How best to describe the Fighting DeChellises’ inexplicable letdown against Temple? As Dr. Cosby himself would put it, it was a bunch of filth, flarn, flarn, filth.
I should’ve known better than to have faith in this team being able to turn the corner coming off of a big road win. This one falls on ED as well as the players for coming into this game unprepared and out of sync in front of a crowd expecting big things. If you think these type of craptastic performances are going to go away when the Big Ten slate hits us, then I’ve got Eskimo villages in New York City to sell to you…
There’s barely a semblance of an inside game, particularly on the defensive end, and the backcourt becomes a hell of a lot weaker without Stanley Pringle in there. Danny Morrissey is a streaky shooter whose performance depends on how many wide open looks he get, and tonight he got zero because Temple’s strategy involved locking down on him and rendering him useless.
This brings me to my next question, why is ED so reluctant to go to his bench when the situation is dire? Could Woodyard and Babb done any worse out there? If he’s actually relying on a 7-man rotation to carry him through the season then we’re in deeper shit than initially thought.
Garbage like this has become an all-too-familiar sight under ED and today’s game was yet another painful, glaring, piece of evidence as to why he’s not the man to take PSU basketball to the next level.
I realize I have yet to say anything about the Terrelle Pryor situation. Really, that’s because there isn’t much to say that hasn’t already been regurgitated over and over again. It’s pretty much down to us and Ohio State at this point and one can only hope that Tom Bradley and (*gasp*) JayPa’s going over the top (Stallone-style) in terms of pursuing TP will make the difference whenever a final decision is made.
In other news…
Did anyone happen to catch the Clemson-UNC game Sunday Night? Unfortunately, my shitty cable system doesn’t get FSN so I was forced to follow via ESPN.com’s GameTracker. Talk about a heartbreaker though, Clemson was winless in Chapel Hill in 52 tries and looked to be well on their way to finally breaking their futility streak, leading a depleted, point guard-less UNC team by double digits for practically the entire game…Until the bottom fell out in the final few minutes of regulation and UNC rallied like mad to ultimately win in 2 OTs. This now the second time this season that Clemson has lost to UNC when they seemingly had the victory in hand, two losses that come Selection Sunday, could bite them in the ass. There’s a million different analogies you can use to describe such heartache, so use your imagination wisely…
While I’m still on the subject of college hoops, ESPN’s Pat Forde has a “coaches on the hot seat” section in his latest column but a certain head coach isn’t listed on it. Perhaps, they didn’t get the memo that PSU is back to its usual ways of losing to crappy teams on the road that they should be beating?
Maryland and Virginia primaries are being voted on right now, and my fingers are crossed in hopes that Barack Obama will continue to build off the February momentum he’s managed to gain, he’s got the better chance at knocking off John McCain come November than the ultra-polarizing Billary ever would.
Well, the Fighting DeChellises are about to tip-off at Purdue in hopes of faring better than the 22-point clusterfuck of a loss suffered at the BJC a couple of weeks ago.
The big question of course, is: How will this team respond after pulling off the biggest win of the season Saturday night against Michigan State? If you’re thinking along the lines of Rants From The District, not too well because he is picking Purdue to cover the spread as 11-point favorites.
I, on the other hand, have a feeling that PSU will beat the spread and also hang tough with the Boilermakers for most of the game before faltering in the final 5 minutes of the game…Although the last time I made such a prediction it shot “clue goo” right back in my face.
Is that a “raging clue” HHV has? Or is he still excited over last Saturday night’s upset?
RFTD and I remain tied at 7-4 but that is obviously bound to change after tonight. The only question of course, is who will emerge on top…
In case you don’t know already, PSU’s athletic department is trying to initiate a cause called “Target Ten” in which the goal is for 10,000 student tickets to be sold for tonight’s nationally televised game (7 PM ET, ESPN) against Ohio State. If this goal is met, then the proceeds will all go to THON.
As for the game itself: We’re a 7-point underdog tonight, and given how fucking terrible we’ve been playing lately, that’s a pretty generous line. We’ve put up less than 50 points in two of our last three contests and Ed DeChellis has gotten so desperate, he’s now resorted to starting Stanley Pringle along with Talor Battle to go along with Danny Morrissey in a 3-guard lineup. Meanwhile SENIOR GUARD Mike Walker continues to get sporadic minutes and gets pulled the moment he makes one mistake, no wonder he didn’t take a fucking shot in 14 minutes of play. And even though I didn’t watch the game, I find it hard to believe he didn’t have a couple of open looks during his playing time.
