After we beat Michigan State, I thought we had something.  I thought we would be that team that nobody sees coming.  I didn’t just think we deserved to make the NCAA tournament, I thought we could win a few games.  Obviously, I thought wrong.  I used to think this team was a good one, now I see that we’re a team that can get lucky and hit a few shots and maybe steal a game here and there.

After that Michigan State win, we’ve seen two brutal, uninspired performances that the team should be ashamed of.  I’ve written over the past week that this team deserves our respect, that we ought to get to that Bryce Jordan Center, sell it out, and prove that we’re not just a football school.  How does the team respond to the biggest crowd in years?  With a pitiful excuse for a performance that may have just burst the bubble on any tournament chances we had.  We’re now 17-7, with a 6-5 conference record that doesn’t impress anyone.

As Talor Battle goes, so goes this team.  Some people might say that’s the mark of a leader, but I say it’s the mark of a poor team.  When Talor Battle had a remarkable game against the Spartans, his 29 points led the team to a phenomenal upset, but in the past two games he’s 7 of 31 from the field.  That’s under 23% from the field.  I honestly believe that if you suited me up and put me at the point, that I couldn’t do much worse. Talor knows he’s the best player on this team, and I absolutely love the fact that he’s going to keep on shooting when he’s down.  But if he’s really the Big Ten MVP, he’ll lead his team to victory even when he’s not scoring.  2 assists and 5 rebounds are not what we need from Battle.  He was knocked a few times, and he’s definitely a little banged up.  I really wonder if the wear and tear of the Big Ten season is starting to wear him down.

But nobody on this team picked up for him.  It was easily the worst shooting day I’ve ever seen any basketball team have; 0-14 from 3 point range, and just 37% from the field.  One good note, the team actually shot 71% from the line.  But the chances were few and far between.  You know you’re not going to win when you put up 44 points, and when a team that lives and dies with the outside shot can’t buy a 3 for their lives, they’re going to fall right on their swords.  As Shakespeare would have it, this team was hoist with their own pitards.  Wisconsin slowed this game down to a snail’s pace, and when you can’t run the court, you need to hit some shots.  44 points will not win you a game.

That’s not to say that there weren’t some very solid individual performances today.  David Jackson, who I had frankly given up on, had a really good game.  He made the most of his 22 minutes, adding 6 points on 2 jump shots and 2 free throws.  Most days, the 6 points we get from Jackson would be a big boon to our chances.  Today, he scored more points than Jamelle Cornley.  Andrew Jones also had a solid day, chipping in 9 points with 3 field goals and 3-4 from the line.  Stanley Pringle had 11 points to lead the Nittany Lions on 4 of 10 shooting, which is what we need from him on a regular basis.  But when Talor Battle has his struggles, and Cornley isn’t getting too many chances, we’re not going to win, no matter how well the rest of the team plays.

I hate to dwell on it, but the officiating in the Big Ten is just awful.  It wasn’t Ed Hightower today, it was three other guys who seemed to conspire against us at every opportunity.  I know that this stuff tends to ebb and flow from game to game, but we just couldn’t buy a break at all from the zebras today.  The refereeing in all sports seems to be really down this year, but that doesn’t make it any more acceptable.

I know that I tend to be bipolar when it comes to my sports teams.  After every big win, my highs are huge.  But after a loss like this one, I just plunge into a valley of despair.  Don’t get me wrong, this is a horrible, backbreaking loss, but it’s probably not as bad as I made it seem.  At least I hope it’s not.  But I want to apologize if you went to game today and wasted two hours of a beautiful Sunday afternoon, because this is not the Nittany Lion basketball team I thought we had.  I do want to thank everyone else who came out.  We had a phenomenal crowd there today.  At every opportunity, we tried to get into it, tried to pump this team up.  We students even got the season ticket holders to stand up and make some noise.  This team just didn’t give us too many chances to scream and shout and cheer.

If we’re going to make the NCAA tournament, it’s going take some major upsets down the stretch.  Penn State  has got to step it up or else we don’t stand a shot against the Illinoises, Minnesotas, or Ohio States of the world that we play over the rest of the Big Ten schedule.  We need to somehow pick up at least 4 wins down the stretch to have a chance at the dance, and I don’t see how we do it.  We’ll probably end up in the NIT; an improvement over the past few years, but a major dissapointment compared to what our expectations were.

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