ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Penn State coach Patrick Chambers would have been thrilled to win his Big Ten debut. Instead, he tried to find the positives in an 18-point loss.
The Nittany Lions never led after the first 4 minutes before trailing by as many as 22 in a 71-53 loss to No. 18 Michigan on Thursday.
"I was very happy that we came in here and were as competitive as we were," Chambers said. "Michigan is a very good team, and they are ranked for a reason."
Even when things went right for Penn State - they held Tim Hardaway Jr. to 1-of-7 shooting from 3-point range - it didn't do the Nittany Lions much good. Hardaway hit 10 of his 11 shots from inside the arc, nearly all on layups or dunks, and scored 26 points for the Wolverines.
"He's a great player and he's always going to be tough to stop," Chambers said. "The problem with playing Michigan is that if you try to stop Hardaway, Zack Novak can hurt you, or Evan Smotrycz or Trey Burke. There's just a lot of depth over there."
Michigan coach John Beilein thought Hardaway learned an important lesson from the game.
"I told Tim that I loved his game tonight, because he goes 1 for 7 on 3s and still finishes with 26 points," Beilein said of his sophomore guard. "A year ago, he wouldn't have finished with that many points, because he wouldn't have been able to make those adjustments."
Freshman point guard Trey Burke added 13 points and seven assists. Not only was he making his conference debut, it was against Penn State, where he originally committed before switching to Michigan.
"I knew it was going to be a more physical game, because everyone had told me that's what the Big Ten is about," he said. "It wasn't weird playing against Penn State, though. I know some of their guys, but that's it."
Tim Frazier had 20 points and four assists for Penn State (8-6, 0-1), but the rest of the team combined for just two assists and eight turnovers. The Nittany Lions have dropped four of their last six.
"There are a lot of things that we need to do better," Chambers said. "We didn't handle their defense the way we needed to do it."
PENN ST. (8-6): Oliver 1-3 0-0 3, Glover 0-2 0-2 0, Marshall 3-4 1-1 9, Frazier 8-18 4-6 20, Woodyard 2-6 2-2 7, Lewis 3-9 0-0 6, Borovnjak 3-4 0-0 6, Graham 1-3 0-1 2, Travis 0-4 0-0 0. Totals 21-53 7-12 53.
MICHIGAN (11-2): Smotrycz 3-7 2-2 10, Morgan 1-4 0-0 2, Novak 3-6 0-0 7, Burke 3-10 7-7 13, Hardaway Jr. 11-18 3-4 26, Douglass 2-6 1-2 7, Vogrich 2-2 0-0 6, McLimans 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-53 13-15 71.
Halftime-Michigan 36-22. 3-Point Goals-Penn St. 4-15 (Marshall 2-2, Woodyard 1-2, Oliver 1-3, Glover 0-1, Travis 0-2, Frazier 0-2, Lewis 0-3), Michigan 8-25 (Vogrich 2-2, Smotrycz 2-4, Douglass 2-6, Novak 1-3, Hardaway Jr. 1-7, Burke 0-3). Fouled Out-None. Rebounds-Penn St. 32 (Graham 6), Michigan 32 (Smotrycz 10). Assists-Penn St. 6 (Frazier 4), Michigan 15 (Burke 7). Total Fouls-Penn St. 17, Michigan 13. A-12,751.