Do I even want to go into details about how dismal rebounding has been? Cornley’s not 100%, the knee injury that sidelined him for most of November is flaring up again and nobody has really stepped up to fill the void. Sure, DJ Jackson and Andrew Jones might pitch in a little, but it hasn’t been nearly enough to prevent a sharp decline.
As to how Ohio State will attack us, pick your poison: Do you want Kosta Koufos and Othello Hunter killing you inside, or would you rather suffer a “barrage of threes” from David Lighty, Jamar Butler, or Jon Deibler? Either way, I see this thing getting rather ugly tonight given our lack of “D” lately.
Anyway, I’m taking OSU to cover the spread and I’m sure Rants From The District will end up doing so as well…If he gets his pick to me in time. Here are the current standings in our “Contest”
HHV 6-3
RFTD 6-3
As you can see, my attempt to make things interesting by going against common sense and picking PSU to beat the spread at Iowa just for the sake of differing from my competition was another prime example of “When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong.”
No need to go into details about the abortion that was Wednesday Night’s basketball game against Purdue. It was dispicable on all levels to say the least and it reminded me all too much of the shellackings from middle-of-the-pack Big Ten teams we used to take on a regular basis during the final years of the Jerry Dunn era.
I’m done defending Ed DeChellis, the guy is no doubt a great guy and a great ambassador for PSU who loves his alma mater dearly, but unfortunately that hasn’t meant much as far as results on the court. While I feel the talent has been upgraded from the end of the JD era, the coaching still seems all too familiar from a crap-tastic standpoint. How many more times do we have to see a half-court offense that looks like it’s being run by a bunch of pickup players that just met five minutes ago? How many more times to we have to see quirky substitution patterns? (i.e. Mike Walker getting benched after one dumb mistake but Talor Battle gets kept in the game for as long as he wants, no matter how erratic he gets at times). How many more times to do we have to see a lack of fire/urgency in the the coaching staff and the players? There is no excuse for any of this garbage continuing in Year 5, even with Geary Claxton gone.
Worst of all, how many more times do I have to hear one of our players complain that they’re “not having fun” out there? It feels like deja vu all over again…This program has hit a brick wall and with the lack of commitments from the current recruiting class I can only see things sliding backwards from here.
Iit’s time for Tim Curley to swallow his pride, admit the safe, “in the family” hire didn’t work, and shell out the cash for a known coach with a pedigree for winning, recruiting, and getting the most out of his players. This program needs a shot in the arm like nobody’s business…
I’ve come to the rash conclusion that Penn State basketball is cursed: We go from winning back-to-back road games and playing with a level of confidence not seen in years, to blowing a 16-point second half lead at home in front of a larger-than-normal crowd, and then seeing one of the best players in PSU hoops history end his career prematurely in an uninspired blowout loss at home. It’s an absolute roundhouse kick to the face for long-time fans such as myself.
I’ll never forget a few years ago, when I saw Geary break out as a freshman in the Big Ten. The alley-oop dunk he threw down against Michigan at the BJC will forever be entrenched in my mind as it marked the first time since the magical Sweet 16 run of the Joe Crispin days that we had seen a PSU team successfully execute such a play. The guy was an athletic specimen the likes of which had not been seen in a long time: He was only 6’5″ but very quick and had pogo sticks for feet to go along with his freakishly long wingspan. That wingspan allowed him to block shots of guys several inches taller than him and more importantly, to out-rebound them. When Jamelle Cornley arrived the following year, the two immediately clicked together on the court as an undersized, but bruising frontcourt. Geary was (and still is) a rather quiet guy when it came to getting pumped and firing up his teammates but that’s where Jamelle came into the picture, he was the yin to Geary’s yang, the more vocal of the bunch.
A picture that will always be ingrained in my mind…
We all knew this was going to come to an end someday, we just didn’t expect it to happen this soon, this way. Our dream scenario consisted of someday seeing Claxton and Cornley as upperclassmen, with the proper supporting cast in place, leading PSU to the NCAA Tournament.
Unfortunately, that dream will never come into fruition and it almost makes me want to cry because a guy like Claxton certainly deserved a happy ending to his career here at PSU because he easily could have spurned us for an established program. You see: Geary was from Connecticut and as a senior in high school, UConn offered him a scholarship provided that he attend one year of prep school.
