Well, on the heels of one of the best wins in program history (and yes, a difficult loss), it seems that Penn State fans have responded to the challenge.  According to an article in today’s Daily Collegian, it appears the Bryce Jordan Center’s infamous black curtains may be retired, at least for one Sunday.

…remaining tickets for the Wisconsin game are only available in sections 203, 206, 208, 209 and sections 219-225 — in other words, the curtains have got to go.

Think this means a lot to the players, especially the seniors, who’ve suffered through seasons of anonymity and mediocrity?

“It’s gonna mean everything to me,” Cornley said. “When I first came here on my visit in fall of 2005, I came into the gym and looked around the arena and thought, ‘This is a lot of seats.’ “

A lot of seats that have remained empty.  Penn State ranks 10th in the Big Ten in attendance for conference games, with a pathetic 8,228 per game. That’s worse than any school but Northwestern, and over 3000 people less than the 9th-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes.  For a school that shoves 110,000 people into Beaver Stadium 7 times a year, this is nothing short of a travesty.  For all the students who complain about missing out on football tickets, here’s your chance to cheer on the White and Blue, and guess what, you’re failing.  Only for a handful of games have students had to sit anywhere other than courtside, and yet still maybe a tenth of the student population comes out.  Come on, guys, you’re giving us a bad name.  It really is fun, I promise!

Sports information director Brian Siegrist said about 8,500 tickets were sold as of Tuesday afternoon, not including student season ticket holders. Plus, most students tend to buy a ticket at the gate, he said.

So we have more tickets pre-sold, not counting student season ticket holders, than we usually get for a game.  If there are a couple thousand students with season tickets, we’re still falling pretty short of the 15,261 tickets necessary to sell out the Bryce Jordan Center.  Fellow students, you gotta show up for this one.  If not now, when?

Sunday’s game against the Badgers provides another opportunity for Cornley besides playing in front of a packed house. In his four years, Wisconsin is one of three Big Ten schools Cornley has not beaten.

Like I’ve said here before, we owe it to this team to come out for them.  If you’re student or local fan, come on out.  It’s not too expensive, it’s not too long, just take a couple hours out of your day to root on Penn State’s other team.  PSU sports don’t disappear from January to August.  It’s our duty to make sure that the world knows that Penn State isn’t a football school.  If we want this to be the rule, and not the exception, if we want to come to expect competitive games against anyone, and for a tournament berth every year, we need to make sure that the school knows we want it.  If we want big time recruits to come here, we need to prove that this isn’t a dead zone of college basketball.  If we want the team to know how much we care, we need to show up on Sunday.  No excuses.

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