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March 24, 2009

Penn State in the NIT Final Four!

Chomp chomp chomp! Penn State beat the top-seeded Florida Gators 71-62 tonight on the road in Gainesville to earn a trip to the NIT Final Four at Madison Square Garden in New York City next week! With NYC only being a four-hour drive from State College, I'll at least have to consider taking a little trip over there, especially if we make the final. I probably won't end up going, but hey, it's an intriguing possibility! And another bonus about tonight's game? Penn State was able to do something Ohio $tate hasn't been able to do -- beat Florida in athletics! Ba-dum-ching! In all seriousness though, this team has really been playing quite well lately. Jamelle Cornley was unstoppable tonight with his "robotic arm" (his shoulder and arm were heavily taped), scoring 23 pts and pulling down 12 boards, he was a monster inside tonight. I think the Nittany Lions are sure proving that they were good enough to get into the NCAA Tournament, so while it's too bad they were snubbed, at least they're on a mission here in the NIT, and are now headed for the Big Apple!

WE ARE... PENN STATE!!

Posted by Jared at 11:31 PM | Comments (0)

March 21, 2009

Can't Spell Nittany Lions Without N-I-T

Disappointingly, Penn State was not invited to the 65-team NCAA Tournament last Sunday. As soon as Arizona popped up on the screen as a 12 seed in the first region that was revealed by CBS, I knew we were done. With all the upsets in conference tournaments that happened late in the week (Cleveland State winning the Horizon, Temple winning the Atlantic 10, Southern Cal winning the Pacific 10 and Mississippi State winning the SEC, in particular), this left only one or two bids for several bubble teams thought to be still in contention (Penn State, Arizona, Creighton, Saint Mary's, San Diego State, Florida). All of those teams had big flaws in their resumes. Penn State's? A completely lifeless non-conference schedule, with our best win being at home vs Mount Saint Mary's. Ugh. And our non-conference schedule turned out to be a very large pair of cement shoes. Personally, I thought Arizona had the weakest resume of those teams, by not even being above .500 in a so-so conference, not having any true road wins over RPI top 150 teams, and having finished the season having lost five of their last six games. I really thought that being 10-8 in the strongest conference, and having road wins at two RPI top 50 schools (Michigan State and Illinois) and home wins over four others (Illinois, Purdue, Minnesota & Michigan) was enough to keep us ahead of at least Arizona. But apparently not.

Boo. Hiss.

So Penn State was relegated to the 32-team NIT (National Invitation Tournament), as a 2-seed in the East region (Florida's the 1-seed in our region). Our first game was Tuesday night at home against the 7-seed George Mason Patriots. Yep, that George Mason, the team that made the NCAA Final Four two years ago. With it being only a four hour drive from Fairfax, Virginia, to State College, GMU brought up their cheer squad and pep band. It certainly made for a more festive, postseason atmosphere, having both bands and both cheer squads at the game. And I have to say, the George Mason band was excellent, probably the best pep band that I've ever heard at a basketball game. To be honest, they blew Penn State's Pride of the Lions Pep Band out of the water (and it's not like they're terrible or anything, but they're just not always quite together on rhythm or tuning). The GMU band was playing some very difficult, very fast songs, and they played them very well — they were very tight. Also, their band director exuded so much coolness, I'm not sure the BJC was big enough to contain it, haha.

As for the game itself, it was very entertaining, with numerous ties and lead changes, and with neither team ever being able to build a big lead. Penn State lost the services of senior forward Jamelle Cornley right after halftime because he re-injured his separated shoulder, but the rest of the team stepped up in his absence. In the last minute, GMU led 63-62, and PSU's Talor Battle had the ball, but he missed a shot with about 20 seconds left, which GMU rebounded. After getting fouled, they had to inbound, but had to call timeout because of defensive pressure. Then the GMU player walked along the baseline before inbounding, and so was called for traveling. Then PSU called timeout to set up a play, but when they tried to inbound, they had to call another timeout because of defensive pressure from GMU. Then Penn State finally was able to inbound the ball to Battle, who promptly fell and turned the ball over in the lane with just over 5 seconds left. PSU fouled, and GMU had to inbound, but again had to call timeout to avoid a 5-second call. (Finally both teams had exhausted all their timeouts at this point!) Penn State then fouled GMU immediately upon inbounding, sending the Patriots to the free throw line for a 1-and-1 with 4.8 seconds left at a 63-62 lead. I decided to take a video in case there were any late-game dramatics by Penn State. Here's what happened:

I don't think I could've been in a better spot to take that video! Battle has had a ton of highlight-reel plays and late-game dramatics this year, that's for sure! Talor Battle, who had been scoreless in the second half until that final shot, then opened the overtime session with back-to-back threes to give Penn State a six point lead. The Nittany Lions held off another run by GMU, and won the game 77-73 in OT, earning us an NIT 2nd Round date hosting 6-seed Rhode Island.

