Penn State Basketball: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly - Mississippi Edition

Penn State fell to 6-3 on the season Sunday night with an 72-70 loss against Mississippi at the Bryce Jordan Center. Today, we take a look at the good, the bad and the ugly of the Nittany Lions' effort as they prepare for host Lafayette on Wednesday night.

The Good

-Easily the biggest story of the night for Penn State was Sasa Borovnjak's big performance. The sophomore forward, still recovering from an ACL injury suffered last offseason, scored 15 points and grabbed four rebounds. He appears well on his way to full recovery, which is very important for a Penn State team lacking a big presence in the post.

-Coming off a career-high 22 points against Boston College last week, guard Jermaine Marshall followed up with a solid 10-point, seven-rebound night against the Rebels. He's quickly developing into the team's No. 2 option and if he continues growing at the pace he has, he could supplant Tim Frazier as Lions' go-to guy.

-Penn State outrebounded Ole Miss 34-30. That's especially impressive given that the Rebels are in the top 30 nationally in rebounding. If the Lions can keep that intensity on the glass going, it should keep them in a lot of games.

The Bad

-Penn State shot 12-for-19 from the free throw line and lost by two points. The Lions' free throw woes were doomed to come back and haunt them at some point, and it appears that happened sooner rather than later.

-Ole Miss shot a stellar 11-for-24 from deep against Penn State on Sunday despite entering the game shooting just 20.7 percent from the perimeter. Obviously, Penn State was trying to force the Rebels into making shots it had proven it couldn't through much of the season, and that's a solid strategy. Once Ole Miss started knocking down some shots, though, adjustments might have saved Penn State on this day.

-No player as inexperienced as Mississippi's Jarvis Summers should get loose for 27 points as Summers did on Wednesday night. He's no John Wall, and yet he dropped 27 points on the Lions, more that enough to help put Penn State away.

The Ugly

-Coach Patrick Chambers told reporters after the game on Sunday night that freshman forward Jonathan Graham has mono and is expected to miss at least the next two weeks.

-The Lions missed out on their last opportunity to pick up a top-100 RPI win in the non-conference schedule in losing to Mississippi.