This just sums up the ambivalence that is the NIT. It’s like we’re not supposed to celebrate this at all.

I think what most people outside of here are missing it that is was FUN. I got excited and looked forward to and enjoyed those games at MSG. There’s not too much fun to be had on Tuesday and Thursday nights these days, but PSU hooked it up. I’m grateful for that.

This is why we can’t have nice things.

This is why I have no respect for any of the other programs in our conference. Here we have a case of an underdog basketball program from the conference, a conference that gets increasingly bagged on in both sports, that runs the table in a post season tournament against some solid competition, and yet this Purdue jobber’s immediate reaction is to shit on the team’s well-deserved accomplishment.

Thanks for the support, dickhead. How about rallying around a fellow Big Ten program?

I actually had a post on BS’ keyboard diarrhea the day before but wasn’t up to ripping it apart on the levels you did…Well done, sir!

Even big sports fans don’t care about the NIT because they understand how watered-down a championship (in name only) from this tournament is. I think it can be fairly argued that a pre-conference NIT championship is more important to a program than the post-season post-season variety.

There are teams that might benefit from such a run- young teams that are trying to get their legs under them might learn what it takes to be a champ from this tournament played in the gaps left by the NCAA tourney…in theory.

I really want a cookie, but I can’t do it.

After all, Purdue is the school most people can’t remember when trying to name all eleven Big Ten conference members.

LOL I once posted my predicted B10 standings on an ESPN message board with 10 teams. Guess who I completely forgot about?

Why do alum/fans of another school have to put us down for celebrating the fact that our basketball team had a decent season? It always seems to come from schools that are good or have been good in the past in basketball. What are you so afraid of? That Penn State is suddenly going to get more recognition than your team? That your team is relevant anymore? Are you afraid of more competition? GROW UP!!

I remember when the season first started, we even had another team’s fan busting our chops for the low attendance at our basketball games. Do you have nothing better in your life to do than check attendance at another school? And now that we’ve had success and 36 buses of kids go from SC to MSG, we get grief for that! GROW UP!!

Are we critical of other schools’ fans when their volleyball or gymnastics or fencing or women’s soccer teams have a good year? NO. We realize that we have to work that much harder to stay on top.

And I don’t care if nobody outside of State College cares. (Actually, I live in NJ and I care alot.) We care, and we don’t care if you don’t care. Just don’t tell us you don’t care. GROW UP!!!!

Let’s think about this- what’s the easiest way for a Purdue blog, after they were knocked out of NCAAs and before they start rehashing the same few spring practice stories, to get hits?

Bash one of the three schools with a big enough fan base to actually care. Done and done.

I am not too sure about the deep fried burgers, sure they sound good but I cannot imagine anything worse for you. Anyway, thanks for the strong work.

We didn’t have them but people kept asking. Tell them that we shouldn’t care about this runner’s up tourney. Shows how our fan base is leaps and bounds above many other schools. I’m sure Purdue has a fair share of fans who are trying to remember their last meaningful football game.

Our fans are proud of what they did and they love seeing progress in a sport where there hasn’t traditionally been any.

I kinda liked Purdue. In fact, I cheered for them against Washington and UConn.

For the first time since Bruce Parkill we have a coach and team that “gets it”.

Granted there is still a long haul to go, but winning the NIT is a good first step…hell leap.

PA is a football state but there is some good Bball in Pittsburgh/Philly. 5 hours to NYC and DC metro.

We have good facilities and lots of money to support the program…this team just gave the fans a reason to care about Bball instead of only FB.

Nice job all around….is Purdue in Ohio?

If you love the propaganda football videos that are shown at Beaver Stadium, there’s a whole page of them on YouTube for the basketball team:

http://www.youtube.com/user/PSUBasketball1

Seems kind of funny to me that nobody cares about the NIT, yet a hell of a lot of people must read the stories about the NIT ( which are hidden in the bowels of the sports pages and don’t make Sports Center, so they have to do some research!) . They care enough to take the time to post on the boards, knocking those who have had some late season success in a lesser tourney. They try to make an illogical argument that it just means that we’re the 66th best team in the country, that’s crappola! Well, it tells me that people must care about the NIT more than they admit. It also shows that they just can’t handle other school’s accomplishments. It would not have mattered if Baylor had won on Thursday. These same posters would have been there on Friday knocking Baylor for celebrating a “small” step towards potential respect in the B-Ball world.

I, like most PSU “fans”, have rooted for MSU, Ill, Wiski, OSU, Minne., Michigan and even the Boilers in the MIT… “More Important Tourney”. Every victory in the NCAA or NIT (or even the CBI) just helps a conference get a little more national respect. If nothing else, it shows that our “also rans” are better than the other conference’s also rans. It shows a deeper conference.

Way to go Sparty. We wish you the best on Monday and will be pulling for you (even though I do have UNC in my bracket). Halfway into the late NCAA game, it appears that the mighty Big East may not have a finalist, hooray!

“Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.”

Let’s see, Purdue has…
Irrelevant football team? Check
Average at best basketball team? Check
No other championship teams to speak of? Check.

Thanks for stopping by, Purdue.

about the “world” outside of state college and/or the PSU family – where the heck is that? And “big sports fans”? – unless he means Fans of Unusual Size or people who like monster truck rallies/watching Top Gear -

Those kids got to play a lot longer than most other teams – and they played well – the games were very entertaining and the fans represented us exceeding well.

it’s possible that folks are reacting to all the “good” press the fan base got throughout the tournament -

Way to bring it (don’t you worry, it has already been BROUGHT-en). This is a really good post. A great rebuttal, with poignant counter-attacks and sweet link-work. Do you begin composition offline, or just jump right in with sbn tools? Important to emphasize the points about the PSU family, too, and our celebratory enthusiasm—brings it all back to the unity thing. Really good stuff.

Now, we’ll need to figure out how to channel some of this creativity and style in our collective retorts (or pre-torts?) to the inevitable columns/posts this fall about our football schedule and old coach.