Pickin' Nits Remembers Wednesday Night

When I was looking at schools as a high school freshman, I seriously considered going to Liberty University over PSU. Not because of anything academic or religious, nothing like that, but because of one thing: Basketball.

Seriously. I was going to let basketball decide where I went to college. And at the time, Seth Curry and Liberty seemed like a more appealing option than Talor Battle and Penn State.

Ultimately, of course, I decided on PSU, but I always wondered what would have happened if I went to LU or transferred to UNC (which I almost did after freshman year).

Wednesday night totally made up for it all. Yeah, the teams have been, in order of my freshman to junior year, solid-bad-GUUUUUHHHHHHHHH AVERT YOUR EYES. But something special happened on Wednesday that I wouldn't have seen anywhere else: one of the five best teams in college basketball lost to my school, who isn't that good at basketball this year, on their home court.

I got to witness maybe the biggest upset in college hoops this season, and one of the five biggest wins in BJC history. I got to do it watching a team who has been close to breaking through all year without one of the 10 best point guards in the country in Tim Frazier. The team's effort never waivered, to the point that they have become maybe the worst team to ever get the "fun to watch" tag.

Oh, and we got to storm the court. Eat your heart out, Coach K (or, as he's known in my household, Beelzebub).

It was f'ing awesome.

Well, now that I'm done getting my memoir on, let's do the usual. In honor of his upcoming show at Café 210 West, here's some Aaron Carter to listen to as you read. Onward State.

Women's Basketball

• The 7th ranked Lady Shootyhoopers had two games this week against Michigan and Minnesota. They didn't win both. I'm shocked.
• Against Michigan on Sunday, the team was able to wrap up a share of the Big Ten title with a 68-57 victory. THEY BEAT MICHIGAN BEFORE IT WAS COOL. Per usual, Big Ten POY favorite Maggie Lucas led the way with 21 points, while Alex Bentley, Ariel Edwards and Mia Nickson all chipped in with 11 points.
• Unfortunately, the team couldn't win both games this week, as they fell to Minnesota (and the refs, according to everyone I know), 89-81. It was the most points PSU has allowed this year. Lucas had 23, Bentley had 19 and Nikki Greene had 19. Minnesota almost had three players put at least 20 up, as Micaella Riche had 24, Big Ten leading scorer Rachel Banham had 23 and Sari Noga had 19.
• The Week Ahead: Sunday. #NEBRASKETBALL. Win and they win the Big Ten outright. Lose and they share the Big Ten with.....#NEBRASKETBALL. As you can guess, it's a big game.

Track and Field

• The Big Ten Indoor Championships were this weekend. Penn State's women's team came in 3rd, while the men's team came in 4th. Robby Creese (One Mile Run), Brandon Kidder (800 Meter Run) and Casimir Loxsom (600 Meter Run) were the individual winners for PSU. Loxsom also set the meet and Big Ten records.
• In relays, Creese, Kidder, Matt Gilmore and Ryan Brennan won the men's distance medley. Other than that, it was a pretty quiet meet from the Lions.
• The Week Ahead: It's Last Chance Weekend before the NCAA Indoor Championships in Fayetteville. Good luck, errybody.

Women's Hockey

• PSU had two games last week, and as a bonus (and a penalty for me not getting this up late because of Midterm week), one of their weekend games. If you're a regular reader, you can probably guess how they ended.
• The ladies had two games against Robert Morris and lost both of them. They lost the first game, 4-1 (Emily Laurenzi had the goal) and the second game, 4-2 (Taylor Gross and Shannon Yoxheimer scored). IMPROVEMENT!
• The Week Ahead: The CHA Tournament first round, against RIT. Their game today, they lost 1-0. They have one more game on Saturday, with a potential game on Sunday if they win.

Gymnastics

• I'll make the write up for the top ranked men's team simple: they beat Springfield 446.850-403.300. They took at least the top three spots in everything but the rings. They're very good.
• As for the 22nd ranked women's team (WOO!!!!!), they pulled out a close one against Michigan State, 196.700-196.000. SPARTY, NO!!!!!!!!!!! The point total tied PSU's season high from last week against Michigan. Sharaya Musser won the all-around with a season high 39.575.
• The Week Ahead: Hold on, I'm about to turn into a bad Philly sportswriter: A Champagne Supernova for the Lions, as they travel to Illinois. Their men's team is ranked 7th, and their women's team is ranked in a tie for 19th.

Swimming and Diving

• The 24th ranked women's swimming and diving team finished up Big Ten's in 3rd place behind Minnesota (who won by a mile) and Indiana. A few events were covered last week, so here's what happened since: Alyson Ackman won the Big Ten title in the 200 freestyle with a school record time on day three, while Paige Whitmire set a school record in the 100 backstroke in prelims (she came in 3rd in the finals). On day four, Whitmire won the 100 freestyle with a school record time, while Melissa Rodriguez broke the school record during prelims of the 200 breaststroke (she ended up coming in 6th).
• As for the 24th ranked men's team, they're currently out in Indiana at the guy's Big Ten Championships. They're in 8th after two days, but have set records in the 200 medley relay (came in 4th overall) and the 500 freestyle (Nick Ankosko, 8th overall). We'll keep you posted.
• The Week Ahead: The guys keep grinding at the BTC's, while the women have their Last Chance meet to qualify for NCAA's. Again, good luck to everyone.

