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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 March 21, 2009 03:20 PM