Early in the season Penn State lost to Rhode Island 77-72. One could argue that that single loss did more to keep PSU out of the NCAA Tournament than any of their other losses. Not only did we lose against one of the two best non-conference teams we played in an otherwise horrible slate (we also lost to Temple), but that loss meant that we played Towson in the next game, instead of Villanova. Even just replacing Towson with Villanova on our schedule, regardless of the outcome, would've done wonders for our RPI. In any case, the Nittany Lions were able to handle the Rams this time around, in a game of runs. Penn State jumped out to a 20-5 lead, then URI trimmed it to 20-17, before Penn State pulled out to a 42-29 halftime lead. The Rams trimmed the lead to three a couple of times, but then PSU ballooned the lead out again, en route to an 83-72 victory. Incredibly, Penn State shot 27-of-31 from the free throw line, good for a sizzling 87% (they only shot 65% as a team this season).

Now Penn State has advanced to the NIT quarterfinals, and will play at the 1-seed Florida Gators down in Gainesville on Tuesday night, with the winner earning a trip to the NIT semifinals in Madison Sqaure Garden in New York City. Let's go Lions!

As for the NCAA Tournament, my brackets didn't fare so well in the first round, as I went only 19-13. Not so good. My cousin Marci has been teasing me that I'm losing to her 6-year old daughter Megan, and then she said, "At least you're still ahead of Spencer and Madeleine. That's something, right?" (Spencer and Madeleine are my cousin Melissa's five- and three-year old kids). Simply put, my picks need to start performing the rest of the way, otherwise I'm at risk of losing to kids a quarter my age, haha. Several of my upset picks came up just a bit short (VCU over UCLA, Utah State over Marquette, North Dakota State over Kansas), and I totally missed several upsets that actually did happen (Cleveland State over Wake Forest, Arizona over Utah, Wisconsin over Florida State, Dayton over West Virginia). On the plus side, I'm the only one to have picked Memphis as champion in three of the four pools that I'm in, so if that happens, my poor performance in the first round won't matter. Also, I'm only down three of my Sweet 16 teams (Wake Forest, West Virginia, VCU), and just one of my Elite 8 teams (VCU — I know, that was perhaps a bit reckless of a Cinderella pick). Here are some key results I'm rooting for the rest of the way, other than Memphis winning it all: Purdue beating Connecticut & Gonzaga beating North Carolina in the Sweet Sixteen, and Michigan State, Oklahoma & Pittsburgh advancing to the Final Four. If some healthy combo of those results happen, I should be in decent shape!

I love March, it's quite possibly the most wonderful time of the year. :-)

Posted by Jared at 03:20 PM | Comments (0)

March 12, 2009

Battle Stations!

One week ago Penn State hosted #23 Illinois, in what was quite possibly the most-anticipated men's basketball game Penn State has hosted in maybe 30 years. Why was it so big? PSU has not made the NCAA Tournament since 2001, and was finally on the bubble. They had an opportunity to win at least 10 Big Ten games for only the second time in school history (PSU went 12-6 in conference play in 1995-96), and an opportunity to tie a school record with 21 wins in the regular season. It was the regular-season home finale in the best season Penn State has enjoyed in years and years. Also, it was a nationally televised game in prime-time on ESPN, which sure doesn't come to Happy Valley very often during basketball season. The game was on the night before the start of spring break, so in an effort to ensure good student attendance, they made it dollar dog night, they declared an arena-wide White Out, and also made all student tickets 2-for-1.

The fans responded. Advance ticket sales were brisk, with the line being 20 deep when Kent & I went down to the HUB to get a group of 10 tickets for the meteo grads (both when we arrived and when we left). Half of our group (me, Isaac, Kent, Walter & Bob) showed up at the BJC at 7pm (two hours before game time), and by the time they finally opened the arena doors at 8pm, there was quite a large line of students waiting to get in. I've never seen such a thing for a basketball game at Penn State!

Aside:
The Penn State Athletic Ticket Office had absolutely brilliant ideas of how to do crowd control once again. Not opening the doors until 1 hour before tipoff? And then just end up letting everyone go in a mad frenzy to get to the student section portal on the concourse, instead of scanning people's tickets in a sequential, orderly fashion? Seriously??
/Aside

The atmosphere before the game was electric, with nearly 7,000 students in attendance, all wearing white, and filling up the courtside section, the sections behind both baskets (finally Penn State did something right and decided to let people sit behind the basket opposite the band before game time!), and also a bunch in one end of the upper deck. The five of us who were in line earlier than the other five (Tom, Kyle, Raphael, Scott & Chris) were able to save seats for our whole group in the courtside student section, in rows 5 & 6, between the half-court line and the top of the three-point line (on the left side of half-court, if you were watching it on TV). Great seats! And as if the crowd needed to be any more jacked up for the game, the football team's starting quarterback Daryll Clark came out and got the crowd riled up right before tipoff with a pep talk!