Think about it for a second: If Jim Calhoun offered you a basketball scholarship at a storied program like UConn, most of you would probably be willing to do whatever he tells you to do in order to get the schollie. Geary however, was not one of those types, the kid wanted to play college ball sooner rather than later, and with Ed DeChellis desperately searching for replacement scholarship players after driving out several of Jerry Dunn’s dead wood during his first year, he found himself the recipient of a scholarship to play immediately at PSU and to help start a new winning tradition. While the latter part didn’t occur, Geary will likely be forever grateful that somebody out there believed in him that much. And we, the fans, will be forever grateful as well for choosing to believe in us when he had barely any reason to do so himself.
This injury also creates a few compelling storylines for the rest of the year:
Will this team continue to scrap and give it their all every game, fighting and clawing their way towards what are now very grim-looking postseason prospects? Or will they tumble down the rabbit hole like they did last year during their 13-game losing skid?
How will the key bench players (Brooks, DJ, Jones, Pringle) respond? Can they step up to help fill the statistical crater left behind by their fallen comrade?
Ed DeChellis: Does Tim Curley cut him a break at season’s end if the team does in fact, slip-slide towards another dismal finish?
It’s close to 4 AM, and I’m buzzing like a celebrity in Studio 54 so I’ll keep this short…You can also check out a Minnesota blogger’s preview of this game at Paging Jim Shikenjanski
PSU is a 2-point favorite tomorrow against Minnesota (2 PM ET, Big Ten Network). I can’t say I’m too surprised considering how even the two teams are, aside from the fact that they sport nearly identical overall records (10-4 for PSU, 11-3 for Minny), both teams have been very competitive against the bigger-name opponents thus far. Minny hung tough in a six-point defeat at Michigan State while the Fighting DeChellises won at Illinois for the second straight time last Sunday.
Both teams also feature solid inside play, Geary Claxton and Jamelle Cornley lead PSU of course, while Dan Coleman (14.4 ppg, 6.3 rpg) and Spencer Tollackson (10.4 ppg, 4.5 rpg) will be a handful for us to handle inside.
In the backcourt department, I have to give the advantage to Danny Morrissey and the speedy point guard duo of Talor Battle/Stanley Pringle, all this despite the fact that Minnesota features a dyn-o-mite 3-point bomber who comes off their bench in Blake Hoffbarer. You might know Blake as a YouTube celebrity for his improbable “winning the state title while lying on his back” shot that inspired armchair point guards nationwide last year.
The advantage belongs to Tubby Smith in the coaching department, hands-down. I dunno how he recruited so poorly at Kentucky, but there is no denying that he gets the most out of his players. The fact that he already has 11 wins with practically the same Minnesota squad that failed to reach double digits in wins last season is a credit to Tubby’s coaching ability and perhaps a sign that he was under appreciated in Lexington.
Still, I’m going to pick PSU to cover the spread and pull a Tom Emanski (back-to-back-to-back) in Big Ten winning streaks for the first time since the Bryce Jordan Center was brand new and major music acts would show up to play (as opposed to the shitty country arists and third-rate pop-rock bands like Nickelback showing up these days). This has to do with the fact that I’m totally drinking the blue and white kool-aid after back-to-back road wins plus the fact that we’re undefeated in the BJC and I don’t want to see that come to an end tomorrow.
We’ll see what Rants From The District decides to do with his pick, but to recap the standings in the contest:
Happy Hour Valley 5-0
Rants From The District 4-1
Also, here’s a few other picks from some bigger games in college hoops:
I’m taking UNC (-20) and the points over NC State right now. Tyler Hansbrough has been flat-out unstoppable (see: dunking past the Jolly Green Giant) and the Tar Heels also feature dangerous perimeter shooters such as Wayne Ellington should teams decide to focus their defensive tenacity on Hansbrough. Look for UNC to force the tempo early against a Wolfpack team that wants to slow things down
I like UConn (+10) to beat the spread, but not beat Georgetown. Georgetown’s just way too talented/disciplined for the Huskies to take them out, particularly on the road. Look for a quality battle in the paint between UConn’s Hasheem “We Got” Thabeet (eat your heart out, Chris Berman) and GTown’s Roy Hibbert,.
