The Late Late Thread

by Run Up The Score on Mar 19, 2009 10:10 PM EDT in Basketball

Clearly, our Associated Press friend who covers practically all things Penn State, Genaro C. Armas, has been hitting the sauce. That's the only explanation for this jibberish:

"...The Nittany Lions, who shot 64 percent on the season from the line, went 27-of-31 (87 percent) to help them win consecutive postseason games for the first time since advancing to the NCAA regional semifinals in 2001."

As for upsets, a pair of 10 seeds (Michigan and Maryland) were victorious. Others fought valiantly, but fell short. Cal State Northridge was downright owning Memphis at times and American had a healthy double digit lead on Villanova in Philly -- but no universe shattering upsets yet.

More late night thread, on the house.

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A way to make the NIT more exciting

I know they would probably never do it, but I think that there would be a lot more excitement in the NIT if the winner won an automatic bid into next season’s NCAA tournament. Although it wouldn’t mean as much to the seniors, I think that it would definitely be an incentive to keep playing and to keep the games interesting. They could have some sort of rule that you have to have a winning record or sub-100 RPI the next season to keep the bid.

by mundyscorner99 on Mar 19, 2009 10:19 PM EDT reply actions

the only bad thing about that, how could you rank the winner of the NIT?

by xozte on Mar 19, 2009 10:21 PM EDT up reply actions

How about

Just let the NIT champion play the NCAA champion? Most likely a win for NCAA champion but most NIT champs are probably top 30 or so schools in the nation…. i think it would legitimize the arguement to expand that tourney.

by RitterPSU on Mar 19, 2009 10:22 PM EDT up reply actions

let's call it what it is

it’s not like it is the best 65 teams anyway. if it is ok to have teams lose by 50 points, like the teams that uconn and unc beat, then having an automatic qualifier from the NIT couldn’t be any worse. they could just rank the team just like any of the other auto qualifiers.

by mundyscorner99 on Mar 19, 2009 10:24 PM EDT up reply actions

What's the worst that can happen...

…by having what most consider to be a powerhouse play what most consider an inferior opponent?

Tee hee hee.

Just needed to get that out of my system.

by MainLion on Mar 19, 2009 10:24 PM EDT up reply actions

Lets face it

For a mediocre team like Penn State. The best case scenario is for the NCAA to just choose the 64 best teams….which i think we have a chance at qualifying for, especially with years like this one.

by RitterPSU on Mar 19, 2009 10:27 PM EDT up reply actions

mediocre?

24 wins, and after this weekend, one of 40 teams out of over 300 still playing? We’re good, not mediocre.

God Created the World Out Of Nothing, Paterno Built A National Superpower On Cow Fields...

by Adam Bittner on Mar 19, 2009 10:33 PM EDT up reply actions

If they had handled RI a couple of months ago, they'd have been in the bigger dance.

by PaJoe on Mar 19, 2009 10:42 PM EDT up reply actions

ouch

This is our most desperate hour. Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi; you're my only hope.

by psu on Mar 19, 2009 10:43 PM EDT up reply actions

Were good

But think about it…..we should have been in the NCAA and yet we ended up a 2 seed in the NIT….other people view us at mediocre.

by RitterPSU on Mar 19, 2009 10:43 PM EDT up reply actions

I don't think thats true

you’d be hard pressed to find a Big 10 fan that doesn’t think we’re pretty darn good.

God Created the World Out Of Nothing, Paterno Built A National Superpower On Cow Fields...

by Adam Bittner on Mar 19, 2009 10:47 PM EDT up reply actions

I think we're where we deserve to be.

A good bunch of overachieving kids. Yes, if a couple of games had gone a little differently, they would have been in the NCAA, and who knows how far they could have gone. But, we could have been blown out like the Purdue game in the B-10 tourney.

Let’s hope they have success in NYC.

by PaJoe on Mar 19, 2009 10:49 PM EDT up reply actions

CURLEY!

"Breaststroke, free style," Rubin said of his technique, "Let’s see Phelps do that one."

by ReadingRambler on Mar 19, 2009 11:19 PM EDT up reply actions

but that's probably part of the thing

Penn State advance a LOT as the season went along, and started hitting their stride in Big 10 play. I’m not saying that we needed to play quite as easy an OOC schedule as we did, but playing some easy/mid-level teams probably helped the team a) practice playing together against competition without completely getting blown out, and b) build up their confidence.

by The JuggerNitt on Mar 20, 2009 8:42 AM EDT up reply actions