Penn State Basketball Schedule Details Released

by BSD on Apr 22, 2009 3:12 PM EDT in Basketball

Yeah yeah we're a few days away from the Blue White game but there are some interesting details today in regard to the 2009-2010 men's basketball schedule that have come to light. First, the field has been set for the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.

First Challenge Matchup: In addition to Minnesota at Miami, Penn State at Virginia, Wake Forest at Purdue and Florida State at Ohio State will all meet for their first-ever Challenge showdown.

Unfamiliar Opponent: Ohio State has won all four of its games against Florida State with a victory in 2000's Great Alaska Shootout the most recent. Penn State and Virginia last played in 1985 (Virginia holds a 5-2 series lead) while Purdue and Wake Forest last played in 1989 (Purdue holds a 3-2 series lead).

Ok, so playing Virginia isn't such a sexy matchup. Some people predict them to finish in the basement of the ACC. But it's a chance to beat an ACC team on the road, and just by the fact they play in the ACC should give them a respectable RPI. In 2009 they finished with an RPI of 114. Georgia Tech, our 2008 opponent in the Challenge, finished at 138.

The other bit of news is that Penn State will be participating in the Charleston Classic in Charleston, SC.

ESPN Regional Television, Inc. (ERT), a subsidiary of ESPN, announced today seven of the eight teams in the field for the 2009 Charleston Classic, to be held Nov. 19-22 at Carolina First Arena in Charleston, S.C.

The field for the second annual Charleston Classic will include La Salle, Miami (Fla.), UNC Wilmington, Penn State, South Carolina, USF and Tulane. The eighth team will be announced at a later date. Three of the teams in the field played in the 2008-09 NIT, including NIT champion Penn State, Miami and South Carolina.

Hmmmm...I don't exactly see any headline names in that group. In fact, I think we are actually considered the headline team. But it's not a terrible group when compared to the Philly Classic we played in last year.

2009 Charleston Classic		2008 Philly Classic
Teams	Final 2009 RPI	Teams	Final 2009 RPI
South Carolina	57	Villanova	13
Miami (FL)	65	Niagra	49
La Salle	112	Rhode Island	68
Tulane	188	Towson	219
South Florida	190	Hartford	299
UNC Wilmington	277	Monmouth	321
TBD		NJIT	343
Average	148.2	Average	187.4

So there are no headliners like Villanova, but then there also isn't a huge drop off once you get halfway through the field either. Hopefully the eighth team will bring some pizzazz to this tournament. We'll probably have to play one or two stinkers, but third round matchups with South Carolina, Miami, or La Salle look to be very winnable games against respectable competition. But like the Philly Classic showed us, you have to win those winnable games. Otherwise a loss to Rhode Island earns you a final game against Towson instead of Villanova. And that can be the difference between the NCAA and the NIT come March.

I'm glad to see Ed and Tim Curley entering Penn State in these tournaments, but they can't stop there. One slip in the early games and you're stuck with RPI busters the rest of the way. I'm hoping they are working behind the scenes to schedule some one-and-ones with some decent opponents outside of the Patriot League. Penn State is on that level where it's time to take that step.

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Comments

FIRST

and I go to UVa for medical school. I’M PUMPED!

I blame Iowa.

by raimman on Apr 22, 2009 3:44 PM EDT reply actions

It would be cool if we could win the tournament to start our season off

Expectations are high now.

They don’t have the tradition to hold our nuts

by psu on Apr 22, 2009 4:07 PM EDT reply actions

Disappointing

that they have to play UVA in the B10-ACC Challenge. How do they determine it? Shouldn’t it have something to do with conference standings? That isn’t going to help the SOS any more than Ga Tech will.

The tournament is OK, a couple of decent teams in Miami and S Carolina, but I hope they are not done with the schedule. Play a BCS school on the road, what would it hurt?

by mundyscorner99 on Apr 22, 2009 4:14 PM EDT reply actions

Playing at Virginia is playing a BCS team on the road.

There’s nothing wrong with the schedule so far. No real dogs on it, which was the problem last year. If we get Siena at home as rumored and can somehow get a BCS school at home, we should be in good shape. Hopefully beyond that we’d fill in with 150-250 RPI patsies instead of 250+ RPI patsies.

by Laaaaazzz on Apr 22, 2009 4:24 PM EDT up reply actions

I meant in addition to the schedule already announced

PSU didn’t make the tournament last year mainly because of its terrible OOC SOS. I want them to make it this upcoming year, although it will be more difficult with the loss of the big 3 seniors. I think we would both agree that they can improve on the schedule. Look at some of the other teams that made the tournament that were BEHIND us in the Big 10 standings:

Michigan (played Duke twice, UCLA, and at UConn)
Minnesota (played Louisville – overall #1 seed in the tourney)

You find someone the caliber of those teams in our schedule and then I’ll be happy. Otherwise, it is not much different than last year other than the team names on the jerseys. If they get Siena and another BCS school, I would be more happy, but all I said was I hope that this is not all they are going to do.

by mundyscorner99 on Apr 22, 2009 5:33 PM EDT up reply actions

PSU didn’t make the tournament last year mainly because of its terrible OOC SOS.