Men's Volleyball

• The 9th ranked men's volleyball team got back on track this weekend, taking down George Mason and Princeton, both 3-1, both in Happy Valley.
• Against George Mason (25-21, 25-20, 21-25, 25-22), Tom Comfort racked up more kills than I do in 20 games of Call of Duty with 18. The Russell brothers also went on kill-ing sprees: Peter had 15, Aaron had 13. Taylor Hammond had 47 assists.
• Princeton was a bit tougher (25-23, 19-25, 25-22, 27-25), but PSU still pulled it out. Aaron Russell one-upped Comfort from the night before with 22 kills, while Hammond had 52 assists.
• The Week Ahead: They head out to the greatest state ever (New Jersey) to take on Rutgers-Newark and NJIT. I want to make an NJIT basketball joke, but literally every NJIT basketball joke ever has been made.

Fencing

• The top ranked men's fencing team went 3-1 at the Temple Invitational, while the women went 0-4. Teams there: UPenn, Dook, St. John's and Princeton. The men went 24-0 in the foil, and suffered their only loss of the invitation to UPenn. The men will finish their season 23-1, the women will finish 14-11.
• The Week Ahead: The teams have a week off before regionals. Sources tell me they will be trying to make the funniest "I Knew You Were Trouble" video (NOTE: every word is a different video). The bar is set high, as this one with Nic Cage exists.

Tennis

• The 48th ranked women's tennis team continues to demand respect, as they whooped West Virginia and VCU this week. Against WVU, they lost two singles matches and one doubles match to win 5-2, and against VCU they swept singles en route to winning 6-1 (they did, however, lose two of three doubles matches).
• As for the men's team, well, not as good. They lost 6-1 to VCU, winning only one singles match and no doubles matches. They did, however, beat William and Mary, 6-1. They won five of six singles matches and two of three doubles matches.
• The Week Ahead: Both teams play Ohio State on Sunday: the men's team takes them on at home and the women's team is forced to travel to Columbus. Sorry, ladies.

Golf

• NOONAN. The men's golf team had the Challenge of Champions against Michigan State and lost, 2.5 to 1. JD Dornes was the only Nittany Lion to win a match, while Geoff Vartelas and Xander McDonald-Smith drew their four ball match.
• The Week Ahead: A mid-week tournament called the Colleton River Collegiate in Souf Carolahnuh. Ideally, nobody will have to pull out with a toothache, but you never know.

Lax

• The 8th ranked men's team failed to bro out against 3rd ranked Lennay Kekua Notre Dame, losing 10-9 in OT at PSU. Jack Forster and Tom LaCrosse (no, seriously, that's his name) both scored three goals, with Tommy Lax scoring a goal in the final seconds to send the game to overtime.
• 10th ranked Ladies Lax had two games: one at Loyola and one at home against Duquesne. Against 6th ranked Loyola, the ladies fell, 13-11. Four ladies racked up two goals (Kelly Lechner, Maggie McCormick, Jenna Mosketti and Ally Heavens). HOWEVAH, against Duqane, PSU was able to come away with a 16-9 win. Lechner and Mackenzie Cyr both had three goals, and were two of the ten ladies to score.
• The Week Ahead: The men's team takes on 16th ranked Ohio State at home, while the ladies have two games: one against now-6th ranked Virginia at UVA and one on Wednesday against James Madison at Happy Valley.

Softball

• Only two games for the softball team because their games against George Washington and North Dakota State were cancelled. Both games were on Sunday, with the first game being against Iowa State and the second being against UNC.
• Against the Cyclones, PSU won 9-8 in 8 innings. Cassidy Bell did her best impression of Mike Trout, going 3 for 4 with 6 RBI's and 2 walks.
• The team didn't have quite as much success against North Carolina, losing 10-2. Kailyn Johnson had a home run, which is nice.
• The Week Ahead: Next week's softball section is going to be massive, as they have six games in the coming days. Hofstra, LSU, Texas A&M, Longwood, Central Michigan and Loyola (Chicago) are all on the schedule.

Baseball

• Baseball had a rough week, dropping all three of their games to Liberty (THIS ARTICLE HAS COME FULL CIRCLE).
• The three losses were by scores of 4-1, 12-3 and 6-1. I hit as many home runs as Penn State did. WOOF. There's really not much notable. Liberty just straight whipped their asses.
• The Week Ahead: Baseball has five games this week: against Stephen F. Austin, UTSA, Nebraska-Omaha and Houston twice.
• POSTSCRIPT: Because I got this in way late, the game against SFA already happened. The baseball team won, 4-2, behind a Herculean effort behind pitcher David Walkling. Walkling went 7 2/3 with 7 k's and 2 runs (1 earned).