It’s been an interesting week for Penn State athletics. Just when we thought the Penn State men’s basketball team was in serious trouble, the NCAA tournament might not be as far-fetched as we first believed.
In other news, several former Penn State players took part in the NFL Combine in Indianapolis over the weekend, so we’ll touch on that.
We’ll also have the return of the non-rev roundup.
Let’s start with something ESPN-inspired.
ESPN recently unveiled its Mount Rushmore for Pennsylvania. It included Joe Paterno, Mario Lemieux, Wilt Chamberlain and Roberto Clemente. The Mount Rushmore is supposed to list the most influential sports figures in the state. How Pennsylvania’s Mount Rushmore does not feature one single Pittsburgh Steeler is beyond me. In my opinion, Chuck Noll or Terry Bradshaw needs to be on Pennsylvania’s Mount Rushmore, but that’s a story for another day. 
Joe Paterno’s face would definitely be on Penn State’s Mount Rushmore.
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated).
On Friday’s “Sports Central” talk show with Cory Giger, he asked me who would be Penn State’s Mount Rushmore. It’s an interesting topic to try to pick the four players/coaches who would represent Penn State football.
So after mulling it over for some time, here are the names I’ve come up with: Joe Paterno, Jack Ham, John Cappelletti and Kerry Collins.
Paterno is easy, you have to put him up there. He’s the first person who comes to mind when you mention Penn State football and with good reason. So the iconic coach is the first one on Penn State’s Mount Rushmore.
Ham was the founding father of Linebacker U, so we’ve got to include him as well. John Cappelletti is PSU’s lone Heisman Trophy winner, so he’s on the list as well. After that, well, you could consider a number of players. Todd Blackledge. Curt Warner. D.J. Dozier. Ki-Jana Carter. Lavar Arrington. Paul Posluszny. They’re all good candidates, but I went with Collins because of what he accomplished in 1994. He directed one of the most prolific offenses in college football history and would have a national championship if the Nittany Lions had not been robbed by pollsters that season.
The bottom line is this: You could name about 12 players for Penn State’s Mount Rushmore and they would all be great candidates. You could probably make an argument for each and every one.
In the end, it’s a fun bar room discussion — and that’s it. Nothing like the “Worldwide Leader” to stir up a good discussion. 
According to reports, Deon Butler was impressive at the NFL Combine.
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated).
From the Combine
The NFL Combine is currently being held in Indianapolis, and several former Nittany Lions are taking part. The word out of Indy is that Deon Butler ran an impressive 40-yard time and helped his draft stock immensely. Some mock drafts had Butler going in the late rounds, but with his performance he’s probably a mid-round pick.
Also looking good were A.Q. Shipley and Gerald Cadogan. Shipley had an impressive vertical, while Cadogan ran well. According to several media outlets, the Pittsburgh Steelers are interested in Shipley. It says here that Shipley would be a good fit in Pittsburgh. Shipley, of course, played his high school ball at Moon, a suburb of Pitttsburgh.
Unofficially, Aaron Maybin ran a 4.78 40 and Maurice Evans ran a 4.98 40 on Monday.
Ugly Win
The Penn State men’s basketball team was off this past weekend, and it will face a stiff test at Ohio State tonight before playing host to Indiana on Saturday. The Nittany Lions picked up a an ugly 38-33 win over Illinois last week in a game that set basketball back 50 years.
However, just when it looks like the Nittany Lions are dead, they refuse to go away. They’ve bounced back nicely from a three-game losing streak. While that has most of Nittany Nation excited, the Lions still need to run the table and win at least one game at the Big Ten Tournament to earn an NCAA tournament berth.
It’s been an interesting season thus far and there’s a lot of drama left in the final weeks. Coach Ed DeChellis has earned himself another season with a strong season, no matter how it turns out.
Non-rev roundup: Swimming
Penn State continued its tradition of performing well on the big stage, finishing third at the 2009 Big Ten women’s swimming championships, marking the eighth time in nine years that the Nittany Lions have placed in the top three at the conference meet.
Senior Caitlin O’Brien stood out for Penn State, swimming to a school record in the 400 IM. Her time of 4:08.10 beat her own previous record by .30 of a second and was good enough for bronze medal honors.
The 400-yard freestyle relay team of Sarah Baker, Lindsey DeForrest, Kelly Nelson and Michelle Myers also nabbed third place with a time of 3:18.40. The quartet’s time was more than three seconds faster than a six-year-old school record.
Nelson and Myers teamed with Kaitlyn Ferguson and Karie Haglund to bring home another school record, this time in the 400-medley relay.
The team finished in 3:36.37, good enough for fourth place and two-hundredths of a second faster than the previous Penn State record, set six years ago.
O’Brien’s IM time and both relay times all eclipsed the NCAA ‘B’ mark standard, which swimmers must meet to be considered for inclusion in the NCAA Championships. The ‘A’ cut time provides for an automatic place at the meet; if too few swimmers meet that time, the NCAA fills the open spots with the top ‘B’ times.
At the event, Penn State swimmers set two dozen ‘B’ times, including 10 on the second day of competition alone.
The Lions finished the championship with 409 points, edging out the host Michigan and fifth-place Wisconsin by 15 and 24 points, respectively. Indiana won the event with 823 points, well past Minnesota’s 665.
Chris Morelli is the award-winning editor of Blue White Illustrated, a weekly 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. This column does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of BWI’s writers or publisher.