Kansas (-10.5) will beat Nebraska in Lincoln, though I like Nebraska to beat the spread. KU is just a flat-out better team that is currently clicking on all cylinders and features five different players average 10+ ppg scoring but I like the Huskers with their newfound home-court advantage (they already upset Oregon at home earlier this season) to keep things interesting to the very end. Aleks Maric will be a beast down low for the Cornhuskers, who are looking to give fans something to cheer about after a clusterfuck of a football season.
Don’t blink now but Washington State basketball is for real: They went on the road at Gonzaga, an established mid-major powerhouse and not only gave them their second loss ever in their current home building, but held them to 47 points in yet another great leap forward for a program that came out of nowhere last year to earn a #3 seed in the NCAA Tournament and get to the second round.
Where did these guys even come from in the first place? Upon first glance at their players, they look like extras from “Hang Time”. Upon further review however, they have themselves have a quality backcourt led by Derrick Low and Kyle Weaver, both of whom represented Team USA at the Pan-American Games this past summer while the front court is powered by Robbie Cowgill and Aussie superstar Aron Baynes, who should be noted for his quality impersonations of Eric Montross (see pic below).
Quite possibly the biggest reason however, for the Cougar’s great recent success has been quality coaching via Tony Bennett, who inherited the program from his famous father, Dick, who brought to the program his infamous “snail’s pace” offense along coupled with his strong emphasis on defense that earned him a Final Four berth at Wisconsin. Keep in mind that when the Bennetts arrived in Pullman, Washington back in 2003, the program was an absolute joke and a bottom-feeder in the Pac-10. Their last dance in the NCAA Tournament had been in the early 90’s when Kelvin Sampson was coaching them (and maintaining a reasonable phone bill), and they had a laundry list’s worth of futility streaks: They had never beaten UCLA in Pauley Pavilion, had a 30+ game losing streak to Arizona, and were in the midst of a double-digit Pac-10 road losing streak. That all changed though, once the Bennetts instilled some discipline and character into their players and began to recruit hidden gems that fell below elite program’s radars and look where they are today, #6 in the latest polls and undefeated at 8-0.
Now, some of you may be wondering: “Why in the world are you choosing to write about something as obscure as Washington State hoops? What’s gotten into you? Why don’t you talk about JoePa’s recent Hall-Of-Fame induction or something?” Well, it’s quite simple actually: Washington State is a giant “Fuck You” to all the people who claim that Penn State can never field a successful basketball program because we’re located in the middle of nowhere and because we don’t have any tradition.
I’ve got news for you people: Pullman, Washington is also located in the middle of nowhere, in the uppermost northwest state of the mainland United States. It’s a place that Wazzu’s rivals, Washington, have jokingly called “The armpit of the state.” and it’s one of the last places on Earth one would think of when talking about basketball tradition.
Bottom Line: If it can happen at a school like Washington State, it can happen anywhere. What Curley/Spanier really need to do now is take a good hard look at the current state of PSU basketball (Hint: It starts with the coaching staff) and ask themselves: “Are we really being the best we can possibly be with our quality facilities and sleeping dragon of a fanbase?” You know, if they truly care about fielding a winning basketball team…
Being one of about 50 PSU basketball fans on the planet, I felt like I should do my own little preview on the upcoming season, especially considering none of the other PSU bloggers save for Black Shoe Diaries gives more than a passing mention about the program.
Last year, the team was coming off an unprecedented NIT berth and was returning all of its key players minus Travis Parker, a player that while a key loss was thought to be balanced out by our returning players and one or both of the newcomers, DJ Jackson and Andrew Jones contributing.
By now, you all know that didn’t turn out to be the case as both newcomers ended up redshirting, and the returning players could not come close to building upon the previous year’s success as the offense resembled that of a middle school team while the defense was about as existent as a sober kid at a Cancun beach party.
I’ve decided to split this thing into two parts:Part One will focus on the players, while Part Two will provide the schedule/season outlook.
THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN (Key Returnees)
Geary Claxton – The second-best returning scorer (16.3) and top returning rebounder (8.3 rebs) in the Big Ten, he is arguably one of the most athletically gifted kids in PSU history and is Mr. Do Everything on this team.
Jamelle Cornley – The most firey leader on this team, he’s 6’4” but plays like he’s several inches taller.Like Claxton, he was an impact player as a frosh (becoming PSU’s first Big Ten Freshman of Year award winner) and has only continued to assert himself as a bonafide Big Ten forward. Is out for the next couple weeks with a knee injury but will likely be back by the end of November, if not sooner.
