Posts filed under ‘Lady Lion basketball’
Hoops Wins, and Kerry Collins Moving On
Both Penn State basketball teams earned nice wins Wednesday night as part of the annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge. The Lady Lions, ranked 15th or 16th depending on which poll you go by, dominated No. 13/14 North Carolina in a 103-84 win at the Bryce Jordan Center. A school-record 14 three-pointers contributed greatly to the outcome. The men were a bit more subtle in pulling off a 62-54 road win over Boston College. Great results for both teams.
Unrelated, but a story worth sharing: Kerry Collins ’94 Lib is the focus of a lengthy profile in Thursday’s New York Times. It’s a great story on the former Nittany Lion quarterback, who retired for good last month after a final, frustrating season with the Indianapolis Colts. He’s focused now on his family and a burgeoning career as a country music songwriter.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Coaching Speculation, and Other Sports
The university’s announcement of a search committee to help choose the next head football coach has added fuel to the speculative fire for those trying to predict who that coach might be. Of course it’s all just that—speculation—but there are some educated opinions on the matter, including those at Blue White Illustrated and the Patriot News. Just who that coach will be, and whether he’ll be hired before the Nittany Lions play (as expected) in a bowl game, remains to be seen.
There’s less intrigue in most other areas of the Penn State sports world. Among the things we know:
—Devon Still is the Big Ten’s best lineman. It was obvious to anyone who watched the Nittany Lions play this season, and on Monday the league made it official. Here’s the senior defensive tackle (and probable first-round NFL draft pick next year) talking about his success:
—The women’s volleyball team is back in the NCAA tournament. The four-time defending national champs had a “down” year by their recent standards, finishing the regular season 23-7 and earning the No. 8 seed for the NCAAs. In spite of all that, something tells us they won’t be overlooked. The Lions open the tournament against Liberty University; that match is set for 7:30 p.m. Friday at Rec Hall.
—Hoops season is in full swing.The No. 15 Lady Lions look to improve on a 5-1 start Wednesday night when they host North Carolina at the Jordan Center; also on Wednesday, the Nittany Lions (5-2) travel to Boston College. Both games are part of the annual Big Ten-ACC Challenge.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
For One Night, Basketball Was Back in Rec Hall
It wasn’t like I remembered, back when I was an undergrad and they played actual basketball games in Rec Hall. But walking into the old gym Wednesday night for Penn State’s Hoops Madness event, I still felt something like nostalgia.
It felt pretty good.
Hoops Madness worked on a couple of levels, reminding old guys like me what a great building Rec Hall was (and might still be, someday…) for basketball, while hyping up students for the upcoming Nittany and Lady Lions seasons. Not much is expected of the men this season, but there’s plenty of excitement about new head coach Patrick Chambers and his high-energy style. The women, meanwhile, enter the 2011-12 season as favorites for the Big Ten title.
On Wednesday, the teams came together in front of a few thousand fans in Rec Hall, (more…)
A New Era Dawns for Nittany Lion Hoops
Tim Frazier was looking for an example that would fully convey his new coach’s intensity. He wasn’t lacking for options.
“Coach is pure energy, all the time,” Frazier said Tuesday. “Even in free throw drills.”
Patrick Chambers is in the middle of the action
That assessment certainly jibes with everything we’ve seen and heard from Patrick Chambers in the five months since he was named head coach of the Penn State men’s basketball program. Whether with fans, the media, or his players, Chambers seemingly is always intense—intensely positive about the program’s potential, and intensely focused on how he plans to maximize it.
Chambers and his players met the press Tuesday at the team’s preseason media day, where they explained how intensity and optimism might translate into wins.
Penn State comes into the 2011-12 season without four starters—and the overwhelming majority of its points, rebounds, and assists—from a team that last year reached the NCAA tournament. Outside consensus is that the Nittany Lions won’t be able to overcome those graduation losses—they’re a popular pick to finish dead last in the now-12-team Big 10. Frazier, a junior guard, is the only returning starter, and he knows his days as a supporting player are over.
“I don’t want to put it all on Tim Frazier,” Chambers said. “But (more…)
Lady Lion Basketball: Back, and Dreaming Big
When last we saw them, Coquese Washington and the members of the Lady Lion basketball team were in tears. This was in March, when Penn State lost in heartbreaking fashion to DePaul in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The coach and her players have had half a year to try to forget the pain of blowing a huge second-half lead that night. Some of them have chosen to do the opposite.
“I think this team, Alex and Maggie in particular, won’t forget it,” Washington said Thursday during the Lady Lions’ preseason media day. “They won’t let it go. They hate to lose, and particularly hate to lose in the way that we did. So I don’t need to beat them over the head with it. It lives with them. It lived with them all summer.”
Maggie Lucas meets the press
“Alex and Maggie” are junior point guard Alex Bentley and sophomore sharp-shooter Maggie Lucas. They are two of the biggest reasons the Lady Lions made that NCAA appearance—the program’s first in six years—and arguably the best players on a team that enters 2011-12 ranked in the top 20 nationally by Athlon and The Sporting News. What’s not arguable is that Bentley and Lucas suffered their lowest moments as college players in that season-ending loss last March.