That’s true. But there are different ways to deal with that problem. Part of it is to play better “good” competition. But another huge part of it is to avoid the terrible dogs — teams which we had way too many of last time (NJIT, Hartford, Army, Lafayette, etc.). If we had played good patsies instead of terrible patsies (say, replace Army, Lafayette and William & Mary with American, Holy Cross and Old Dominion — teams from the same conferences that we should still be able to beat easily at home), our RPI would have been 20 points higher and we would have made the tourney, no questions asked. We didn’t need that big OOC win — we needed an overall better SOS, which was brought down by our craptastic, horrible non-conference schedule.

The schedule this year is off to a better start. The Charleston Classic is nice and far better looking than the Philly Classic Field. We are probably playing at Temple. We’ve talked to Siena. We’ve been rumored to be be trying to schedule a BCS team at home. If we can do all that and avoid the RPI 250+ dogs, our schedule will be more than enough to make the tourney with a decent (9-9 or 10-8) showing in the conference schedule.

We don’t need to schedule UConn or Pitt to get the OOC schedule where it needs to be. It’s more important to schedule smarter and avoid the awful teams.

by Laaaaazzz on Apr 22, 2009 7:01 PM EDT up reply actions

I definitely agree

That there are two parts of the equation. A BCS school shouldn’t be playing 200+ RPI teams. But avoiding that is only going to take on OOC SOS from 300+ to probably around 150-200 at best because that is what we are supposed to be doing and all the schools that we are fighting for bids are already doing this. So, we have to something to set us apart in the eyes of the committee. I see teams all the time playing at Duke (one and done, no home and home) or Rutgers played H/H vs UNC. This is not college football where people can hide behind arguments like (1) we need X # of home games or (2) the schedules are made so far in advance. Ed/Tim Curley could pick up the phone RIGHT NOW and schedule a game with say, Villanova or Maryland or something like that. I say let’s give it a try. Just not playing the really, really bad teams is not enough. Every analyst I saw in March said the words “who did you play, who did you beat” and it would be nice to have a quality non conference win on the resume. PSU was sent a message this year that their schedule is not acceptable, it is up to them to change that.

by mundyscorner99 on Apr 22, 2009 7:11 PM EDT up reply actions

"could pick up the phone RIGHT NOW and schedule a game with say, Villanova or Maryland"

who says those schools want Penn State on their OOC schedule?

by The JuggerNitt on Apr 23, 2009 11:22 AM EDT up reply actions

Indeed

Scheduling is a two way street and actually PSU would be tough to get scheduled. For a “good” team, what’s the upside in playing PSU? If you beat them, who cares? If you lose, it sucks. PSU might be a SOS/RPI boost, but PSU has enough variability that they could end up as a 120-150 RPI team easily and be no schedule help. And PSU isn’t much of a TV draw, so there’s no guarentee that you’d get any decent coverage out of scheduling such a game. And it’s not like playing a game in Happy Valley gives you expsoure to a bunch of recruits local to there — central PA isn’t a basketball hotspot.

Honestly, if I were AD for Maryland or Nova, I think it would be kinda hard to justify playing a team like PSU among all of the possible BCS schools out there. It’s easy to say “just schedule it”, it’s another thing to get the other schools to agree with you.

by Laaaaazzz on Apr 23, 2009 11:56 AM EDT up reply actions

MSU @ UNC should be fun I guess.

Black Shoe Diaries
I BLAME IOWA.

by KevinHD on Apr 22, 2009 4:24 PM EDT reply actions

All they need

Penn State just needs to play teams in the top 150 or so in RPI during the non-conference season, the conference play will easily drag their SOS up, the key last season was that they were playing teams like NJIT who were not even in the top 250 let alone top 150.

by RitterPSU on Apr 22, 2009 4:31 PM EDT reply actions

NJIT was barely in the top 350

and that’s only because there were only 343 teams (in case somebody doesn’t know, they were the 343rd team)

by The JuggerNitt on Apr 22, 2009 4:50 PM EDT up reply actions

I’m sorry, but that is kinda awesome in a sad and pathetic way.

Have a "great HD day!" - Jay Paterno

by ReadingRambler on Apr 22, 2009 5:00 PM EDT up reply actions

Only helps if they win several more than they lose.

If we’re 16-14 with a great SOS, we’re not within a million miles of getting in the tourney.

Just win, baby.

by Tailgate Shogun on Apr 22, 2009 5:38 PM EDT reply actions

You'd be surprised

Georgia made it as an at-large in 2001 with exactly that record. Arizona got in two years ago at 18-14.

Your strength of schedule has to be ridiculous, not just good, to get in with that many losses, but it can happen.

by SpartanDan on Apr 23, 2009 11:31 AM EDT up reply actions

Yep. And our SOS is in absolutely NO danger of being ridiculous.

We’d be happy with “just good”!

by Tailgate Shogun on Apr 23, 2009 12:40 PM EDT up reply actions

Charleston Classic

Hopefully the eighth team will bring some pizzazz to this tournament.

Don’t count on it. The final team for the Charleston Classic will be from the Southern Conference (SoCon) and I wouldn’t count on it being Davidson (will Curry even be on the team next year, anyway?). Hopefully, it will be one of the mediocre teams from there and not a Furman or Georgia Southern bad team.

by Laaaaazzz on Apr 22, 2009 10:57 PM EDT reply actions