Black Shoe Diaries - All Posts

The Countdown to PSU Football 2013

2013-05-19T17:44:47Z

In exactly 100 days, fans (more PSUers than Cuse fans, more than like) will fill the rows in New Meadowlands Stadium to watch both teams kick off their 2013 football seasons.

Now, there's a lot going to happen between now and then (summer workouts, football camp, the NCAA-mandated free-for-all transfer period, just to name a few) but, after today, we're in double digits!

As per usual, stick with BSD in the coming months; we'll have previews, news and more to get alumni and fans ready for the upcoming football season.

Just a little bit to tide everyone over:

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Pickin' Nits is Basically Done

2013-05-19T16:00:07Z

Every PSU sport except for Track and Field is done for the year, which renders this piece more irrelevant than it already is (insert "That's not possible!" joke here). We'll figure out how we'll cover track every week, but for now, let's consider this the final Pickin' Nits of the year. There is only one song that is appropriate here, the most successful single in Motown history and my pick for the second greatest boy band song of all time -- End of the Road by Boyz II Men. Let's go.

Track and Field

Track had their outdoor championships, where the women's team won the Big Ten and the men's team took eighth. GIMME DAT McGLOIN CHAMPIONSHIP BELT GIF.
Several Nittany Lions had notable days: Mahagony Jones locked up first in the 100 M dash and second in the 200 M dash, Marta Klebe came in second in the 1500 M run, Evonne Britton won the 100 M hurdles and came in fourth in the 400 M hurdles (teammate Kiah Seymour took second in the 400 M), Melissa Kurzdorfer came in second in the hammer throw and Lauren Kenney/Laura Loht were 1-2 in the javelin.
On the guy's side: Casimir Loxsom came in second in the 800 M run and Robby Creese came in second in the 1500 M run. That's it for their finisher who came in the top two. Well, that's not good.
The Week Ahead: The team has NCAA Eastern Prelims in Greensboro, where 41 Nittany Lions will be competing. To put that into perspective, every other PSU team is sending zero athletes to the NCAA Eastern Prelim in Greensboro this week. Impressive stuff.

Women's Golf

Women's Golf had NCAA Regionals at Auburn, where the team came in 19th place at +47, shooting a 911 on the tournament. PSU's two best finishers were junior Ellen Ceresko, who shot a +9 225 and came in 60th, and freshman Grace Chung, who shot a +11 227 and came in 70th.
The Week Ahead: The season's over. Instead of a song to remember their season, I'll instead use an insanely appropriate video: the last few minutes of the greatest golf movie of all time, Happy Gilmore.

Lax

Both lax teams fell in the NCAA Tournament. The men got waxed by Yale, 10-7. I know that score looks close, but Yale went on an insane 9-1 run. Now, I only played one year of lax, so I'm far from an expert, but I can say with 71 percent certainty that letting your opponent go on a 9-1 run isn't good. TJ Sanders led the way for the Lions with two goals. He's a freshman, and he's very good (not unlike Barry Zuckerkorn, I know I've used that joke before but you can never have too many Arrested Development jokes).
Women's lax won both of their early round games (beating Canisius 14-13 and UMass 12-9) before falling to Northwestern in the Elite Eight for the third time this season, 15-7. The ladies had 12 2-goal performances over the three games. They all deserve Nattys for their performance.
The Week Ahead: The season's over. Obviously, we're honoring their season with some DMB, because stereotypes of Lax players never stop being fun. Here's Say Goodbye.

Softball

Softball lost their Big Ten tourney quarterfinal matchup against Minnesota, 4-0. They got two hit in the process. On a far more interesting note, Minnesota had won 34 games this season up to that point, 30 of them by the person who pitched against PSU. That's cool, I guess.
The Week Ahead: The season's over. Because softball is a comically bad team, we're gonna remember them with a comically bad song (that you probably forgot ever existed): PopoZão by Kevin Federline.

