cornley, who won Big Ten Freshman of the Year last season. The one area that the Lions really excel in is offensive rebounding where they are the best in the Big Ten, pulling down over 12 per game.
Coach Ed DeChellis is in his fourth year at Happy Valley and is trying to turn around a program that has not had a winning record since 2001. Last season was the first since then in which Penn State had more than nine wins, but this season it appears that they are taking a step back.
Through most of the Big Ten season, opponents had seen the main weakness of the Badgers as their 3-point shooting. That was before the Badgers played Northwestern in early February when Wisconsin hit seven of their 15 3-point shots. In each of the two games after that, Wisconsin also shot at least 40 percent from beyond the arc, a feat they had only done once in the nine games before they hosted Northwestern.
Penn State has already fallen below their expectations, but a win in Madison would raise them for next season and give hope to DeChellis' struggling program. Wisconsin, on the other hand, could win tonight but still has a long way to go in meeting the lofty expectations placed on them.
