The Daily Collegian Lions could incorporate high-tempo offense Ed DeChellis (left) and Jeff Brooks during practice on media day. Borovnjak disappointed to miss 2010-11 season By Alex Angert COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER Exactly two weeks ago, Sasa Borovnjak sat in his room all night not knowing what was going to happen. After falling down during one on-one closeouts at Penn State men’s basketball practice earlier that evening, the Serbian native suddenly found his 2010-11 season in jeopardy with a knee injury. Too late at that point to take an MRI, Borovnjak was forced to wait until the morning to find out he'd miss the entire season, as the pain in his leg suddenly paled in com parison to the pain of uncertainty. “It was a weird feeling,” he said in his thick accent. “Because it was night practice, I had to wait until morning to get the MRI and X-rays. I felt like so sad. I was just in my room sitting down for hours thinking about everything. I could n't believe it happened right before the season." leers’ offense spreads the scoring wealth around By Anthony Barton COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER Glancing at the points leaders for the No. 4 Penn State leers, six players average at least one point per game during their 5-0 start to the season. tK As far as the leers are concerned, the point dis tribution is just business as usual. "Our scoring has always been spread out," senior forward Marek Polidor said. “Which is good because when you face teams, it's hard for them to con centrate on just one player or one line because we have so many threats that can contribute." Last season's leading scorer, senior forward Tim O’Brien, fin ished with 45 points, putting him modestly tied for 55th place in the ACHA. While that might not seem like a lot for the leading scorer of a top -10 team, the leers had seven play ers with 30 or more points and an eighth with 29. This season, O'Brien, junior for- Tyler Sizemore.'CoMegian With Borovnjak anxiously wait ing to find out the extent of his injury, everyone from his team mates to his family tried to tell him everything would be OK “ You will be good, you will be good.' " he recalled people telling him. “I just started cheering myself up and telling mvself I'll be OK" But he wasn't. After getting tests done the next day. the X-ravs came back with the worst possible news. "The next morning after the MRI and X-rays, they said it was my | anterior cruciate ligament I ACL and I'd have to get surgery and I'd be out for the season." the 6-foot-9 sophomore forward said. “I was so disappointed but I need to keep my head up and do the best I can." Originally thinking the injury was to his medial collateral liga ment. Borovnjak said he hurt him self on defense on a play when his opponent drove to the middle. ward Chris Cerutti and sopho more forwards George Saad and Eric Steinour all lead the team with seven points in five games. Following them are sophomore defenseman Rich O'Brien with five points in five games, and senior forward Chris Pronchik, who has four points in four games. Balboni Assistant coach Josh Hand said one of the main questions coming into this season was who was going to carry the scoring load. With the scoring being spread throughout the team, he said it's definitely an advantage. "When opposing coaches are matching lines, I the balanced scoringl makes it hard to do,' Hand said. "When coaches look at our top scorers and they see that we've got a bunch, they can't necessarily match a line with a scoring line because we have lines on the ice LOC A L By Emily Kaplan COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER When sophomore forward Sasa Borovnjak went down with a sea son-ending knee injury earlier this month, it meant more to the Penn State men’s bas- ========= ketball team than just one less MEN S option for the BASKETBALL frontcourt. The loss of the big man a 6-foot-9, 235-pound Serbia native may have also stressed the necessity to perfect an up-tempo offensive emphasis. “We have always had a very ath letic team that can run and get buckets in transition,” senior for ward Jeff Brooks said. “That is something we will have to harp on this year with the loss of Sasa." Without Boronvjak, Penn State has only five players on its roster who stand taller than 6-foot-7. That includes chronic headache victim Billy Oliver, who redshirted the last two seasons because of his condition, and freshman Jonathan Graham, a three-star recruit by Scout.com and the No. 40 power forward in the country. After the other player spun back, Borovnjak started going the other way before suddenly feeling a pop and falling to the floor in excruciating pain. Following a night of waiting, the tests the next day didn't come back in Penn State's favor, with Borovnjak set for surgery on Nov. 1 and leaving the Lions with a gaping hole in its frontcourt. But on a team returning 75 per cent of its scoring and 67 percent of its rebounding, the sophomore big man and his 1.8 points and 1.1 rebounds per game last year wouldn't seem to be too big a loss. However, the loss of his size the second tallest player after