Temple Trip/Idle Speculation Open Thread

Well ladies and gents, the day is here.  Where are we going?

Well, it looks like Scenario One won out.  To refresh your memory, these were the projections last week:

MNC: Texas vs. Florida/Alabama

Rose: Oregon vs. Ohio State

Fiesta: Iowa/Penn State vs. Cincinatti

Orange: Georgia Tech/Clemson vs. TCU

Sugar: Alabama/Florida vs. Boise St.

Obviously the only / left is Penn State/Iowa.  Every other team is pretty much locked in, however, at this late hour there is some speculation remaining as to where.  Boise, TCU, and Cincinnati are all moving pieces, and though it's been looking like Fiesta or bust for the second Big 10 team, that tide may have turned...

Brad Edwards, ESPN's BCS "expert," has matched Boise with TCU in the Fiesta, and puts the second Big 10 team (Iowa in his opinion) in the Orange Bowl.  The good news is it may NOT be Fiesta or bust for the Nits, the bad news is that this expert still has us trailing the Hawkeyes. 

ESPNU's Tom Luginbill projected a similiar scenario last night as well, only he picked Penn State to play in the Orange Bowl over Iowa.  Not sure how much stock I'd put in that guy since he is on the U, and has mostly been known as a recruiting guy, but clearly Edwards isn't the only one who thinks the fat lady has yet to sing on a Boise-Iowa Fiesta Bowl.

At this point, I'll be honest, I don't really care what happens.  I think no matter what, we've got a chance to finish strong, and all of the potential opponents are intriguing.  I'm just interested to see how it will all play out.  Feel free to use this thread to talk about things as the day goes along, and check back for updates as we go.

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Onto some more news.  Since the game wasn't on TV, and since many of you were probably too bust with Pitt's epic choke job anyway, allow me to fill you in on the goings on in Philly yesterday.

I was in attendance with Nittany Nation.  Temple was kind enough to give us these seats:

O I'm sorry, were you looking for a picture?  Unfortunately, you're just going to have to imagine peanut heaven at the Liacouras Center because SBN has apparantly come down with the dreaded "Red X Virus" and won't let me post pictures in the comments, or in this post.

Anywho, to the game...

-We lost the game on the offensive boards, plain and simple.  We shot a better percentage than the Owls from the field and the free throw line, but simply gave them too many second chances.  We took 43 shots, they took 60.  We lost by three.  They beat us on the offensive glass 14-4, so...that tells the tale.

-It's easy to look at the crappy percentages and low point total and say "golly jeepers we suck", but I didn't leave feeling like that.  We didn't shoot our first free throw until there were about 10 minutes left in the game, so that definitely didn't help.  And this game was by far the best defensive performance of the year (though there were still a couple complete meltdowns).  It'd be easy to go nuclear over this one, but to be honest, this is way down on my list of embarassing losses.

-The sky isn't falling...yet.  Though 5-3 isn't exactly awe inspiring, it's only a game and a half off where we were last season at this point.  We're going into a 4 game homestand that I think will tell us a lot about this team.  If they can get out of it 4-0 or 3-1, I'll be feeling pretty confident heading into Big 10 play considering all the roster turnover we've had to deal with.  Are we an NCAA team?  Probably not, but another deep NIT run isn't out of the question with this group, so stick with things.  It ain't over yet.