Penn State Falls To Temple 64-66

300 jump shots a day from him from now until November oughta do it.

Blown calls suck, they really do. But, unforunately, they’re built into college basketball. The best we can do is hope the refs watch the games again, realize their stupid mistakes, feel absolutely horrible and send personalized notes of apology to every player and coach associated with Penn State basketball.

…everyone, save for AdamShell, is in agreement that Ed is not the guy who’s going to turn the program into a consistent NCAA tournament team. That said, the Steve Lavin situation should show you why it’s not as simple as saying “He’s not getting it done” and moving on to someone else. Penn State doesn’t operate in the rational as far as wins and losses are concerned. it operates in the rational as far as $$$ is concerned. “Someone else” will not be Steve Lavin if Ed is fired or the “top shelf coach” you covet. He’ll be a cheaper Ed DeChellis with eight less years experience coaching a Big Ten squad and a mediocre resume at some mid-major. Just keep that in mind.

As far as next year’s squad goes, click here and scroll down to the second topic.

Especially given the way the game was being called.

First, 2008, NIT champions. People may scoff at, but I think they underestimate the importance that season had. We had very few tourney appearances, and ZERO championships. From that moment (and despite some STILL calling for DeChellis to be fired) we persevered, nearly lost, but willed ourselves through pain and near defeat to a title. An NIT title, sure, but to a program with basically no accolades other than the rare tourney appearance, and possibly some 1st team all-B1G players, we had nothing, and even then, that was just another banner to hang from the rafters. But the NIT changed that. There was so much heart on that team, they WANTED to show people they weren’t some program with a bunch of wannabes who couldn’t make it as a respectable team. They had something to prove that year, and 35 Buses from SC to NYC shows that they finally earned that respect they had been looking for finally. And I remind everyone, ED DECHELLIS IS THE ONLY PSU COACH IN PSU HISTORY TO GET ANY NATIONAL RECOGNITION IN ANY POST SEASON PLAY.

2009, with the loss of seasoned veterans Cornley, Morissey, and Pringle gone, PSU had HUGE holes to fill, so I think in the context I’m trying to frame here, DeChellis can be granted leniency for this year’s failures.

Now this season, we reached our first Big Ten Tourney championship game in school HISTORY after beating two teams we weren’t supposed to beat. And then the crown jewel: DeChellis and the team earn that spot they’ve been fighting for for so long and make it to the NCAA.

After years of intermittent NCAA appearances (only making it beyond the 2nd round twice: 1954 Final Four, and 2001 NCAA Sweet 16), we finally made it back after a 10 year lull. Unless I’m missing a major piece of information, The successes of the DeChellis coaching era have been in the past three/four years. I won’t deny that these successes coincide with Talor Battle playing, but Ed was the one to recruit him and to coach him, as well as the other players who helped shape this period of success. Battle will be a GIGANTIC loss next year, including the other seniors. I don’t expect to do well at all, but, and I’ll freely admit I know very little about statistical trends, DeChellis’ successes have picked up.

So obviously I completely agree, two more years of Ed won’t only be fine with me, I think it should actually be a good thing.

That’s exactly what I was thinking of when I wrote that, but I just didn’t bother to spell it out. You wrote up my thoughts perfectly, though. And I think that’s the way Ed’s had to build the program, very slowly but steadily, because unless he scores a coup by getting a blue-chip recruit who then convinces other blue-chips to come to Penn State (like what Derrick Williams did for the football team coming into 2005), slow and steady’s the best he’ll be able to do. Incremental success gradually breeds more success, especially at non-basketball schools like Penn State. Making the NCAA and going down to the wire in an exciting game will help PSU in recruiting, I think, and from all accounts, next year’s class is quite promising. I think the future is reasonably bright, and that we’ll be back to the NCAA in 2-3 years.

It’s not as bad as it’s been made out to be.