I often think that my life is like the old Willie Nelson song. You know the one — “On the Road Again.”
As I write today’s column, I am sitting in Value City Arena on the campus of The Ohio State University. By the time you read this, the outcome of the Penn State-Ohio State women’s basketball game will have already been decided.
And although there is a big game here tonight, all the talk in and around Columbus is about one guy — Jeannette High School’s Terrelle Pryor, the nation’s No. 1 football recruit.
In today’s edition of Morelli OnLion, we’ll take a look at Penn State’s latest verbals, check in on the men’s and women’s basketball teams and see how the wrestling team fared over the weekend.
We’ll start with football.
Brandon Ware is Penn State’s latest verbal.
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated.)
More Verbals
The Nittany Lions added a pair of verbal commitments over the weekend.
The first was Mike Farrell, a 6-foot-5, 285-pound offensive lineman from Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh. According to sources close to the football program, Farrell is considered a project who probably won’t see the field for at least a couple of seasons.
He is a two-star, according to rivals.com.
The second to commit over the weekend was defensive tackle Brandon Ware, a 6-4, 345-pound monster who could be a force along the line in years to come. Like Farrell, Ware is a bit of a project. He is also a two-star, according to rivals.com.
Penn State now has 15 verbals for the Class of 2008.
Pryor Update
There’s really not much new on the Pryor front. He is reportedly down to Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Oregon and LSU. It appears that Pitt and Duke are on the outside looking in.
The guess here is that Pryor is headed to Michigan. He appears to be tight with Wolverine head coach Rich Rodriguez. With Ryan Mallett gone, the door is open for Pryor to start.
Give Pryor credit, he knows how to work the media. At the Army All-American All-Star Game, he appeared at practice wearing a Michigan hoodie. Then, during the game, Pryor wore a Buckeye sticker on his helmet.
Chances are that we won’t know where Pryor is headed until National Letter of Intent Day on Feb. 6.
Ed DeChellis and the Nittany Lions have fallen upon hard times.
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated.)
Men’s Hoop Update
Since the injury to Geary Claxton, the Penn State men’s basketball team has fallen upon hard times. The Nittany Lions lost twice last week, losing at home to Purdue and on the road at Iowa.
The Lions were able to put up just 19 first-half points in the home loss to Purdue (64-42). Against the Hawkeyes, the Lions fell behind
11-2 and never recovered in a 64-49 loss.
The good news for Penn State is the fact that the youngsters are getting valuable playing time. The bad news is that those same youngsters are not battle-tested for the Big Ten.
Despite the losing streak, head coach Ed DeChellis is still optimistic.
“We still think that we can win basketball games in this league and still do some of the things that we’ve talked about as a team,”
DeChellis said. “But we’ve gotta turn it around here quickly. We can’t concentrate on what we don’t have, we gotta concentrate on what we do have and the guys that we have here are talented kids.”
No doubt about it, this is gut check time for the Nittany Lions. And while they are staring into the teeth of their Big Ten schedule, there is no time to sit and feel sorry for themselves.
Women’s Hoop Update
Like the men, the Penn State Lady Lions have fallen upon hard times as well. The Lady Lions suffered an ugly loss last week, falling at Wisconsin 79-52.
And now, there’s a a disturbing trend developing — again.
The Lady Lions are beginning to struggle on the road yet again. After a 69-57 win at Michigan State on Jan. 5, the Lady Lions (13-7 overall,
4-4 Big Ten) have now lost two consecutive road games. And it’s not that they’re just losing them, it’s how they are losing them.
In losses to Minnesota (67-50 loss on Jan. 13) and then at Wisconsin (79-52), the Lady Lions were simply defenseless. They didn’t scoot out to the perimeter to contest shots and they didn’t challenge in the paint.
Wisconsin — one of the Big Ten’s cellar dwellars this season — didn’t exactly look like a team that had dropped 6 of 7 in conference play.
The Badgers (10-9, 3-6) were a desperate team, and they played like it.
Penn State coach Coquese Washington wasn’t a happy camper after the game. She talked about the lack of defense, which ultimately doomed the Lady Lions.
“I don’t think we defended. They got whatever they wanted on offense,”
Washington said. “We didn’t defend or rebound.”
Penn State gave up 21 offensive rebounds and was outrebounded in the contest, 45-35. The Lady Lions were never really close in the game. It was 9-6 at one point, but Wisconsin used a 16-2 run to take control of the game midway through the first half.
Maybe it was the ice under the arena floor at the Kohl Center that made the Lady Lions go ice cold. At one point in the first half, they were shooting 18 percent from the field.
That just won’t cut it — home or away. But having won at one of the Big Ten’s toughest venues (MSU’s Breslin Center), Washington isn’t buying the “road woes” excuse.
“We’ve gotta learn how to handle physical play,” Washington said. “If teams are going to come out and be physical with us, we can’t be back on our heels.”
Heading into last night’s game in Columbus, Penn State was 1-15 in its last 16 conference road games.
Wrestlers Split
After losing a heartbreaker at Ohio State (22-19) on Friday night, the Penn State wrestling team bounced back with a 25-9 thrashing of Indiana on Sunday afternoon at Rec Hall.
Penn State is now 9-4 overall, 1-2 in the Big Ten.
The loss at Columbus on Friday night was a tough one to swallow, for sure. The Nittany Lions were leading the match, 19-16, when an Ohio State pin in the final bout of the night gave the Bucks a dramatic victory.
On Sunday, things weren’t so dramatic.
Against Indiana, Penn State won seven of 10 bouts and piled up a 23-6 edge in takedowns, all without the services of second-ranked 197-pounder Phil Davis, who was in Chicago at a family funeral.
“I was pleased with the effort. Even the three kids who lost gave 100 percent effort and you can’t ask for anything more than that,” Penn State coach Troy Sunderland said. “They wrestled in all three positions. Our guys sucked it up in a lot of positions where they could have just stopped. I think (165-pounder) Dave Rella (a 2-1 overtime tiebreaker winner over No. 9 Matt Coughlin) was a prime example in the last match. We just gutted out some wins.”
In addition to writing for gantnews.com, Chris Morelli is the editor of Blue White Illustrated, a magazine devoted to Penn State sports. He is also a regular guest on “Front and Center,” which airs on ESPN Radio in Altoona and State College. E-mail him at morellionlion@gmail.com.