Drew Jones now forces coach Ed DeChellis to make changes. "There are times without Sasa [Borovnjak] that we'll have to play a different style of lineup,” the coach said. “Maybe with two for wards instead of a natural center.” Senior Steve Kirkpatrick added that although the team is bummed at all times that can score." Head coach Scott Balboni said the team's philosophies are what drive the balanced scoring. By spreading the talent evenly over four lines, players are kept fresh, while their opponents never get a break. "When you have enough depth to be able to do that, then we can not only wear other teams down but we can wear on other team’s weaknesses," Balboni said. Balboni said the players leading the team in scoring this season were, for the most part, expected to do so. Saad leading the team with five goals, including an overtime win ner over Central Oklahoma last Friday, has been a pleasant sur prise for the leers thus far. Balboni said. "I would say that only because he got hurt last year and didn't play." Balboni said. "I didn't know how he was going to come back. Obviously going into this weekend and being one of the leading scor ers on the team is a good place to be.” At Monday’s media day, coach Ed DeChellis and several players hinted that the Lions are looking to implement a faster transition offense this season. “I’m not sure where Coach is going, but we might be playing a lot more guards this year,” fresh man Taran Buie said. “Just ath leticism and quickness at the guard position will open up a lot for the rest of the team.” Buie, a four-star recruit who played last season at State College Area High School, would be one of those guards. The other would be Talor Battle Buie’s half-brother who was the only BCS conference player to lead his team in total points, rebounds, assists and steals in 2009-10. Guards Tim Frazier, a sopho more who logged 18.4 minutes per game last year, junior Cam Woodyard and freshman Tre Bowman could also fit into the equation. DeChellis himself isn't set on a lineup yet. The Lions began official prac tices last Friday, and the coach is still working on evaluating his squad. out Borovnjak went down, a lot of other guys have been stepping up. With players like Ohio State's 6- foot-9 Jared Sullinger. Illinois's 7- foot-1 Mike Tisdale and Purdue's 6-foot-10 JaJuan Johnson expect ed to lead their teams in the Big Ten this year, it’s going to be essential for the Lions to replace Borovnjak’s height. Expected to be the first big man off the bench this season, the sophomore said he had been working hard to earn more min utes and play a much bigger role on this year’s team. Instead, he now has to watch his teammates from the bench with his crutches and motorized scoot er as he stares down eight months of rehabilitation to get back to 100 percent. “It’s really tough," he said. “I’m disappointed and a little bit down because of my leg. I had a great summer and great preseason.” To e-mail reporter: adal47@psu.edu Even with the leers' scoring success so far, it may only get bet ter in the coming weeks. Junior forward Nick Seravalli and sopho more forward Dominic Morrone. who tied for fourth on the team last year with 35 points, are still recovering from injuries. Morrone came back last week end and scored a goal before suf fering a groin injury. He is listed as questionable for games this week end against the No. 2 Ohio Bobcats. Seravalli is recovering from full groin-reconstructive surgery in THURSDAYS BEST tsSIPHI in Town) ' Thursday, Oct. 21, 2010 I 9 “I can’t say this guy is going to be a five man, a four man we might play a little differently,” DeChellis said. “[The loss of Boronvjak] forced our hand a little bit. We wanted to [play] up-tempo, we wanted to try to press a little more so this will allow us to play a different kind of lineup.” Brooks doesn’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing. In fact, the 6-foot-8 forward one of five sen iors on Penn State’s roster said he’s actually more comfortable with an up-tempo offense that stresses taking quick shots and pushing the ball. On Sunday, the Lions tried out the press at practice for the first time, and Brooks liked what we saw. “We have been working hard a lot on transition offense." Brooks said. "We have new break endings, but a lot of stuff we have right now is coming off transition, which is good for the kind of team we have now." “That is definitely something we want to utilize." To e-mail reporter: exkso49@psu.edu Tyler Sizemore/Collegian Borovnjak walks on crutches the offseason and is set to return in 2-3 weeks. O'Brien said if he had to choose, he would much rather have a bal anced team than one or two guys carrying the scoring load. "It's never going to hurt to have five or six guys at the end of the year with 40-plus points when in comparison other teams only have two or three," O'Brien said. "I just think that the more guys we have closer to the top. the better it will be for us." To e-mail reporter: acbsls2@psu.edu THE PAPER PLATE, . \.% ' \ \ » * * 1 \ \ ov i i 1 Oelpje'N ORDER FOOD ONLINE AT PSOCOLLEGIAN.COM
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