With the NFL season officially over, we can get back to business as usual here at Morelli OnLion — Penn State athletics.
It was hard recovering from that Pittsburgh Steeler win, for sure. But after watching every replay on the NFL Network and twirling my Terrible Towel nonstop all week, it’s time to get back to the Nittany Lions.
With that in mind, we’ll hit winter sports hard in today’s edition. In addition to part one of a story about PSU linebacker Sean Lee, we’ll look at the Penn State men’s and women’s basketball teams. We’ll also have our final segment of hoops improvement.
The Return of Sean Lee: Part I
Sean Lee remembers the date — April 11, 2008.
It started out as an ordinary day for the Penn State football team, an ordinary day for Lee. The Nittany Lions were running spring drills and Lee was chasing quarterback Daryll Clark.
Then, something happened.
“I was just running. I can remember coming on a blitz and Daryll rolled out to his right,” Lee recalled. “As my foot’s coming down, I went to change direction real quick. My foot kinda slipped and my knee popped. It was a freak accident. Bad luck, but it’s part of football.”
The diagnosis was a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.
As he lay on the turf in Holuba Hall that afternoon, Lee knew that his season was over.
His collegiate career had dramatically changed.
“It was devastating mainly because I knew in an instant that I wasn’t going to play this season, that I wasn’t going to be physically part of the success. It was tough because I’d never been injured before,”
Lee said. “I tried to be positive because the negativity isn’t going to help you get through anything.”
Lee spent the entire 2008 season rehabbing his injured knee and preparing for 2009, which will be his final season as a Nittany Lion.
As he readies for the challenges that lie ahead, he sat down and took some time to reflect on what brought him to Happy Valley, the rehabilitation process and what lies ahead.
Sean Lee is working his way back from a knee injury.
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated).
The Beginning
Lee grew up in Upper St. Clair, a suburb of Pittsburgh. The son of Craig and Geralyn Lee, he didn’t grow up loving football. In fact, Lee’s first love was basketball.
In a city that bleeds black and gold Steelers football, Lee fell in love with the round ball.
“When I was a young kid, I didn’t really like football,” Lee recalled.
“When I was in high school, I just loved basketball. But I was crazy.
I was a better football player than a basketball player. Eventually, I got more mature when it came to working out, lifting. My senior year of high school, I knew that this was what I wanted to do.”
Craig said that he didn’t push his son down a certain path. Rather, he let him make decisions on his own.
“When Sean was in seventh and eighth grade, he was bigger and stronger than everyone else. He could get rebounds a lot easier than everyone else. I’d tell him, ‘you have to learn how to shoot from the outside.’
He did,” the elder Lee said. “He loved basketball and he worked hard at it. But once he realized that he wasn’t going to be a 6-8 power forward, he took his work ethic and applied it to football. He made himself better.”
As Lee began to focus on football, the scholarship offers began to roll in. In addition to Penn State, he got offers from Pitt, West Virginia, Duke, Georgia Tech, Iowa and Northwestern.
He began paring the list down. Penn State and Iowa quickly jumped to the top. The three-star linebacker, according to rivals.com, admittedly liked Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz.
But he truly bonded with Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Bradley and Penn State became the clear cut choice.
“He’s a great recruiter, he’s a Pittsburgh guy. That’s why a lot of kids from Pittsburgh relate to him. He’s a no-nonsense guy, a blue collar guy. I think we are attracted to that,” Lee said.
Bradley was impressed with Lee’s athletic ability and knew that he was a must-get for the Nittany Lions.
“He had great leadership skills, even in high school,” Bradley recalled. “He came to Penn State with those skills. Having watched him in high school and seeing the way he was — not only with football, but with the basketball team as well — he almost willed his teams to win.”
Bradley convinced Lee that Happy Valley was the place for him. Then, the official visit to University Park just about sealed the deal.
“When you come to Penn State, the university and the atmosphere sells itself,” Lee said.
But ultimately, a visit from Bradley and coach Joe Paterno was the clincher.
“When you have guys like that who work hard and have so much knowledge, it’s a big plus,” Lee said.
When you listen to Bradley talk in glowing terms of Lee, he sounds more like a father than a coach. He’s proud of the way Lee behaves — on and off the field.
“He has no ego. He is well-grounded. He realizes how that how you take praise and criticism determines how far you go. The one thing about him is that he realizes how much he has to learn and how hard he has to work to get better,” Bradley said. “He’s the type of guy who’s never happy with the way he plays. He’s never gonna play the perfect game, but that’s what he’s trying to do. I think he’s learned over time not to be so hard on himself. He’s his own worst critic. He’s harder on himself than anybody else.”
Bursting Onto The Scene
At Linebacker U., it didn’t take Lee long to make an impact. During his freshman year, he was forced into action in the Orange Bowl against Florida State when fellow linebacker Paul Posluszny went down with, ironically enough, a knee injury.
Although he had appeared in games previously, Lee was on the field for 49 snaps in the Nittany Lions’ 26-23 triple-overtime victory on Jan.
