Tonight’s ACC-Big 10 Challenge matchup will provide Tony Bennett’s crew with a number of firsts. It’s the first national TV appearance for the ’09-’10 Cavaliers, the first game since Jamil Tucker has returned to the program, and (no offense to the Cancun Challenge) the first “big game” of the Bennett era.

Much like this season of The Office, our team has still been so uneven that it’s been impossible to figure out if they’re good. The good thing is that the inconsistency has come in the form of long shooting droughts and occasional defensive lapses and not in the disorganization and carelessness that plagued our Leitao teams. So far, Rider and Oral Roberts great out as solid performances, Longwood and Cleveland State as decent ones, and Stanford and South Florida as painful ones. What has differentiated the solid from the painful has been movement: both of the ball and of players off the ball. When Bennett’s offense slows down, it seems to devolve into two dribbles and a jumper – which is not the strength of anyone on this team.

About PSU:

Penn State comes in to Charlottesville at 4-2, with wins over Penn, Sacred Heart, Davidson and Robert Morris and losses to UNC Wilmington and Tulane. Most prognosticators have the Nittany Lions finishing toward the bottom of the Big 10, so it’s not inconceivable that we can win this game despite their shiny NIT hardware.

The Lions are led by 6’0” guard Talor Battle, who is scoring 18.2 points per contest and somehow leading the team in rebounding at 6.3 per game. Battle’s a gunner: his 82 shots are more than any two other Lion players, and so far he’s been off target: just .391 from the floor and .237 from deep. Forwards David Jackson and Jeff Brooks join Battle as double figure scorers at 11.2 and 10.3 points per game respectively.

As a team, Penn State takes a ton of threes: 124 in six games so far, with six of their top seven rotation guys being three point threats. They don’t turn it over much: just 10.7 per game, which becomes even more impressive when you factor in that their style of play generates the 19th most possessions in the country.

The Essentials:

1.) Stop Battle.
Talor Battle is the only real go-to guy on this Penn State team, and is the kind of unconscionable gunner who can take over a game when he’s hot and shoot his own team out of a game when he’s not. A key to stopping him is to put a quick guard with a height advantage on him, which sounds like an ideal job for Mustapha Farrakhan.

2.) Slow it up.
Our best possessions this season have featured at least three or four passes and at least one touch for Mike Scott in the post. This kind of deliberate offense has resulted in some wide open lanes to the basket and good, rhythm jumpers. If we try to up the tempo to keep up with PSU, we’ll be prone to a rash of quick jumpers and dumb turnovers.

3.) Guard the perimeter.
Opponents are shooting .400 from three this season so far – 44 of 110. This isn’t the result of just one huge game, either: the only teams to come in under 40% so far have been Longwood (who was close at .364) and Rider (who was awful). Penn State loves to take the three, and will beat us from there if we let them.

Loose Balls:

1.) Jamil Tucker has resumed practicing with the team, but will not be in uniform tonight. This means Will Sherrill has at least one more game before he has to pull a Tonya Harding on Jamil.

2.) The ‘Hoos are 3-0 at home and have appeared much more confident on offense at the JPJ: 80.0 ppg at home on 52.2% shooting, compared to 59 points per game on 41.3% shooting away from Charlottesville.

3.) All time, we’re 5-4 in the ACC-Big 10 Challenge, and 4-0 at home. Some memorable games from this series include the absolute demolition of Northwestern in 2006, the game against Michigan State in the Richmond Coliseum in 2001 that was cancelled due to ice on the court, and the last second loss at Purdue in 2007.

4.) The ‘Hoos are 17-17 against the eleven current members of the Big 10. This includes 5-2 against Penn State, though we haven’t played them since 1984.

5.) The Big 10 has to win ten straight Challenges in order for the ACC to no longer be their daddy.

This is the first game I’ll get to take in from my seat up in the upper level, having used my friend’s lowers for my first two JPJ games this year. I really don’t think Penn State is that good, and while we’re certainly not either, we take this game.