Michigan Wolverines Basketball (11-6, 2-4 Big Ten) plays host to the Penn State Nittany Lions (13-5, 3-4 Big Ten) Wednesday night. The Wolverines are back home following a two-game road trip, in which they lost both games, at Minnesota and at Iowa. The Wolverines are comfortable in the friendly confines of Crisler, having won all but one game there this season. U-M junior forward Isaiah Livers' status remains in question. He's missed the last five games with a strained groin, and is still 'day-to-day.'

Penn State enters the game coming off of a bounce back win over Ohio State over the weekend. The Nittany Lions are 0-3 on the road in Big Ten play. Penn State leads the Big Ten with 6.1 blocks per game, and touts the league's top shot blocker, Mike Watkins, who blocks 3.1 shots per game.

We caught up with Nate Bauer of Blue White Illustrated to get some more insight on the Nittany Lions.

The Basics

Date: Wednesday, Jan. 22

Time: 7 p.m. ET

Venue: Crisler Center (Ann Arbor, Mich.)

TV: Big Ten Network

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vs. Maryland Eastern Shore (W, 84-46)

vs. Wagner (W, 91-64)

at Georgetown (W, 81-66)

vs. Bucknell (W, 98-70)

vs. Yale (W, 58-56)

vs. Ole Miss (L, 74-72)

vs. Syracuse (W, 85-64)

vs. Wake Forest (W, 76-54)

at Ohio State (W, 106-74

vs. Maryland (W, 76-69)

vs. Alabama (W, 73-71)

vs. Central Connecticut State (W, 87-58)

vs. Cornell (W, 90-59)

vs. Iowa (W, 89-86)

at Rutgers (L, 61-72)

vs. Wisconsin (L, 58-49)

at Minnesota (L, 75-69)

vs. Ohio State (W, 90-76)

#5 - Junior guard Jamari Wheeler (6-1, 170) — Wheeler averages 3.7 points, 2.7 assists and 2.7 rebounds per game, while shooting 52.0 percent from the field and 35.7 percent on threes.

#0 - Sophomore guard Myreon Jones (6-3, 175) — Jones is the team's second-leading scorer at 14.2 points per game. He also posts 2.9 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. He shoots 44.8 percent from the field and 39.8 percent from three.

#1 - Freshman forward Seth Lundy (6-6, 219) — He's projected to start his third game of the season Wednesday. Lundy averages 4.6 points and 2.2 rebounds per game, while shooting 43.3 percent from the field and 42.9 percent from long range.

#11 - Senior forward Lamar Stevens (6-8, 225) — Stevens leads the Nittany Lions in scoring with 16.6 points per game (fourth in the Big Ten). He adds 6.9 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game. Stevens shoots 45.9 percent from the field and 25.5 percent from three.

#21 - Junior forward John Harrar (6-9, 240) — He's projected to make his third-straight start. Harrar averages 2.8 points and 3.6 rebounds per game. He shoots 62.1 percent from the field.

Off The Bench

#2 - Sophomore guard Myles Dread (6-4, 215) — He's come off the bench the last two games after starting the first 16. He is averaging 7.4 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game in 23.9 minutes. Dread shoots 30.5 percent from the floor and 28.7 percent from long range.

#12 - Junior guard Izaiah Brockington (6-4, 200) — Brockington plays 22.4 minutes per game, and averages 10.1 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.0 assists per contest. He shoots 46.5 percent from the field and 22.2 percent from three.

#24 - Redshirt senior forward Mike Watkins (6-9, 257) — Watkins was replaced in the starting lineup, and has come off the bench the last two games. He averages 10.1 points and 8.1 rebounds per game, while shooting 52.8 percent from the floor. He averages 3.1 blocks per game, which leads the Big Ten.

#4 - Redshirt senior guard Curtis Jones Jr. (6-4, 180) — Averages 18.5 minutes per game, and posts 6.8 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists per contest. He shoots 35.7 percent from the floor and 30.5 percent on three-pointers.

U-M junior guard Eli Brooks is coming off a career-high 25-point performance in which he shot 5-for-11 from three at Iowa. At Tuesday's press conference, head coach Juwan Howard was raving about Brook, especially what he brings to U-M's defense. He'll need to be sound tonight when going against Jones.

Jones, PSU's second-leading scorer, is fresh off 20 points in a win over OSU. Jones plays some point guard, too, and will likely be matched up with U-M's senior point guard Zavier Simpson, at times.

Kenpom has predicted Michigan to beat Penn State, 76-71. The site gives the Wolverines a 66 percent chance to pull off the win.

"The contrast in style between the wins and losses has been striking, but it boils down to this: Teams that take away possessions and muck up the pace and flow of the game with defense and rebounding have thrown Penn State off," Bauer explained. "Ohio State in December was a track meet in which the Buckeyes just couldn’t miss a shot, but at Rutgers, Wisconsin, and Minnesota were games marked by vast disparities in rebounding and shooting percentages.

"Penn State wants to run the floor and score off its defense, which is generally outstanding, save for its rebounding component, which has been somewhere between problematic and disastrous for most of the season. Get up volume shots - take 25-30 threes and make 8-to-10 and push the scoring into the high 70s-80s and Penn State has emerged with wins in most of those games. In fact, Penn State didn’t crack 70 in any of the three most recent losses."

"It’s hard to say that the shots just aren’t falling on the road as opposed to at home because Penn State’s best shooting performance of the season - 18-30 from the floor and 5-10 from three - came in the first half at Minnesota last week," Bauer pointed out. "But the converse has also been true with long lulls without making shots in those games, including an 0-7 stretch at Rutgers and 0-13 in the second half at Minnesota.

"I don’t know that I’ve seen a dramatically difference for this team between home and road, but I think that what head coach Patrick Chambers said Monday at his press conference rings especially true in the league this year. Whether it’s officiating/free throw shooting disparities, or shooting percentages, or hustle plays, the reality is that you need to be 8-10 points better on the road than you are at home, and Penn State hasn’t had those types of performances in true road games outside of the thrashing it put to Georgetown.

"With just four true road games, though, Penn State has a win at Georgetown and second-half leads at Rutgers and Minnesota. But when the inevitable avalanche has come - both from other teams’ scoring as well as its own scoring droughts - Penn State just hasn’t responded well, and will need to if it wants to steal wins at any of its road venues in the Big Ten from here on out."

"Stevens has had an interesting year," Bauer said. "Without just relying on stats, which have been very consistent at 16.6 points and 6.9 rebounds, my general perception is that his midrange has been deadly. For everything he brought to the floor offensively in the past, he’s handling the best defender on the floor and still making a variety of shots at a variety of levels this year. No doubt, he’s a tough matchup. He’s still not really making 3-pointers, but I think his selection has improved as the year has progressed rather than forcing it quite as much as he had been earlier. He’s getting to the free throw line at almost double the rate of the next closest player on the team, though he’s also putting up more shots than anyone else, too. At 45.9 percent from the floor, though, you’re going to take that.

"The one thing that has followed him around this year, maybe more than I ever remember in past seasons, is foul trouble, especially in the Big Ten. He fouled out at Ohio State, had four against Maryland, four against Iowa, four at Rutgers, and four against Ohio State Saturday. And in some cases, they’re eating into his minutes.

"Especially on the road, he just has to be more cognizant of his fouls and, maybe more important, shaking off the ones he doesn’t think are justified."