Baseball

Since I decided to wait until women's lax finished up their season to publish this, baseball has had seven games since the last edition of Pickin' Nits. The Cliffnotes version: they went 2-5. They lost all three against Illinois two weekends ago (9-0, 8-6, 5-4), beat Villanova last Tuesday (7-4) and went 1-2 against Sparty (lost the first game 16-1, won the second game 9-0, lost their season finale 2-1).
Some fun stats for the end of baseball's regular season -- the team went 9-11 at home and 3-25 on the road, they hit seven homers (as a team, no, seriously), nobody who played in at least 25 games hit .300 and the team committed 90 errors in 50 games. Also, Steven Hill had a 3.39 ERA, didn't allow a single homer and somehow went 1-7. PSU baseball really is the best.
The Week Ahead: Tourney time! The team has the Big Ten tournament in Minneapolis, starting on Wednesday..........oh, wait. They didn't qualify for their conference tournament. So their season's over. I want to honor their season with a Sinatra song about how life can suck and you just need to power through it, because that perfectly describes the baseball team this season. So we're going with "That's Life."

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Update on BSD/SBN Network Issues

2013-05-17T13:33:22Z

Thank you from the BSD staff for your continued patronage and we apologize on behalf of SBN for the issues. From the mothership:

As SB Nation users, you have certainly noticed the significant performance drop across the network this week. The SB Nation team and all of Vox Media sincerely apologize for the site performance problems affecting your experience on our sites and communities over the past few days. We understand how frustrating it is for you. Given the nature of the issue, it is taking several days to fully restore performance completely. We have been working around the clock, taking incremental and comprehensive measures, to restore performance to normal levels.

Our approach to correcting the issues affecting the network has been two pronged: 1) improve performance as much as possible incrementally and 2) restore long-term stability to the system.

The first prong has been focused on improving the performance of logged-in users as these users have experienced the biggest drop in performance. Some of the improvements that we have pushed out to this point include:

· Page load performance for logged-in users, including lower error rates

· Commenting performance

· Logging-in

· Publishing content, including Fanposts and Fanshots

We have all hands on deck to complete this work and will be performing maintenance after hours this weekend to restore full service to the network. Of course, we would like to do this work sooner, but we need to be extra careful and thorough in making these changes, so as to not risk new problems.

Again, we completely understand the frustration our users have felt over the past few days and will continue to do everything in our power to restore full service to the network and ease your frustration. We greatly appreciate your patience and understanding as we've worked through these issues and bring long term stability to the network. Thank you for your dedication to and support of SB Nation and Vox Media.

Meme Update: BSD Receives NCAA Letter of Inquiry

2013-05-17T12:36:32Z

Let's start off with the good news first, shall we? The BSD Meme tournament kicked off last week after a two year hiatus, and in the intervening 12 days, pitted 32 memes in 16 contests with nearly 8,000 submitted votes from at least four different people. Below you'll find an updated Meme bracket with official winners.

(click to embiggen)

We got the expected: Flaming Bus exploded past the 2009 Dance Team.

We got the 13 over 4 upset special, when Popcorn Gifs, buoyed by a still acute reader distaste for M1EK, took out Forcefield / Pedant / Apologist / Cultist / No Homework / GMAFB / Strawman.

But the first 16 games saw some controversy, as well. Inexplicably, 13-seed Stealing from Pay Sites advanced over protest from Anchorman References. And 15-seed #Buckle Up, seemingly dead in its upset bid of 2-seed UNPRECEDENTED, benefited from eight consecutive flagrant fouls in the closing 90 seconds of regulation to pull out the strangest of victories. Both Anchorman and UNPRECEDENTED appealed to Big Ten Head of Officals, Bill Carollo, who reviewed the video evidence shown below:

Carollo stared blankly at the evidence for two solid minutes, shrugged his shoulders, and proclaimed, "the play on the field stands as called. The video evidence was inconclusive. #BuckleUp and Junny Thievery win, and Ohio State is awarded the Rose Bowl."

More troubling, if not more baffling, was news from BSD Editor Jared Slanina, who announced that Black Shoe Diaries had received a Letter of Inquiry from the NCAA. "Mark Emmert, in another power grab, decided that the NCAA held standing in the administration of our blog, Black Shoe Diaries," stated Slanina. "And, though they couldn't prosecute North Carolina for academic fraud; nor Miami for paying players with prostitutes and boat rides; nor - ahhh, to hell with it. The douchea just sent us a letter of inquiry about our meme tournament blogging practices. So we've got that going for us. Which is nice.....whatever. Emmert's such a turd."

