GAME TIME

Tonight's game against Illinois has now been dubbed the most important Penn State basketball game in the Ed DeChellis era by not only myself, but also legitimate members of the media. Not only is ranked team coming into the BJC for the last home game of the year, but tonight's game has been dubbed a "white house", the first ever for the Bryce Jordan Center.

The Athletic Department is doing everything they can to create a playoff-type atmosphere at home tonight.  It's dollar hot dog night and students can get tickets buy one, get one.  While it most likely won't sell out due to the fact that it's a weekday night, it's still great to see fans excited about basketball for once, in and out of State College.  Over 1,000 students have joined the game's Facebook event, while only about 400 joined for the Indiana game (which had an attendance of over 15,000).  I'm not sure if that means anything at all, but I'd like to hope it does.

Not only is this a huge game for our tournament hopes, but it's also a HUGE step for the program.  There's been multiple times when it's looked as if the Lions are only a few steps from becoming a legitimate program only to slide right back down the hill into Division One mediocrity.  Captain and senior Jamelle Cornley said before the season, "if we don't make it to the tournament this year, it'll be my fault."  That's a big thing to say for one player, however if I had to give anyone that responsibility, it would certainly be him.  Tonight, he'll be playing for more than this team, he'll be playing for the entire program.

You can bet both teams will come flying out of the gates, trying to erase all memory of their last match up, a 38-33 PSU victory.  That game was the sixth lowest scoring game in the shot-clock era, and the lowest since 2005.  Penn State has won three of their last four games against the Illini, sweeping last year's regular season series, only to be defeated in the Big Ten Tournament.  I'm not an expert, but I'm going to guess you'll be a much more fast-paced and back and forth game tonight.  With so much on the line for Penn State, I have a feeling Battle, Pringle, Morrissey and Babb will be shooting early and often, trying to see who has the hot hand. 

Hopefully for the Lions, they all do tonight.

God I'm nervous.

Check out the awesome pump-up video made by Nittany Nation for tonight's game here....