No One Said The Bandwagon Was Comfortable
by KevinHD on Feb 6, 2009 12:09 PM EST
in Basketball
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PrintJust because you are fair-weather doesn't mean you aren't committed.
Last night was ugly, yes, but the context police are here to make sure you remember this isn't your older brothers Penn State basketball team.
Most of us are born and raised football fans, so a momentum killing loss instills a kind of hopelessness we know all too well. It's a different game, though, and there are things to remember.
- Basketball teams, even the good ones, lose all the time. The NCAA version is a resume sport if there ever was one, and those in charge are light-years ahead of football in that they have the perspective to look at a team's entire body of work. In football we like to take the latest win or loss and completely blow it out of proportion; we don't have to play that spin game in basketball because of the much larger sample size.
- The tournament is a big place. Okay, not that big, but it's not like we are trying to cram 119 teams into just 2 spots. The Big Ten has shown itself to be a very good and very well rounded conference. Sagarin has the group ranked #2 nationally, and the Big Ten is still looking to land at least 5, maybe 7 NCAA Tournament births.
- Basketball has built in redemption. Penn State is in the middle of a nasty stretch of games. They will play @Purdue, @Illinois and @Ohio State before the month ends. However, Pomeroy think the team has at least a 43% chance of beating Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, Iowa and Illinois (the home game). As challenging as the other games are, they present great opportunity to add to the resume. Then, after all of that, just a couple of wins in the Big Ten tournament can help wash away any bad marks from the regular season.
- Peaks and valleys are probably better than the alternative. Last weekend Penn State took down Michigan State on the road and proved they can compete at a high level. Losing to Michigan is a downer, yes, but 1-1 the way this team did it is more impressive than the other way around.
So you see, they aren't out of it yet:
It looks like we can put to rest any ideas of Penn State contending for the Big Ten title, but the Nittany Lions are still in great shape for their first NCAA Tournament bid since the 2000-01 Sweet 16 season. Penn State hosts Wisconsin on Sunday in a game that both teams really need as we head down the homestretch.
Besides having a shot at the tournament, Penn State is threatening to sell out the Jordan Center on Sunday; and no, there isn't a monster truck rally scheduled this weekend.
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doesn't that
have to do with preparations in beijing last summer for the games?
World F#$king Champions
I just love how the platform attendants
actively push people on the train, whereas here in the US it would be the complete opposite (they’d probably kick you off if you tried shoving your way on like that). Safe and comfortable!
obviously
you’ve never tried to hit the orange line metro station in rosslyn at 530.
its every person for themselves.
World F#$king Champions
and the platform workers actively jam people on?
by The JuggerNitt on Feb 6, 2009 4:18 PM EST up reply actions
The platform workers
in DC sleep in the booth and yell at people who try to bring bikes in the train. There are plenty of pricks down here to push people on there is no need to pay people to do it.
BSD
send an application to Eric Shrive
“No freshman and no lockers make Eric a bored lineman!”
Welcome to the 117th dust-up between the Snortin' Swine of Springfield A&M and the Springfield University Nittany Tide!
Listen,
your older brother (or maybe young uncle)’s team visited the dance a few times while he was in school/grad school/early in his career – and while it wasn’t uber glamorous – I’ll bet he rode the booster bus up to MSG to watch them in the NIT.
Fear not!
This is just what I’d expect from this PSU squad. It’ll be a disaster from here on out, but I think they’ll do just enough to get into the NCAA tournament.
by Cairo on Feb 6, 2009 1:34 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
Now that is some sweet photoshop work!
We just needed a couple players, a couple people to buy in to the fact and we were able to do it. --A.Q. Shipley
by psu on Feb 6, 2009 4:00 PM EST up reply actions
WE SUCK AGAIN.
It’s true, the win at MSU will do much more for us than the loss at UM will hurt. This is still a very exciting team, and an exciting time for PSU hoops.
Really, the issue last night was that Michigan harrassed our guards into awful nights. Pringle was 3-13. Battle was 3-16, 1-9 on 3’s. But hey, Will Leiner scored his first three points of the season.
The big dance has been, and remains, a longshot for this team. With that awful OOC schedule, there’s just no room for error from now on.
--
Mr. Bob Dobalina
by Run Up The Score on Feb 6, 2009 1:39 PM EST reply actions
Agreed. . .
With the media suggesting preseason that as many as TEN Big East teams might slip into the tourney this year, there is very little room for a team that stumbles down the stretch ala struggle train. Even if Penn State maintains as a 5/6 spot in the Big Ten, they’re going to have to make some noise in Indy in March.
It’s not that last night killed their chances, its that their chances weren’t that great to begin with.
big east
10 big east teams are NOT going to make the tourney this year.. you got 7 locks:
1 uconn
2 louisville
3 marquette
4 pitt
5 cuse
6 nova
7 wvu
with gtown and nd firmly on the bubble, and nd’s is ready to burst any day now.. barring a 2008 georgia-esque run by some crap team in the tournament, this conference is getting 9 at best, most likely 8
we still got a shot, but that OOC is gonna kill our RPI.. so it all depends on if the committee is gonna be a bunch of RPI whores or not
WFC
The NCAA selection committee always forgets we have 16 teams
… I don’t see why you should remember. I mean, knocking a team for finishing 8th or 9th in the Big East is crazy. If the Big East is the best conference in college basketball — and I think it is (though as an Orange fan I may be a bit biased) — then getting more than half of its teams in the tournament should be expected. That’s what happens when the ACC or Pac 10 or Big 12 or Big Ten is the best conference in basketball.
yeah, but the Big East is ugly
and no one likes inviting the ugly girls to the dance
by The JuggerNitt on Feb 7, 2009 12:43 PM EST up reply actions
The Big East has a lot of strength at the top, but I don’t think it’s the best conference overall. The bottom teams in the Big East are considerably worse than the bottom teams in the ACC or Big Ten (aside from Indiana). Going by Sagarin’s rankings, the bottom five in the Big East are worse than Iowa. When nearly a third of your conference would finish 11th out of 12 if they were added to the Big Ten, it’s a little harder to take the conference as a whole seriously.