Black Shoe Diaries' mothership, SBNation, was also made aware of the NCAA's inquiry. SBNation put collegiate blogging honcho Jason Kirk in front of the situation. Kirk announced that SBNation would retain the services of Freeh, Sporkin and Sullivan, in an effort "to uncover all of the facts, wherever they may lead us, and provide best practice recommendations." When asked about the selection of Freeh, given its past dealings with Penn State, Kirk responded only with an animated gif:

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BSD Mailbag 5.17.13

2013-05-17T12:36:08Z

You've got questions. We've got answers...but you may not like 'em. Let's get it started!

What is the status of PSU's UDFAs? Can you give us an update if anyone has signed a contract with any NFL teams?--tadhg (via email)

Well, the biggest news is that, after flirting both with my beloved Skins and the Carolina Panthers, QB Matt McGloin has signed a 3-year deal with the Oakland Raiders. Take that, T Peezy!

Other than that, we had four Lions who signed UDFA contracts right after draft day: Stephon Morris and Matt Stankiewitch to the Patriots, Mike Farrell to the Steelers, and Mike Zordich to the Panthers. Additionally, though I haven't seen where he might have signed, Pete Massaro attended rookie camp with the Eagles.

Unless something amazing happens with Peppers who do you think the staff will put the full court press on Vincent, Nicholson, or a different DB?--Anthony Beck (via facebook)

None of the above? Seriously, I think we're about full up on our fill of skill players, though I do know you asked this question before the commitments last week. Jabrill Peppers is a player you make room for; besides him, though, our quota of athletes/DBs has been filled, in my opinion.

What is the best hangover cure?--blackjackfishtaco

In my wide experience, every person has a different cure for the hangover. If hair of the dog isn't an option, for me it's always been greasy meat of some sort (TWSS), like salami or beef jerky, and cheese.

Would you rather have fingers as long as your legs, or legs as long as your fingers?--PSUBaltimore

I guess the former, because then I could surgically alter them to be more aesthetically pleasing. #boom

Do you like movies about gladiators?--WBF

Who doesn't? Scantily clad men fighting (mostly) to the death? Yes Please.

How annoying is it to make prediction about the next player to commit and then have someone else commit within an hour of the post being put up?--psfann

I'm not familiar with that exactly, but I do know it's a royal pain in the ass to write a post about the state of commits in our conference only to go to bed at 11, have to post go up at six only to find out that three guys announced commitments overnight. It's...awesome is not the correct word.

Who am I and why am I here?--scrlion

I don't know. Tell you what, why don't you forward me all your defining information (name, location, birthdate, social security number, banking information) via email, and I'll see what I can figure out, hmm?

Magic conch shell, will I ever get married?--Rambler

I see a cute young ginger in your future, sir. Go forth unto this world.

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Success With Hyperlinking Says Farewell to Our Scranton Friends

2013-05-16T16:43:52Z

The lights of Dunder-Mifflin will be switched off for good this evening, as The Office wraps up its nine-year run. The show was never a true ratings juggernaut, but set the standard for many popular sitcoms today and will live on in heavy syndication long into the future. If you're one of many who checked out towards the end of the Michael Scott era, you may want to come back for tonight's finale. The writers seemed to have found their groove again in season nine, and even though it doesn't match up with the first few season it still has been highly entertaining. Enjoy, and stay away from Prison Mike. He's just bad news.

The Office Farewells: The Cast, Part 1 (via theofficeonnbctv)

McGloin Update Speaking of Scranton, Matt McGloin is officially an Oakland Raider. He will now battle our pal Terrell Pryor for a spot on the depth chart. Life sure is funny sometimes, isn't it? The Raiders are expected to have four quarterbacks for the start of training camp, which could lead McGloin to a spot on the practice squad in 2013 if nothing else.

Rap Game One of the top receivers in PA spurned the Nittany Lions in favor of Michigan State, but we won't have to worry too much about facing him on the field. That's because Jay Harris has decided to turn down a free ride to play for Sparty to instead focus on his career as a rapper.

Let's Go Pens This Penguins fan really wanted to make a sign to show his support, but apparently he did not have any posterboard or markers to make it happen. So he did what any of us would do in a similar situation by sculpting a sign using your own body hair.

Dr. Pepper Five-star cornerback Jabril Peppers is set to make his college announcement on May 26, which will be televised on ESPNU. Peppers will be on campus for an official visit to Penn State on Saturday, so hopefully Happy Valley makes a big impression on him.

A Golden Girl Indeed I'm sure you don't need a reminder, but we live in an utterly crazy world. The latest evidence: a nude portrait of former Golden Girls actress Bea Arthur has sold for $1.9 million.

