Notre Dame Preps for Penn St. Tomorrow Night in NIT Final Four

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are in the NIT’s Finals Four, set to play Penn State for the chance to get to the NIT’s title game.  Penn State is somewhat of a football rival to the Irish, but on the basketball court they don’t meet as much because they’re in different conferences. Penn State and Notre Dame did not play each other this season.

For many of Notre Dame’s games this season, we’ve done game previews by looking up the competition at KenPom.com, an invaluable basketball stats resource for college hoops junkies. The Domers are set to play a tough team, but the Nittany Lions do have some weaknesses. Here are a few.

Penn State has an above-average offense which has done well because they take care of the ball, shoot high percentage shots and get up and down the floor well. However, the Irish are much better at shooting from the outside, and the Lions can’t hit a free throw to save their lives.

Defensively, Penn State struggles to create turnovers, and is one of the worst teams in college basketball at getting blocks. The Lions do, however, keep other teams off the offensive glass, and they’re wise with their fouls.

Penn State has major wins this year against Georgia Tech, Purdue, Michigan State, and Illinois. They beat George Mason, Rhode Island and Florida to get to this point in the NIT.

To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Posted in General on March 30, 2009

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