Why you can't spell Nittany without NIT

 Curley's statement about another year of Ed made me comment about the fact that I think the problems with Penn State basketball run a lot deeper than the coach. I'm going to try to dissect those problems in this post, and then perhaps posit some ways the University might address them in a subsequent post.

I've been thinking about this for a long time. At the very least, since the spring of my senior year, 2002, when I was lucky enough to participate in a focus group of students that the athletic department assembled to help them better understand how to improve the hoops program. I apologize for failing be part of a focus group, that obviously, FAILED.

Why does Penn State basketball consistently suck?

Because we don't have particularly good players. And even the good ones are usually preternaturally ugly.

Why don't we get better players?

This is the heart of the matter. And I'm going to say that there are three primary reasons, which are related, but nevertheless distinct.

First, Penn State doesn't care.  Now, I care, and I know that Fugi, RUTS, and Mike care, and a number of other people who spend time on BSD care, but the Penn State community, at large, doesn't really care about basketball that much.  We have little to no basketball tradition. You could start on the basketball team and you'd be less of a big deal to fellow students and fans than the third string qb. Yes, McGloin is the sh$t...but if he's a bigger deal than the starting number four its going to be hard to bring in recruits.

Second, central Pennsylvania isn't exactly a great place to come and spend your time playing hoops. A lot of central Pennsylvanians spend their winter sports' hours on wresting, not hoops. Moreover, let's be frank: most good basketball players are black, and central Pennsylvania isn't exactly a hotbed of racial diversity. Less than ten years ago, the head of the black student caucus at Penn State had so many regular death threats that she got 24-hour FBI surveillance. There are more chapters of the KKK in Pennsylvania than any other state, and those chapters are concentrated in the center of the state. On top of this is the fact that there just aren't a lot of people around State College, and so it would take something really special to manage to get 15,000 people to care enough to leave their warm houses to drive through snow and ice on a weekday evening to go to a basketball game.

Third, we have strong competition for recruits. Let's be clear: western PA basketball sucks. I played four years of WPIAL basketball, I won a AAAA WPIAL championship, I know: the WPIAL sucks. Danny Fortson is the exception, not the rule. There's some crazy stat that there's been a WPIAL alum in every super bowl or something like that. On the other hand, I'm not sure there's ever been a WPIAL player in the NBA finals. Maybe Armand Gillian made it, but I'm not sure and am too lazy to look it up.

There is, of course, a ton of talent in the eastern part of the state and all along the east coast within driving distance of state college. But, if you're a kid and you're deciding between PSU and St. Joe's (because let's be real, no kid is deciding between PSU and Nova or Temple or St. John's...), where would you go? Would you want to live in philly and be the big man on campus and play at a school where the students and alumni eat, drink, and sleep hoops, or would you want to come to Penn State, live in the middle of nowhere and play second fiddle to the football team and compete for attention with the women's volleyball team? Frankly, I'm going to St. Joe's unless you can make a really good push otherwise.  To be honest, I find it hard, right now, to make a really compelling case for a kid to come to Penn State instead of St. Joe's.

Let's see: you'll be on TV more often b/c of the BTN and ESPN contract. You'll get to play better competition in the Big Ten. But that's balanced by playing for people that care more, and having a chance to be part of a tradition and a team that, quite frankly, has a much better chance of playing in March than the nittany lions.

Indiana and Kansas are good at basketball. Why aren't we?

This is a ridiculous question and asking it shows that you don't know anything about basketball. Just like central and western PA are all about football, some parts of the country are all about basketball. The UNC branch campuses are better at hoops than Penn State b/c everyone in North Carolina is mad about hoops. Same with Indiana. The guy who invented basketball--James Naismith--coached at Kansas.  

Fine. What about Ohio State?

This is a much better analogy. I'm going to say that there's two reasons why OSU is better, but I'd be interested to hear what others think. 1. Columbus ain't State College. TP said it all: we're "too country." 2. Ohio State cares more. They defintely invest more in the team, but I'd also say that the "university community" cares more about hoops. They don't have the volleyball and fencing traditions that we have to hang their hats on, so they turn to hoops.

You want to fix everything? Just fire Ed Dechellis and pay a bunch of money for a top-notch up and coming coach.

It's not at all clear that the athletic department has any interest in spending money on a basketball coach. Given the fact that, as I posit above, the university community doesn't really care about hoops, they probably shouldn't.

You're right, I don't care. I would care if the team was good though. So why doesn't Curley spend money to make the team good so that I'll then care?

This is a terrible argument, yet we hear it a lot. This is like going to your parents and saying: I'm sorry I wrecked my crappy car. But I wrecked it because I never really cared about it because it was so crappy. If you want me to take care of my car, you need to buy me a nice one.  No parent in their right mind would ever buy their kid a good car following this argument, and Curley shouldn't spend money that the men's volleyball team could use to go show the Californians how high we can jump in Central PA on the assumption that people would care if the team was better.

Can't you just post one more picture of Calvin Booth so that I have something to laugh at?

Yes I can.