Bentley, who enters her junior season as (more…)
Best Penn State Games? Best Creamery Flavor? This Book Has You Covered
When David and Matt Pencek began attending Penn State football games, they didn’t care who was playing. As long as there were guys in blue and white with no names on their jerseys, yummy food at the tailgate, and music from the Blue Band, they were cool. That said, David was 6, and Matt only a few years older.
Said David, “We saw the Colgates, the Akrons …”
They’re still a little bitter that they were left with their grandparents for the classic 1982 Nebraska game, but they didn’t allow that slight to sour them on Penn State football—or the university. And now David ’94 and Matt ’91 have teamed to write The Great Book of Penn State Sports Lists, which they call “the book that will settle all those debates about Penn State sports … or is it (more…)
For Lady Lions, a Painful Ending, Full of Promise
Coquese Washington and Julia Trogele walked in with sniffles and moist, red eyes. Nikki Greene just looked dazed. The coach and two players who represented the Lady Lion basketball team in front of the media late Monday had different ways of showing it, but the pain was evident on the faces of all three.
Their season was over. The end had come swift and cruel.
Penn State lost to DePaul Monday in the second round of the NCAA tournament, falling 75-73. The final points came on a pair of DePaul free throws with 4.9 seconds left, turning a tie game into a deficit the Lady Lions simply ran out of time to erase. That they led for nearly 39 of the game’s 40 minutes only magnified the sting.
Afterward, they fulfilled their obligation and met the press, Trogele, a senior captain, talking willingly while Greene, a soft-spoken sophomore who appeared overwhelmed by the moment, sat silently next to her. I only covered the Lady Lions twice this season—the first time being a regular-season loss to Michigan State—so I didn’t have a great sense of what makes these players and coaches tick.
On Monday, I saw enough to come away thoroughly impressed.
It was Trogele, a versatile starting forward, (more…)
NCAA Dreams, Shattered and Still Alive
I felt terrible Thursday for the guys on the Penn State basketball team, but as someone who has closely followed the team this season, straddling the line between media member and unabashed fan, I didn’t actually feel that bad myself. To lose an NCAA first-round game that way—on a contested last-second shot against Temple—was brutal, but it’s also what makes the tournament great. All those shining moments and fantastic finishes inevitably leave one side feeling crushed.
On Thursday, Penn State was just one of a few teams to see its season end in the dying seconds. There will be many more over the next couple of weeks. Had the Nittany Lions gotten the ball last, we’d be talking about their chances Saturday to pull a bigger upset and make the Sweet 16. That’s how it goes.
Consolation? Well, sure, in a sense. As Talor Battle (pictured), moments after the final game of his remarkable career, summed up, “For the rest of my life, I’ll know that we didn’t just come out here and get beat. It took a heck of a shot to beat us.”
For some of the best local perspectives on the game, here’s coverage from Blue White Illustrated, Fight on State, the Centre Daily Times, and the Harrisburg Patriot-News.
Penn State athletes are far from done in NCAA competition, though. The Big Ten champion wrestling team was in first place after the first day of the three-day NCAA championship tournament, placing seven wrestlers into the quarterfinals of the winner’s bracket. As of early Friday afternoon, the Lions had four wrestlers through to the semis, and looked to be locked in an extremely tight battle with Cornell in the team standings. It should come down to the wire on Saturday night.
And on Saturday morning, the sixth-seeded Lady Lion basketball team opens NCAA play with an 11 a.m. tipoff against Dayton at the Bryce Jordan Center. You can find more information here.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Think Pink
If you end up missing the mark with a certain someone’s Valentine’s gift, or forget it all together, you are in luck. The Lady Lion basketball team launched the Pink Zone Auction this week, which is being hosted on charitybuzz.net. There is a wide array of auction items, 46 in total. 
You could bid on a chance to meet Tony Bennett, spend an evening with ex-CIA spy Valerie Plame Wilson ’85 and her husband, experience a taping of Saturday Night Live in New York with Penn State President Graham Spanier and his wife, or collect a few signed (and used) Paterno items. My favorite item in the bunch is the chance to have Chip Kidd ’86, famed book jacket designer, design a cover just for you.
The goal is to raise $150,000 with proceeds benefitting breast cancer charities. There is still plenty of time to bid. The auction opened this past Monday and goes until March 2.
To view a full list of auction items click here.
If one auction isn’t enough for you, another Pink Zone online auction is taking place at gopsusports.com. It also runs until March 2. Happy bidding.
Jessie Knuth, graphic designer
The Honors Roll in for Penn State Student Athletes
Senior offensive lineman Stefen Wisniewski last week became Penn State’s first ever three-time Academic All-American; on Monday, we were reminded that he’s just as sharp on the field as in the classroom. Wisniewski was named an All-American by the American Football Coaches Association, the first of a handful of recognized All-American teams to be announced for the 2010 season.
He wasn’t the only Penn Stater honored in the past few days. Corey Hertzog, who led the nation with 20 goals for the men’s soccer team this season, has been named national Player of the Year by TopDrawerSoccer.com. Hertzog led the Nittany Lions to the third round of the NCAA tournament, where they lost Sunday to defending national champion Maryland.
And on Monday, Lady Lion rookie Maggie Lucas was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week for the second time this season. The 5-foot-9 guard is averaging better than 15 points per game for the Lady Lions, who are off to a 6-1 start.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
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