3, 2006.
“I think it was good because it was a bowl game and we had been preparing for a month,” Lee said. “So when it came to the looks and the defense, I didn’t have much time to think about it. You go in and play, do what you did in practice.”
In that memorable game, the Penn State defense held the Seminoles to 12 first downs, 26 yards rushing and 3-of-17 third down conversions.
Being forced into action didn’t faze Lee, though.
“I looked in front of me and I saw all those guys on the defensive line — Scott Paxson, Tamba Hali, Jay Alford. I looked next to me and I saw Dan Connor. I said ‘just don’t make a mistake because these guys are really good players.’ Just do my job and I knew I’d be all right,”
Lee said.
All the players Lee mentioned are now in the NFL. And while the Orange Bowl may not have been his coming out party, it certainly established Lee as the next in line at Linebacker U.
“I’d practiced, I’d worked really hard. Basically, I sat and watched Paul every day, then just try to imitate him. I didn’t see it as a coming out party or anything. I saw it as a chance to help our team win, do my job,” Lee said.
It was, quite simply, the start of something big.
Heading into the 2008 season, Lee was ready to make the move from outside to middle linebacker. Just like Posluszny did before him.
And Penn State coach Joe Paterno was heaping praise on his linebacker.
“It would be tough,” Paterno said, “for someone to tell me there’s a better linebacker than Sean Lee in the country.”
Talor Battle is the heart and soul of the Nittany Lions.
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated).
Nittany Lions Fading Fast
Boy, it sure looked like things were setting up nicely for the Nittany Lions. With a 17-5 record, Penn State simply needed to take care of business to earn a trip to the NCAA tournament.
Now, that seems unlikely.
The loss on the road at Michigan was bad, the loss at home to Wisconsin even worse. When you factor in Penn State’s soft non-conference slate, it does enough damage to its RPI to keep it on the bubble.
Therefore, the stretch run is extremely important for coach Ed DeChellis and Co. There are seven games left on the slate. The crucial stretch run begins on Wednesday at Purdue. After that, the Nittany Lions come home for a Saturday tilt with Minnesota before going on the road to Illinois (Feb. 18) and Ohio State (Feb. 24). They wrap up the season with home games against Indiana (Feb. 28) and Illinois (March 3 or 4). The season finale takes place against Iowa (Feb. 7).
Here’s the deal — if Penn State can regroup quickly and catch fire, the NCAA tournament might still be within reach. Running the table coupled with a win (or two) at the Big Ten Tournament will assure the Nits of an NCAA tournament berth.
That, though, seems unlikely.
There’s no way around it — Talor Battle and Jamelle Cornley look worn down. If they are indeed breaking down with seven games left in the season, Penn State is in trouble. There is not enough depth on this squad to carry them through the stretch run.
We like the Nittany Lions to drop a couple more games down the stretch, eliminating them from the NCAA tournament picture. They will land in the NIT and host a game at the Bryce Jordan Center.
Considering where the program has been over the past five seasons, the NIT is marked improvement and fans should be pleased with that.
Baby steps.
Lady Lions’ Downward Spiral
While the Penn State men’s basketball program appears to be on the rise, the same cannot be said for the women’s team.
The Lady Lions are now 9-13 overall, 4-8 in the Big Ten.
The bottom line is that the Lady Lions lack a solid post player. In the rough-and-tumble world of the Big Ten, you need a dominant post player. For years, Ohio State lived off Jessica Davenport, who would simply plant herself in the paint, pull down rebound after rebound and score plenty of garbage points. Michigan State’s Allyssa DeHaan isn’t as dominant as Davenport was, but she still gets her points.
The university will have to give second-year coach Coquese Washington another couple of seasons to get her recruits into Happy Valley to see if she can get the program turned around.
In the interim, prepare for a few more losing seasons.
Hoops Improvement: Part V
In our final installment of Hoops Improvement, we take a look at one sure-fire way the university can have a highly attended game. I guarantee the gym would be packed if they give this a shot!
For years, I’ve thought that a throwback game at Rec Hall would draw back some fans that were alienated by the move to the BJC. Why not take one of these throwaway non-conference games and play a throwback game? Use the old scoreboards, wear the old uniforms, go all out.
Do it for both the men and the women.
You could even auction off the the throwback jerseys for charity and make the game an annual event. Although she seemed to like the idea of a throwback game, Washington said that it might be difficult to get her team to wear the old uniforms.
“I think if I told our players we were going to wear short shorts, they might rebel,” she said with a laugh. “I don’t know if we’d have enough players to suit up, but it might be kinda fun.”
And in the end, isn’t that what it’s all about?
Chris Morelli is the award-winning editor of Blue White Illustrated, a publication devoted to Penn State athletics. He is also a regular on “Sports Central,” which airs on ESPN Radio in Altoona and State College. E-mail him at morellionlion@gmail.com. The views and opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of BWI’s writers or publisher.