PHILADELPHIA – “Shooting Turnovers” is a term that La Salle head coach Darris Nichols uses to describe poor shot selection that although won’t make it on the stat sheet, counts just as much as the turnovers that do.
The Explorers logged 15 turnovers in Saturday’s 83-69 loss to Penn State at Xfinity Mobile Arena, but it was the early “shooting turnovers” during a 20-0 run by Penn State that put La Salle in too deep of a hole to climb out of.
“When the other team goes on a run, I feel like our guys are trying to fix it right away, and then that piles up on the regular turnovers,” said Nichols, whose Explorers fell to 2-2 on the season with the loss. “We had a lot of shooting turnovers, and I thought that was the difference in the game.”
Take a tough miss by Jerome Brewer Jr. at the end of the first half as an example. The redshirt junior drove and tried to finish a fadeaway floater over monstrous seven-foot Penn State freshman center Ivan Juric, and he fell to the ground after his misfire. The Nittany Lions then grabbed the rebound and quickly converted, as highly touted freshman Kayden Mingo finished a layup on the other end. Mingo finished with 14 points and a game-high seven assists.
It was play like the aforementioned one that added up over a game.
“When we played the right way, we cut into the lead,” Nichols said. “Then when guys tried to experiment through their own thing, the lead increased. It’s a teaching lesson for them, and film that we can show them. When we execute, when we do these things, we can score and have success.”
Penn State head coach Mike Rhoades’ teams have always been known to wreak havoc on opposing offenses, whether that be at Rice, VCU, or now in Happy Valley. The Nittany Lions did that in the first half by forcing nine La Salle turnovers, which helped jump start a 20-0 run in the middle portion of the first half. At the 13:30 mark, La Salle led 12-9. Fast forward a little over five minutes, and it was the Nittany Lions who held a 29-12 lead, thanks to a flurry of turnovers and points off of them. Penn State finished with 16 points off of 15 total turnovers from the Explorers.
“There’s a little bit of everything in that run,” Rhoades said. “I thought we had some deflections that led to steals and some easy baskets. I thought our defense led to some offense. We really shared the ball and got each other some good shots.”
As much as the “shooting turnovers” were a factor in the early scoring drought for La Salle, the regular turnovers were just as responsible. However, with 16 new players, and still in the infant stages of a season, turnovers are going to happen.
Throw in the fact that the Explorers are also without two projected major contributors at the guard spots, and Nichols doesn’t have the depth to play the rotation that he would like. Old Dominion transfer point guard Jaden Johnson has yet to suit up this season with a lingering injury. Radford transfer Truth Harris hasn’t played since sustaining a foot injury in the season opener. He provides shooting and ball handling that this Explorers team is thin at in his absence. More responsibility falls on players like Eric Acker and freshman Ashton Walker. Getting guys like Johnson and Harris back healthy will be helpful, but with all the newness on the roster, game reps will be their best teacher in cutting down on turnovers.
“A big thing too is getting some more handlers back healthy, so Ashton Walker and Eric Acker are getting worn down and picked up full court every game,” Nichols said. “Guys are getting used to playing with each other. You build that together in game situations. It’s different in practice, but you try to simulate what it can be.”
Although the Explorers could not get the Penn State lead to single digits in the second half, they took better care of the ball and shot better than they did in the first half. La Salle scored 40 points in the last 20 minutes. For the game, they were led by impressive Walker and Brewer Jr., who had 13 points apiece.
Walker bounced back from his two-point performance in a loss to Big 5 rival Temple earlier this week. The freshman finished with six assists to go with his 13 points. Nichols has been impressed with how he’s handled playing a starting role with the injuries to the team.
“It’s hard as a freshman, especially as a point guard,” Nichols said. “You have so many things being thrown at you. We’re dependent on him a lot right now due to a lot of injuries. I try to go back to when I was a freshman point guard and all the stuff I was going through. I’m pleased with him and how he’s handled the ball in certain situations.
Even though the La Salle offense improved in the second half, Penn State’s offense was hot and never cooled down enough to let the Explorers even crack the door open on a comeback. The Nittany Lions shot 58% for the game, and 50% (10-of-20) from three. It was the second straight game in which La Salle has allowed an opponent to shoot 50% or better from the field and from deep. Nichols addressed the team’s struggles guarding the perimeter.
“Sometimes we get into scramble situations in the scouting report detail of how we’re supposed to close out on certain guys,” he said. “You have to make a quick decision. A few times we ran guys off the line that we shouldn’t, and sometimes we would let shooters shoot who we were supposed to make bounce. We have to be better.”
However, Nichols likes to switch up defenses, and La Salle threw in some 1-3-1 zone in to try to slow down the Nittany Lions. He sees that as a bright spot that worked for them on a day that wasn’t great for them on that end.
“I thought our 1-3-1 made a positive impact on the game and threw a curveball at him,” he said. “I was pleased at how well we executed that on a short day of prep.”
It’s still very, very early in Nichols’ tenure at La Salle. There’s plenty to improve on, but definitely aspects to build on as well. In this era of college sports, especially in a coach’s first year at a new program, there’s a fair share of difficulties, one that Rhoades knows well himself. He went through the same experiences that Nichols is going through when he took over as the head coach at Penn State in March 2023.
“It’s difficult, but it’s what you sign up for, and it’s your choice of how you go about it,” Rhoades said. “[Nichols] is doing a great job. They play hard and play together. I noticed how coachable they were. There was no BS out there. He’s going to have success this year, but he’s going to have tough nights too. But you stick to your standards, stick to your core values, and stick to loving your kids. That’s how you build a program.”
La Salle’s next opponent is another Big-5 rival in Villanova, who makes their first trip to the newly renovated Glaser Arena, with another chance to build and grow in Nichols’s first year.
