Penn State basketball has been the butt end of just about every joke in the book. For a casual fan, it's easy to brush the program aside, when they have a big game, you watch because you feel like you should, but it doesn't make or break your day. For me, I came to Penn State wanting to leave a mark on the athletic department and I saw basketball as a place to try and do that. I've been to road games, I've sat outside the BJC all day and played football. I saw the team win the NIT, and I've seen what Penn State basketball could be. Sure "it was just the NIT" but during that season Penn State really cared about basketball. Being on the bubble was fun, you might laugh at it now, but you cared, even if it was just a little bit.
That's what makes last night so frustrating. Everything went wrong. The fans try and get behind a team, but this program really has no core. Ed DeChellis is a mid-major coach trying his best in a Big Ten world. Tim Curley is a guy who's glad basketball makes him 6mill a year, and the players are trying their hardest to turn that into wins. It just doesn't add up. I'm not tell you anything you don't already know, but if there was a night it was obvious, it was last night.
What does the future hold? I would wait before I said the sky was falling this season. Being beat by the defending ACC Champs isn't the end of the world, but a red flag has been raise. Lets see how long anybody cares.
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Rec Hall this weekend. If you're in town, go watch Blair Brown take some names.
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Then again, if basketball never gets better Curley can just turn to hockey.