At Home in The Garden
April 1, 2009 at 11:55 am Ryan Jones 1 comment
The semifinals and final of the National Invitational Tournament, college basketball’s oldest postseason tourney, have always been played at Madison Square Garden. Folks watching Tuesday night’s NIT semifinals can be forgiven, though, if they thought Penn State was playing a home game.
Talor Battle has the Nittany Lions one win from the NIT championship.
The terrific turnout of Nittany Lion fans at the Garden last night played a huge role in Penn State’s 67-59 victory over Notre Dame. Some 16 buses left State College Tuesday morning, carrying students who paid $20 each for roundtrip bus fare and a game ticket. Among those in attendance (though I’m guessing they didn’t take the bus) were Lady Lion basketball coach Coquese Washington, women’s volleyball coach Russ Rose, and athletic director Tim Curley ’76, ’78g — all of whom got plenty of ESPN airtime because they were sitting next to Joe Paterno.
JoePa’s presence was a big deal for the broadcast folks, who pulled Joe down for a lengthy courtside interview during the first half. If you missed it, keep an eye out for it on YouTube — it’s classic, unfiltered Paterno. But the ESPN crew also couldn’t say enough about the Penn State fan turnout, showing video of the bus armada leaving State College (sadly also unavailable online, although local station WTAJ did a cool feature that you can see here) and constantly mentioning the support of the students and alumni in attendance — you can read more about the home-game atmosphere in a column by Collegian beat writer Matt Brown.
Word is those $20 bus-and-game tickets will be available again Thursday, when the Nittany Lions hope for a similar turnout — and a similar result — when they face Baylor in the NIT title game. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. on ESPN.
Quick Wednesday afternoon update: I failed to mention that one of the buses that made the Happy Valley-to-Big Apple trek on Tuesday was sponsored by the Alumni Association. My colleague Casey Keiber ’00, ’07g tells me the Association is sponsoring another bus for Thursday’s return trip, to go along with the 18 student buses (!) set to make the trip. Can’t wait to be in the Garden on Thursday night.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Entry filed under: Joe Paterno, Nittany Lion basketball. Tags: Casey Keiber, Coquese Washington, ESPN, Madison Square Garden, NIT, Russ Rose, Tim Curley.
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1. Garden Party: A Night with the NIT Champs « The Penn Stater | April 3, 2009 at 5:34 pm
[...] I assume didn’t take the bus to Manhattan was native New Yorker Joe Paterno. Just as he did during Tuesday’s semifinal, JoePa sat a few rows behind the Penn State bench. He was also the game’s biggest halftime [...]