No matter how you slice it, dice it, or look at it, Penn State just finished off a phenomenal season.

As I’ve detailed before, this was my first season of caring about Penn State basketball, and I’m so glad I did.  To be at the Garden Thursday, with more fans than we had for half the non-conference schedule, was the perfect way to culminate a near-perfect season.  To send off Stanley, Jamelle, and Danny as champions was the best possible way for our seniors to end their careers.

Now the Garden was just rocking.  Being from New York, I’ve been to MSG  more than a dozen times.  I’ve seen the Knicks play, the Rangers play, a handful of concerts, WWE events, you name it.  I was there for the 1999 NBA Finals, part of a packed house.  But I’ve never felt the place actually shake.  There were maybe 11,000 people there, probably about 3/4 Penn State fans, but it was as loud as Beaver Stadium during a White Out.  It was truly inspiring.

Now, as great as it was for our seniors to leave as winners (and for Cornley to win the MVP of the NIT, as the true leader of this team, brought tears to his eyes), the lasting impact of the NIT will probably be how it prepared our underclassmen.  Guys like David Jackson, Andrew Jones, Jeff Brooks, and Chris Babb all showed up big-time in the tournament, and it gives you hope moving forward.

DJ had two double-digit point totals in the NIT, continuing a strong late-season run that included double digit games in both Big Ten tournament games.  I killed him early in the season because he deserved criticism.  He had zero confidence, couldn’t hit an open shot, tried to do too much, and frankly, just looked awful.  But against Notre Dame, I saw a player who was hustling his ass off, something Jackson always did, along with great defense and even developed a jump shot.  He was getting open underneath and hitting his layups.

Andrew Jones absolutely came alive in this tournament.  Against Rhode Island he set career highs with 14 points and 10 rebounds, two games later he built on that with a 16 point, 15 rebound performance against Notre Dame.  He still has hands of absolute stone, but now he’s developed a nice little midrange jumper along with the decision to start going up strong when he gets the ball in the low post, which at the very least will send him to the line.  And honestly, I think he might well be our best free throw shooter.  In the NIT, he hit 16/19 from the line, that’s 84%.  He’s still a little thin, but we saw him be strong enough to muscle Luke Harangody out of the paint and force him to take tougher shots than he wanted to.  He really does start to look like he’s putting it all together, and will be a big piece of the Penn State puzzle over the next couple years.

Jeff Brooks continues to be an enigma, but he showed spurts of starting to tap in to his almost infinite potential.  He had a monster game against George Mason with 13 points off utilizing a nice array of low post moves.  But over the rest of the tournament he dissapeared, scoring no more than 6 points in any game.  But what I saw against Baylor on Thursday was more impressive than him scoring in double digits.  He hustled after lost balls, he got back in transition and even blocked a couple shots.  He’s such a phenomenal athlete, if he wants to play defense then he absolutely can become a shutdown defender.  What’s frustrating is Brooks’s insistence on shooting up 3′s, of which he hit just 2 of 9 in the NIT.  He, more than anyone else, needs to realize the Penn State Hoops motto of “Take it Inside.”

Chris Babb had two real nice games to start off the tournament in the BJC, going off for 11 and 13 in the first two games, respectively.  Only problem was, he only had a total of two points in the other three games.  I blame that one squarely on DeChellis.  He’s got to give Babb more playing time, because Babb is going to need to be a big part of the team next year.  We’ve seen him as an effective third option, playing more or less the same role as Morrissey, just staying in the corner and drilling threes.  He can also play defense, but without Stanley and Jamelle to take the defense’s attention, Babb will have to develop a nice off-the-dribble game.

After Penn State won, Talor Battle tossed the ball high up into the air, and ran over to give Cornley a hug.  Cornley, with his eyes misting up, said one of the most inspirational things I’ve ever heard.  You could hear him say, “We’ve got to keep it going, we’ve got to keep it going.  I’m holding you accountable.”

For whatever reason, I don’t think Battle will let Cornley down.  We’re losing a lot, not just in terms of points, rebounds, and steals, but in leadership, in experience, and in guts.  But if I know anything about Talor Battle, it’s that he’s every bit the competitor.  He needs to have the ball in his hands with the game on the line.  Well, Talor, the ball is going to be in your hands all year, for the next two years.  Don’t let Mel down.  Don’t let us down, as fans.

We’ve come a long way, from William & Mary to now.  Maybe someday, it’ll be a Final Four not in the NIT, but in the NCAA.  And when we look back to how that started, we’ll look back on you, Mel, and the rest of this team.  I’m proud to have been a fan, to be there when it started.

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