As for the game itself, the crowd was rowdy throughout, even when Illinois built a lead of 10 points in the first half. The entire first half and in most of the second half, the Fighting Illini would make the most ridiculous rainbows of shots as the shot clock expired, it was depressing and amazing at the same time. It seemed that lady luck was not on our side. But the Nittany Lions battled back to trail only 34-32 at the break, and we even tied it at 34 coming out of halftime, before the Illini ballooned their lead right back out to 6-10 points for almost the entirety of the second half. Every time Penn State would put together a couple of baskets, Illinois would respond with another ridiculous shot to beat the shot clock. It was soooo annoying. And the refs were unmistakably pro-Illinois for most of the second half too, most notably in nearly back-to-back calls by wiping away a putback slam by Andrew Ott as "offensive goaltending" (we all thought it was a bad call in real time, and replay on the TV confirmed that it was, but the refs never reviewed it), and counting a basket by Illinois that was clearly released after the shot clock expired (blatantly obvious both in real time and on video replay, but again the refs never reviewed it -- both can be seen in the second video below). So that was a 4-point swing to the Illini right there. Normally, poor officiating only has an indirect effect on scoring, by players accumulating fouls and having to sit on the bench, or players being awarded free throw opportunities, but in this instance poor officiating in basketball had a very direct effect on scoring, with that 4-pt swing. But anyway, Illinois led 60-50 with a bit over 5 minutes left, and we were all thinking that PSU was starting to run out of time to make a run. At the 4-minute mark it was 63-55, and then suddenly Illinois went ice cold. Stanley Pringle hit a key three with a bit over a minute and a half remaining to cut it to 63-60, and then with the score 63-62 with under 30 seconds left, Penn State's Talor Battle forgot that he's not Magic Johnson, and drove in the lane and promptly fell and turned the ball over. Argh. The Illinois player was fouled with 7 seconds left, and went to the line to shoot the front end of a 1-and-1.

And then this happened:

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And here's a full recap of the game in HD:

Incredible! Pandemonium! That shot seemed like it was dancing around the rim forever before it finally fell in! In the videos above, I can point out where I was standing in the crowd when Battle made the shot, and actually pick out our whole group. And yes, I was in the massive group of students that rushed the court as well. :-) While I was out there I got to pat Jamelle Cornley on the shoulder and tell him "way to go" and "thank you," and after I came off the court I shook the hand of the ESPN play-by-play announcer for the game. I told him, "I hope you guys come back here more often!" He replied, "I think we will, this was an incredible atmosphere here tonight!" Hmm, I wonder when the last time *that* was said about a basketball game at Penn State?

That was certainly one of the most exciting basketball games I've ever been to! There were a couple MIAC Playoff and NCAA Tournament games that Gustavus was in that were extremely riveting from start to finish. (Gustavus especially had some epic clashes with Bethel, Macalaster and Saint Thomas in the MIAC Playoffs.) And I tell ya what, some of those D-III postseason basketball games were absolutely incredible, with crowds packing the gym to the rafters, with everyone on their feet, chanting and cheering as loud as they could the entire game. Those are the sorts of games that make me love sports, and especially college basketball (and the lack of that spirit and enthusiasm is largely why I strongly dislike the NBA). The atmosphere of D-III games made me really excited to come to Penn State and experience a Big Ten atmosphere, but boy was I disappointed by the utter lack of excitement, attendance or energy in my first three winters here. Things started to change a little bit late last year, and then this year during the Big Ten season, there were finally crowds in excess of 10,000 on a regular basis (even topping 15,000 against Indiana). The Illinois game a week ago was the first time in all the games I've been to at PSU since 2005-06 where the atmosphere for a basketball game at Penn State has even begun to rival the intensity of postseason basketball games at Gustavus when I was there. And that's really saying something.

Of course, Penn State had to follow up this incredible, emotional win vs Illinois with a double-overtime loss at Iowa, a team in 10th place in the Big Ten. I'm really developing a strong dislike for Iowa, after they ruined PSU's perfect football season last fall, and now possibly ruining PSU's shot at the NCAA Tournament. Fortunately though, almost every other bubble team around the country is losing, and today Penn State beat Indiana 66-51 in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, so the Nittany Lions' chances are actually pretty good for making their first NCAA Tournament since 2001, whether or not they beat Purdue tomorrow night in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals. If they can pull off the victory, they'll definitely be a lock, though!

Ahhh, how I love March and its madness!

Posted by Jared at 11:16 PM | Comments (0)