The knock usually isn’t that they “finished 8th or 9th” – it’s that the teams that finish there usually did it by beating up on the weak teams in conference and don’t have anything special in non-conference play. Notre Dame, for instance, has just two good wins all year and their best road win is … DePaul, who is nearly Indiana-level awful. Nine of their 12 wins have come against teams outside Pomeroy’s top 100, six against teams ranked worse than #280. Cincy might be creeping their way in after beating G-town today, but they don’t have a whole lot for quality wins either.
Finally, conferences don’t get bids. Teams do. A couple years back, the ACC got only four bids despite being the best conference – because they had four NCAA-level teams and seven more who were NIT high-seeds. “Best” conference doesn’t necessarily mean more top teams.
weak OCC schedule
hmmm…that sounds familiar…
"I was looking for four things. Honesty, loyalty, trustworthiness and a man of character. Joe Paterno has all of that." - Derrick Williams
by Stately NOVA Lion on Feb 6, 2009 2:12 PM EST reply actions
Yeah that is a big difference
Maybe Ed figured, we have to get to the NIT this year so I am going to schedule that crappiest teams I can find so we have a winning record and an NIT bid. I am not being sarcastic, I think it may have bit him in the ass in the end though. Of course I could be wrong on all accounts.
We just needed a couple players, a couple people to buy in to the fact and we were able to do it. --A.Q. Shipley
by psu on Feb 6, 2009 4:02 PM EST up reply actions
Wisdonm
Peaks and valleys are probably better than the alternative. Last weekend Penn State took down Michigan State on the road and proved they can compete at a high level. Losing to Michigan is a downer, yes, but 1-1 the way this team did it is more impressive than the other way around.
I don’t know if anyone remembers my post from a couple of weeks ago after we lost to MSU at Bryce Jordan, but I said we needed a 9-4 finish to make the tournament. Since then, we’re 4-1. I classified Iowa and Indiana must wins, and @MSU, @Purdue, and @ Illinois as probable losses. The rest of the games were where we were going to make our move. As Mike said, trading the MSU win for a win in Ann Arbor was perfectly fine with me. We were +1 in my tournament forecast, and now we’re simply even again. I think we need 5 more. The IU, Iowa, and Wisconsin games are must wins, and we need two from home games against Illinois and Minnesota, and road games against Purdue, Ohio St., and Illinois. That simple.
God Created the World Out Of Nothing, Paterno Built A National Superpower On Cow Fields...
Here's to hoping
That if we presumably don’t finish in the top 3 of the Big Ten, we finish 6th. If so, we play the 11 seed (Indiana) in the first round of the Big Ten tourney, and then take our whacks against the 3 seed. If we finish 4th or 5th, we play the opposite (vice versa) and then would get the 1 seed. Last year, Ohio State was on the bubble and finished 5th in the conference, and was ousted in the first round, which got them a NIT berth. Had they finished 6th, they would have got to beat up on the 11 seed and a had a shot to beat the 3 seed for a Tourney berth. Funny how the Big Ten tourney is set up.
Not sure that would help. Beating Indiana is not exactly a resume-builder. You’d probably be better off in the 4-5 game (probably win-and-in) than playing Indiana in a game which would help you very little (but absolutely kill you if you lost) followed by the 3 seed on no rest. Beating the 3 would probably not help you any more than beating the 4 would, nor would losing to the 4 hurt more – so you might as well get the game that’s on full rest against a slightly weaker team and not have the nothing-to-gain, everything-to-lose game against an Indiana team that knows its next loss will end its season.
Are we
Rooting for or against Michigan in this game against UCONN?
Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.
I was wondering the same thing.
In football we would have to be mildly ok with scUM winning. I mean we would still be throwing up inside, but at least it would help our cause. With what I hear about basketball selections being a resume game I think we want scUM to lose. We don’t want them to have beating the #1 team on the road on their resume. But I know nothing about basketball so I could just be making that all up.
Onward to the Rose Bowl...Again!!!!!
Trapped in the SF Bay area.....nothing like kickoff at 9 am.
It's all about the RPI
You want your opponents to win. And then you want your opponent’s opponents to win.
It’s not like football where you want to be in the top two to make the national championship. Or the top 12 to make a BCS game. You just want to be in the top 40 or so to make the tournament.
And since it’s not a conference game it doesn’t matter in the Big Ten standings.
Mike
Black Shoe Diaries
by BSD on Feb 8, 2009 9:28 AM EST up reply actions
i disagree
Lunardi had Michigan on the outside looking in. There is only a set number of bids, so if Michigan won this game then they would definitely be in because of 3 quality wins that no other teams would have. They still have a fairly tough Big 10 schedule and very well may not make the tournament. I think them losing does help us because our RPI and SOS will rise favorably after playing Wisconsin (36) tOSU (26) and Illinois (18). Keep rooting against Gtown and ND, and also everyone in the SEC except for Florida, LSU, and South Carolina so that becomes a 3 or 4 bid league.
I hear ya
Not used to being in the hunt…. it’s been so long
Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.
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