By Mike Esse, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY
PARK, Pa. - It all started in Europe with a preseason trip overseas and included a plane ride to the west coast for a tournament in
Northridge, Ca. and a flight to Miami, Fla.
On top
of that, the No. 11 Lady Lions played No. 2 Connecticut and No. 13
Texas A&M, both on the road, in a three week span. Through all of that, head
coach Coquese Washington and her team have benefited greatly from a tough road
non-conference slate that was completed after a 60-41 win over Virginia Tech."It is
going to help us tremendously," said Washington. "We have had to get better
quickly and focus on the fundamentals of our game. It has shown us the areas
that we are not quite as tight in and we have to (improve) before conference
play."
Granted
any team has a multitude of areas they can always improve on, but Washington
highlighted offensive execution and defensive consistency as the areas the road
tests have shown room for improvement in.
The Lady
Lions went 3-2 in their non-conference road games and 8-2 overall with two
games remaining before their Big Ten opener against Northwestern Jan. 3.
"Our
schedule was tough," said assistant coach Fred Chimel. "It wasn't easy. We
played a lot of NCAA (tournament) caliber teams and that's one thing we can
take and expand with."
Games
against a team like Connecticut, that is a favorite to make another Final Four
appearance, or an opponent like Miami (Fla.), that is climbing its way through
the Top 25, allows Penn State to learn from two tough road losses and apply
them to the hostile environments they will play in as the season progresses.
"It will
be a good thing for us later in the season," said guard Maggie Lucas. "You
could end up anywhere in the NCAA tournament and we will be prepared for that."
The
variety of styles the Lady Lions have faced on the gives them a unique
opportunity to have competed under a wide number of scenarios before the dog
days of February and March begin.
"All of
the teams we have seen gave us something different," said guard Dara Taylor.
"We have seen a lot of different defenses and offenses and I think it's really
going to help us in conference play and in the tournament."
For
Washington, she wants her team to get better as the season progresses, but would
like her team to reach a consistency level that they can establish and set as a
standard for the type of basketball they need to play to win game in and game out.
"In a
nutshell, what it comes down to is getting better as a team," said Washington. "When
we are playing good basketball we have to condition ourselves to make those
stretches longer so that we are controlling and dominating the game for the
majority of the game."
The Lady
Lions will host South Dakota State on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Bryce Jordan
Center and NJIT on Dec. 23 before the Big Ten opener on Jan. 3 against
Northwestern.
--NITTANY LIONS--
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