Penn State's 2014 Big Ten Schedule Released

2013-05-16T16:28:49Z

The Big Ten announced schedules for the 2014 season earlier today, the first with new members Rutgers and Maryland in the fold. Penn State's conference slate can be found below:

Sept. 13 - Rutgers

Sept. 27 - NORTHWESTERN

Oct. 11 - Michigan

Oct. 25 - OHIO STATE

Nov. 1 - MARYLAND

Nov. 8 - Indiana

Nov. 22 - Illinois

Nov. 29 - MICHIGAN STATE

(CAPS indicate home games)

The Lions also have non-conference matchups confirmed with Temple (Aug. 30), Akron (Sept. 6) and Massachusetts (Sept. 20).

Some notes and observations:

Michigan State will be the season-ending opponent for Penn State, bringing back the battle for the Land-Grant Trophy. In Monday's poll, 51% of BSD voters chose the Spartans as their pick for season-finale opponent.
Rutgers will play their Big Ten opener against the Nittany Lions in Piscataway. It will be the first matchup between the teams since 1995.
Penn State gets another Big Ten first-timer Maryland at home on November 1st. It will be their first game together since 1993. The Terps will look to improve upon their 1-35-1 record against the Nittany Lions.
Things are set up fairly well for Penn State as they get Northwestern, Ohio State and Michigan State, arguably three of their four toughest opponents, all at home. They will have to travel to the Big House on October 11th.
There is one non-conference spot left to be filled for the 2014 schedule and it points to Central Florida and the Ireland game that everyone has been talking about. UCF has not announced their conference schedule yet for 2014, but if Penn State doesn't switch around dates with non-conference opponents, it appears that October 4th would have to be the date for that game. I doubt the staff would give up a bye week to prepare for Ohio State and mid-November would seemingly be too late for such a contest.

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Penn State, Bill O'Brien Respond To Sports Illustrated Article

2013-05-15T21:57:07Z

Lubrano Speaks: Trustee Anthony Lubrano is scared of the way medical care of the student-athletes is now being handled at Penn State in response to the Sports Illustrated article published today. In a move to a more NFL-style of player treatment, Lubrano says that players may be rushed onto the field quicker than they should be.

"Is that a risk we're willing to take?"

More on that in a bit.

---

Penn State Responds: In a press release, Jeff Nelson, sports information director for the football team, released statistics of how other teams across college football deal with physicians and surgeons being available to student-athletes throughout the week. The SI article brought into question the fact that Scott Lynch, who replaced Wayne Sebastianelli as the team's orthopedic surgeon, would only be in State College on Wednesdays through the season.

Football Physician In-Season Coverage

Penn State

- Primary care physician attends all practices and games. On Sunday, examines every player whoplayed in the game previous day and any others in need of attention.

- Orthopedic physician attends at least one practice each week (Wed.) and all games. Available post-practice Monday, Tuesday and Thursday if necessary. On Sunday, is available to examine all players.

Iowa

- Primary care physician is available to attend practice and see players post-practice Monday-Friday. On Sunday, is available to examine all players.

- Orthopedic physician is available post-practice Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. On Sunday, is available to examine all players.

LSU

- Primary care physician available post-practice Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. On Sunday, is available to examine all players.

- Orthopedic physician available post-practice Tuesday and Wednesday. On Sunday, is available to examine all players.

Michigan State

- Primary care physician is available to attend practice and see players post-practice Monday-Friday. On Sunday, is available to examine all players.

- Orthopedic physician is available post-practice Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. On Sunday, is available to examine all players.

Northwestern

- Primary care physician is available to attend practice and see players post-practice Monday-Friday. On Sunday, is available to examine all players.

- Orthopedic physician is available post-practice once or twice a week. On Sunday, is available to examine all players.

Nebraska

- Primary care physician is available to attend practice and see players post-practice Monday-Friday. On Sunday, is available to examine all players.

- Orthopedic physician is available post-practice Tuesday and Wednesday. On Sunday, is available to examine all players.

New statements were also put out from the university, Dr. Harold Paz and AD Dave Joyner:

Statement from Penn State on Sports Illustrated article:

To characterize the medical care Penn State provides our student-athletes as anything other than the highest quality is erroneous. Access to urgent and quality care for our athletes is no less than where it was at any point in the past 20 years. We provided Sports Illustrated with facts and data that demonstrate our commitment to our student athletes and how we compare to other peer institutions. Instead, the article sensationalizes in order to insinuate lower standards and largely ignores statements from the Dean of the College of Medicine.

