It’s a tough time to be a Penn State basketball fan.
The Nittany Lions were left on the outside looking in at the NCAA tournament when CBS aired its selection show on Sunday evening. It certainly was disappointing for Ed DeChellis and Company.
In today’s edition of Morelli OnLion, we’ll break down why the Nittany Lions didn’t make the field of 65, look at another member of the Class of 2009 and have our weekly non-rev roundup.
Let’s start with hoops.
Outside Looking In
The Nittany Lions were left out of the NCAA tournament after a pretty successful season. So after a 22-11 campaign that saw some monumental victories against ranked opponents (at Michigan State and home versus Illinois), Penn State was left out of the party and watched as seven Big Ten teams went in ahead of them. 
Ed DeChellis and the Nittany Lions are on the outside looking in at the NCAA tournament.
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated).
So what made the tournament committee decide to leave Penn State on the cutting room floor? Is it the fact that the Lions don’t have that tournament pedigreee? Is it a lack of respect for Pennsylvania basketball? Or is it simply a snub against DeChellis?
Don’t blame the committee for this one. The Nittany Lions only have themselves to blame for failing to make the field. It wasn’t a loss to Rhode Island or even the season-ender at Iowa that doomed them. It was the God-awful non-conference slate that killed their chances.
So before DeChellis begins pointing fingers at those who didn’t pick the Lions, he needs to point the thumb at himself.
Look, no one can blame the coach for wanting to pile up the wins. But the bottom line is that the committee looked at those non-conference wins. What did they see? We’ll let’s look at the non-conference slate.
It was comprised of William & Mary, NJIT, Hartford, New Hampshire, Penn, Rhode Island, Towson, Georgia Tech, Temple, Army, Mount St.
Mary’s, Lafayette and Sacred Heart.
Look closely at that non-conference slate. There’s one, yes one, NCAA tournament team in there — it’s Temple. Sorry, but that’s not going to get it done. Penn State’s non-con was ranked 313th in the country. At a news conference on Sunday night, DeChellis was answering questions about that schedule.
“The schedule is what it is and we played it,” he said. “I think the thing that hurt us was in (the Philly Hoop Group Classic in November), we were really counting on playing Villanova in the second round and that would have helped our strength of schedule. Some teams that we scheduled I thought would have had better seasons would have helped our strength of schedule, but to me it’s what you’ve done, what our team has done in what is today the No. 1 RPI-rated league in the country.
“When you go through our league and you’ve got four top-25 wins and you’ve got six top 50 RPI wins, that should mean something. Whether the win comes out of conference or the win comes in conference, a win is a win.”
The coach is right — to an extent. You play the schedule, but as a coach, you also make the schedule. So you can control who you play.
You don’t have to play Sacred Heart and NJIT. Those are your calls, coach. There was a lot of venom directed to athletic director Tim Curley. That is misplaced. Curley merely rubber-stamps the schedule.
What the Lions tried to do was pull the wool over the eyes of the selection committee. Penn State’s RPI was 70. The worst RPI among the
34 at-large teams was Arizona (19-13), which had an RPI of 62.
DeChellis contends that building a non-conference is not as easy as it appears.
“We tried to schedule smartly, maybe not smart enough,” DeChellis said. “The Rhode Island thing just really hurt us with the Villanova thing. We thought we had enough to get that one and that would be sufficient. When you look at some of the other teams that got in, one more win would have been sufficent.”
But you cannot put all your eggs in one basket. By losing that game to Rhode Island, the Nittany Lions forced the matchup with Towson instead of Villanova. By losing to Iowa, they put themselves in a precarious position. Getting blown out by Purdue certainly didn’t help their position.
But ultimately, it was the non-con that did them in. So instead of Happy Valley readying for NCAA tourney game on Thursday, there will be a first-round NIT game at the Jordan Center Tuesday night.
It may not seem right, but as the Rolling Stones sang, it’s rough justice.
Class of 2009: Justin Brown
Penn State landed a pretty solid receiver in four-star prospect Justin Brown.
Brown’s decision to pick the Nittany Lions made for a happy ending to signing day on Feb. 4, as the four-star prospect chose Penn State over Rutgers during a news conference at his school.
Justin Brown could be a star wideout for the Nittany Lions in the years to come.
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated).
The Nittany Lions’ 27th and final commitment was an all-state player at three positions in both his junior and senior years, as he earned accolades at wideout, defensive back and punter. His Concord squad finished 7-3 in 2008.
Brown earned roughly 22 scholarships over the last year, as letters came in from Boston College, LSU, Miami, Oregon and Virginia Tech, among others.
As a senior, the 6-foot-4, 210-pound Brown caught 27 passes for roughly 500 yards and 10 touchdowns. He caught 19 balls for 558 yards and eight touchdowns as a junior, averaging 29.4 yards per catch. He also recorded 33 tackles and three interceptions.
Brown is rated as the No. 30 wide receiver in the country and the top player in Delaware by Rivals.com. He is also listed as the No. 202 player overall in the Rivals 250, which ranks the top 250 players in the country.
Non-rev roundup: Women’s Gymnastics
Behind a season high mark on the floor, the No. 19 Lions continued building steam as the Big Ten Championships approach by knocking off host West Virginia in a March 8 dual meet. The win came after Penn State took first in a March 1 tri-meet with Ohio State and Alabama.
Against the No. 20 Mountaineers, Penn State gymnasts claimed first place in three of the four individual events. Junior Brandi Personett scored a career high-tying 9.950 on the floor to help Penn State post a season high 49.200 on floor and a 196.225 mark for the meet, edging out West Virginia’s 195.925.
Junior Alexandra Brockway set the tone in the opening rotation by posting a season-high tying 9.875 to tie for second place on the uneven bars.
In the second rotation, the Nittany Lions moved to the vault, with freshman Whitney Bencsko claiming top honors on a career-high-tying
9.925 routine for her third individual event crown on vault.
Personett’s floor title came next and the Lions closed out the win on beam, as sophomore Melissa Klein earned her first collegiate beam title with a career-high 9.850.
The Lions move on to the Big Ten Championships on March 21 in Champaign, Ill.
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.