Penn St. can take advantage of short-handed ’Huskers

Though Nebraska and Penn State sit near the bottom of the Big Ten standings, it seems as if the Nittany Lions are starting to ascend while the Cornhuskers are looking to reinvigorate themselves.

Nebraska (5-10 in conference) enters this game (FS1, 7 p.m. ET) having won two straight, but failed to cover in eight straight games prior to its 59-50 win over Northwestern. Meanwhile, Penn State (2-12 in the Big Ten) has four straight covers with its last non-cover being a 99-90 overtime loss in which it was an eight-point underdog.

The first time these two tangoed, Nebraska got a 70-64 home win but, with Penn State a 10¹/2-point underdog, failed to cover.

In six games without forward Isaac Copeland, who is out for the season due to injury, Nebraska’s top scoring output is 64 points. In that time, the Cornhuskers are shooting 37.3 percent from the field and 25 percent from 3-point range. Penn State ranks 267th among Division 1 teams in offensive efficiency, but faces a Nebraska team that is allowing 0.2 points per possession more in games away from home than in Lincoln, one of the largest discrepancies in the country. In their last three games, the Nittany Lions are getting 10.7 steals per game, which ranks sixth in the country. With Nebraska turning the ball over only nine times per game in that stretch, something will have to give. In the first meeting, Nebraska turned the ball over just right times, but that was with a starting five that included Copeland playing 187 of a possible 200 minutes. Nebraska has not been the same since Copeland’s injury and Penn State is going to want to exact revenge on a wounded conference opponent. THE PLAY: Penn State -3. Greg Peterson handicaps college basketball in VSiN’s Point Spread Weekly. Sign up for a one-week free trial at vsin.com/free.