Contrary to the reporter's assertions, Dr. Sebastianelli remains the doctor in charge of the University's entire medical program for intercollegiate athletics, including football. Further, there has been no change in the support provided by State College-based Penn State orthopedic surgeons, including Dr. Sebastianelli.

The article fundamentally distorts the facts. There has been no change in the model of medical care for our student athletes. The allegations on why the change in team physician was made is ludicrous. Worst of all, the article ignores the fact that Dr. Sebastianelli remains the doctor in charge of the University's entire medical program for intercollegiate athletics, including football. In addition, the university athletic trainer reported directly to Dr. Sebastianelli, who supervised the trainer's work. A review shows Penn State's medical coverage is on par with, or exceeds, peer institutions.

Dr. Harold Paz, senior vice president for Health Affairs, Chief Executive Officer, Penn State Hershey Medical Center and Dean of the College of Medicine:

The article suggests that the quality of care provided to Penn State student athletes has been jeopardized by a change in team physicians. It simply isn't the case. Drs. Seidenberg and Lynch, the physicians now responsible for the day-to-day care of Penn State football players are both experienced clinicians, fellowship-trained in Sports Medicine and committed to providing expert medical care to our students athletes.

Any suggestion that care is being compromised by the change in physician assignments is both unsubstantiated and incorrect.

The article further suggests that Dr. Sebastianelli is no longer playing a role in supporting the University's athletic teams. In fact, as Director of Athletic Medicine, Dr. Sebastianelli remains the doctor in charge of the University's entire medical program for intercollegiate athletics.

Dave Joyner, Director of Athletics:

As athletic director for Penn State my first priority is the welfare of our student-athletes. All decisions are, and have been, made with that first and foremost as the goal. Any changes that were made were done for, and only for, the benefit of the student-athletes, the football program, and for Penn State. Any characterization otherwise is appalling, offensive, preposterous and completely untrue. Change is never easy, but that won't prevent us from doing the right thing for our student-athletes.

---

Bill O'Brien Gets Angry: The Penn State coach appeared on College Football Live and then held a conference call about an hour later to respond to the article. It wouldn't be wrong to say that O'Brien was perturbed that he had to come out and deal with the article in question. Here are a collection of tweets from the call:

O'Brien says he spent "a lot" of time on the phone Sunday with SI and wasn't quoted once in article.
— Ben Jones (@Ben_Jones88) May 15, 2013

O'Brien says health and safety of his players isn't "Near, or around" the top of his list of priorities. It is at the top.
— Ben Jones (@Ben_Jones88) May 15, 2013

Bill O'Brien called the @sinow article "preposterous" in a phone conference. Says Penn State would never jeopardize player safety.
— Onward State (@OnwardState) May 15, 2013

O'Brien: "We are at 65 scholarships. You think for one second I would jeaopardize the health of a player?"
— Anna Orso (@anna_orso) May 15, 2013

"That article was a character assassination on Dave Joyner. That's all it was." O'Brien is yelling on this conference call.
— Onward State (@OnwardState) May 15, 2013

O'Brien calls Dave Joyner a "first-class person." Goes ballistic when asked about vendetta against Joyner.
— Scott Brown (@ScottBrown_Trib) May 15, 2013

Tells reporter: "Don't put words in my mouth."
— Scott Brown (@ScottBrown_Trib) May 15, 2013

O'Brien is going in on Anthony Lubrano's comments today. Says Lubrano can't comment on something "He knows nothing about"
— Ben Jones (@Ben_Jones88) May 15, 2013

"If there's someone out there trying to undermine us they need to look in the mirror.Why would you try to undermine something that is good?"
— Onward State (@OnwardState) May 15, 2013

O'Brien on cutting off press conference: "I've got my son's Little League game in 15 minutes. If I'm late for that I might be divorced."
— York Daily Record (@YDRPennState) May 15, 2013

Ben Jones was also kind enough to provide the Internet with audio of Bill O'Brien yelling a lot. Enjoy!

---

Finally: A Sports Illustrated spokesperson spoke with Daily Collegian reporter Anna Orso and said that the story was objective and well-sourced and that they stand behind it 100 percent.

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