| Purdue | 64 |
| Penn State | 42 |
I don't know if the Nittany Lions hit rock bottom last night. If they didn't, they can't go much lower. I watched most of the game last night, but I must admit I turned it off with ten to go. I just couldn't stand to watch the carnage anymore. They couldn't shoot. They couldn't pass. They couldn't rebound. They couldn't play defense. They had no energy. This is four losses in a row, and it feels a lot like last year when we lost 13 in a row.
It didn't matter who was on the court last night. Whoever it was I saw five guys running around feeling sorry for themselves. At one point they zoomed in on Cornley's shoe where he had written "Geezy #5" on them as a tribute to Geary Claxton. Hey Mel, he's not dead you know. He's sitting right there on the bench. I saw him. You're the leader of this team now. Stop moping around because the other players feed off of you. Where is the guy we saw the first half of the season smashing around in the paint grabbing every loose ball and crashing through bodies to get to the net? What happened to him?
Purdue looked like the Detroit Pistons last night. But they weren't doing anything special on offense. They only scored 64 points. They won the game with their defense, while our defense was atrotious. I don't understand why Ed DeChellis can't seem to get his teams to play any defense. It isn't hard. Every time one of our guys got the ball he had a hand in his face. Every passing lane was blocked. Every shot was challenged. Why can't we do that? Why do we let them bring the ball up the court unchallenged? Why do we sit in our 2-3 zone with our perimeter defense standing inside the three point line? Why do we let their big men walk through the lane without getting bumped? Why do we let their three point shooters get open? Why does this appear to be rocket science to us?
I've said before that these are the times that try a blogger's soul. Words can't describe how disappointed I am right now. A few weeks ago I thought we were destined to make the post season. Now I'm afraid we're not going to win another game. I want to pack it in and never discuss basketball again until next season, but then it's a long time till football season so we have to talk about something.
On a positive note we started three freshmen last night. Talor Battle, Jeff Brooks, and David Jackson along with Andrew Jones are the future of this program. So there is hope that the future holds brighter days, but it looks like the growing pains are going to be tough.