Mike Walker –A sharpshooter and a bit of daredevil when it comes to his perimeter shooting, whether it’s a fadeaway three pointer or a pull up three pointer on a fast break, he’s helped inspire a new catch phrase amongst my friends and I, the “Walker Shot.”Walker’s off to a hot start this year, lighting up Slippery Rock in the exhibition.
Danny Morrissey – The other sharpshooter on the team, he too was on fire from downtown in the exhibition.He’s also the team’s Personal Jesus as he’s sacrificed himself many times by taking charges.Look for Danny to continue to be Danny and fire away.
Brandon Hassell – Showed flashes of brilliance at times last season (The home game against Indiana) but allowed himself to be pushed around for the most part during the Big Ten season.He dressed up as Apollo Creed during the “Dinner and Dunks” open practice held for students and season ticket holders, which was a pretty bold statement on his behalf…Unless of course, he was dressing up as Apollo from Rocky IV.
Joonas Suotamo – Part of the Euro Invasion of 2005 along with Nikola Obradovic and the recently-departed Milos Bogetic.Was fittingly dressed as Ivan Drago during the “Dinner and Dunks” ceremony the other week, as that was the first person I thought of when I saw his mug on the official team webpage.Probably won’t see too much action unless we suffer some injuries up front, but if he does get in the game he will break you…
Nikola Obradovic – The only reason I put him on here was because he looks a tad bit like a Serbian Ralph Macchio.I also recommend yelling out “NEEEECOLA” (like in those “Ricola” cough drop commercials) whenever he hits a 3-pointer during garbage time as it is guaranteed laughs every time.
David “DJ” Jackson (NOTE: This was written prior to the start of the St. Francis game) – Had his season cut short last year after a stress fracture forced him to medically redshirt after just three games.Another athletic stalwart who was hyped as a hidden gem for our coaching staff, it sounded as if he was tearing it up in practice this pre-season before that same leg that he suffered the stress fracture in started to get sore again and was held out of the exhibition.Think of him as PSU basketball’s answer to Abe Koroma: Nobody knows how long he will be out, or if he will even be back, but we are all crossing our fingers and praying that he does so we can see this kid live up to his potential.
Andrew Jones III – The real “Mystery Man” on this team.Was redshirted last year because he wasn’t big enough and the staff felt he had NBA potential if developed properly.Since last year, he’s packed on 30 pounds and will be splitting time with Hassell at the center spot.He was very foul-happy against Slippery Rock but I can excuse it since it was his first collegiate game, if he can get his clutching/grabbing/hacking under control though, he can be fairly productive.
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK (Key Newcomers)
Talor Battle – The “Battleship” as a certain poster on the PennStateHoops.com forum calls him.Under 6-foot but super-athletic with a good shot and most importantly he can penetrate the lane which will free things up for Walker and Morrissey (or whoever is out on the perimeter).It will seem like a breath of fresh air when this kid or Stanley Pringle is running the point.Did I also mention that he can dunk?His picking of a Slippery Rock player’s pocket and subsequent two-handed throw down was a very fitting way for this kid to score his first collegiate points, even if the stats say it never happened.
Jeff Brooks – 6’8” small forward, was yet another hidden gem DeChellis and company have managed to find.We stole this kid straight out of Louisville and by the time Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith came after him, it was too late.From what I saw in the exhibition, he’s raw but very athletic with plenty of “upside” as Jay Bilas likes to say.He needs to pack on a little more weight if he’s going to be able to bang with the Big Ten post players.Otherwise, the sky’s the limit with this kid.
Stanley Pringle –Like Mooch Jackson before him did for cornrows, Stanley Pringle will go down in PSU history as the first player to sport dreadlocks.Much like Battle, he’s around 6-feet, super-quick, and has the ability to penetrate the lane.I hope he’s got his mid-range game down because he’s not going to have the luxury of being able to drive for layups like he did against Slippery Rock when he faces Big Ten-caliber competition. Was also the slam-dunk contest champion at “Dinner and Dunks.”
Once he pops, you cant, you can’t, stop.
Schyler King –Didn’t do anything notable in the exhibition but from what I’ve read in practice reports he’s a good shooter and pretty athletic.Look for him to be coming off the bench to spell someone for a few minutes at the shooting guard/small forward positions.One look at his name also tells me he must have “mad ups” so that’s another reason to be excited for him.
Posted by Happy Hour Valley 
Happy Hour Valley 