Posts tagged ‘NCAA’
The Future of the NCAA—and Penn State
The biggest takeaway from a panel discussion Wednesday night titled “The Future of the NCAA and its Membership,” I thought, came at the end. And it didn’t come from either of the biggest names on the panel: Gene Corrigan or Cedric Dempsey, both former NCAA presidents.
It was R. Scott Kretchmar, Penn State’s former NCAA faculty representative and current professor of kinesiology, who said, “I think one of the difficulties that faculty and others who love Penn State are having at this time is, the issue of knowing that we need to move forward—we can’t keep tilling the soil; we have to get on with it—but the circumstances under which we’re now suffering were so unusual that it’s very difficult to do that.
“And so there may be a period of time where we have to ask questions: Were we treated fairly? Was there any kind of justice here? But eventually, we’re going to move on. Penn State’s strong. We’re going to have a good future.”
Those were the questions on everyone’s mind Wednesday night, and Kretchmar accurately described the mood of the crowd, a mix of students and townspeople.
Look at the title of the event, which was (more…)
Posnanski and Paterno: A Lesson about Reporting

Author and journalist Joe Posnanski, right, discussed his book on Joe Paterno last Friday in the HUB. Malcolm Moran moderated the event.
We asked our intern, Erika Spicer, to attend Joe Posnanski’s talk Friday at the HUB. We’ve read and written so much over the past 10 months about Paterno and his legacy, and we were interested in Erika’s perspective—both as an undergraduate, and in particular as a journalism major. Here’s what she came away with.
As I sat in my plastic chair in Alumni Hall waiting for Paterno author Joe Posnanski to speak, I mulled over the fact I probably wasn’t going to learn anything new.
I am so tired of listening to people rehash the events surrounding Joe Paterno, I thought to myself, feeling a twinge of guilt as I sat among some Paterno supporters. With the release of Paterno in the midst of a new era for Penn State football, I knew where a lot of this discussion was headed Friday afternoon.
As I predicted, questions like, “How do you think Joe Paterno would feel about the NCAA sanctions?” popped up when moderator Malcolm Moran, director of the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism, which sponsored the talk, gave audience members the opportunity to ask Posnanski questions. Not that I could blame them –– after all, Posnanski not only spent (more…)
Joe Paterno Has Lung Cancer
As if the events of the past two weeks haven’t been upsetting enough on many levels, now it’s being reported that Joe Paterno has been diagnosed with “a treatable form of lung cancer,” according to a statement released by one of Paterno’s sons, Scott.
According to this story from The Patriot-News, the 84-year-old coach was diagnosed after being hospitalized during the Nebraska game last Saturday. The Citizens Voice newspaper in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., published a report earlier Friday saying that Paterno had been treated Wednesday night at an on-campus “infirmary” and at a local hospital.
Here’s the text of Scott Paterno’s statement, which was provided to The Associated Press:
“Last weekend my father was diagnosed with a treatable form of lung cancer during a follow-up visit for a bronchial illness. He is currently undergoing treatment and his doctors are optimistic that he will make a full recovery. As everyone can appreciate, this is a deeply personal matter for my parents, and we simply ask that his privacy be respected as he proceeds with treatment.”
This news is just the most shocking of what turned out to be an eventful day.
The Faculty Senate passed a resolution asking for an independent investigation into the situation, conducted by a committee with no ties to Penn State. The NCAA announced it will investigate Penn State for, essentially, a lack of institutional control. (Clicking on this link from Penn State Live will take you to a PDF of the NCAA’s letter from President Mark Emmert.) And The New York Times reported that The Second Mile, Jerry Sandusky’s charity, is going to fold.
All of this happened within about three hours this afternoon. The Paterno and Second Mile stories broke within an hour of each other. I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling overwhelmed.
Lori Shontz, senior editor
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