BRACKETS!

The season might not have ended as planned...or began as planned for that matter...or at any time resembled what fans were expecting in 2010, but the time we've all been waiting for has finally arrived. The Nittany Lions, who were so incredible in the single-elimination tournament format last season that saw them travel from University Park to Gainesville to the Big Apple, have their spot in the conference tournament and a chance to punch their own ticket to the big dance.

Penn State drew the primetime slot for its first round game this Thursday against Minnesota, a team that has defeated the Lions twice this season by a total of eight points. It's difficult to know what to expect from the Golden Gophers, a squad that kicked off the season ranked in the top-20 but hasn't won more than two games in a row since the Big Ten season started.

The Gophers, slotted sixth in the Big Ten, need to at least reach the championship game, and that still might not be enough, to be considered for an at-large invitation. Should the Lions get by Minnesota, co-champion Michigan State awaits in the second round. A likely matchup with co-champion Purdue would follow should Penn State upset the Spartans and then a finals showdown against Ohio State or Wisconsin. It's a tough road to hoe for the Lions for sure, but maybe, just maybe, if all the fortuitous bounces and breaks that Penn State seemed to not get all season are repaid to it this weekend, this never-say-die team will get a chance to shine on the biggest stage of all.

GOPHERS RIP OUT LIONS' HEART

Do they give out 1/2 wins? Penn State raises the bar yet again for most heartbreaking defeat with a last second loss at home to Minnesota. While the buzzer-beater by Lawrence Westbrook is what people will remember from this game, there were a few other noteworthy occurrences that could help the Lions get that elusive first win somewhere down the road.

Something that Penn State should be looking to repeat in almost every game it plays is the up-tempo style that dominated much of the first half of its contest. With guys like Talor Battle, Tim Frazier and Chris Babb, pushing the ball and playing a 94-foot game is beneficial - especially when the team isn't shooting particularly well (40.4% vs Minn.). Secondly, the Lions finally got some productive minutes from Frazier in the second half, who showed he is maturing quickly enough to be a solid contributor on this team for forty minutes.

The Lions continue to struggle at the foul line and from behind the three-point arc, but continued to show improvement in attacking the basket - even if it didn't always lead to a positive result. The area that has plagued the Lions the most and struck again on Saturday was the lack of tough defense. Penn State got beat to too many loose balls and surrendered too many open looks. On the other end, the athleticism of Bill Edwards was missed, but the frontcourt has to provide more offense than it did against the Gophers. David Jackson poured in 18, but 14 of them were from the foul line or came on three-point field goals. Thirty-nine of the other 46 points came from the guards.

It's probably good that the Lions have a week off after this win. Some might say that it's too much time to digest such a heartbreaking loss, but maybe the best thing for this team is get away from the court for a couple of days and put this ugly losing streak behind them. Michigan State is up next, a team that tends to bring out a strong effort against Penn State. Much like the football team, this squad needs something to hang its hat on this season - and a win against Tom Izzo would certainly provide that. It was refreshing to see the Lions play well in the last couple minutes of Saturday's game, it will be even better to see them in the win column.

IT'S TIME TO DRAW A LINE IN THE SAND

Today's the day. Today's the day. Today's the day.

It is somewhat fitting that the team that started it all will also be the team that ends it. The conference schedule, and subsequent 10-game losing streak, began with a five-point loss to Minnesota. It's only slightly comforting to think about what might have been had the Lions not shriveled in the waning minutes of that game. Perhaps it would have been a spring board to another successful season rather than a sliding board to the basement of the Big Ten.

There's no real reason to think that today's game will really be any different the last ten, and it's rather sad when you're best chance of winning a game comes down to the laws of probability (We have to win one, right?), but just maybe the old unis and the blizzard outside will provide the recipe for some home cooking at the Bryce Jordan Center and help end the drought.

More than a victory, I am looking for something else today. The most frustrating thing to me this season has been how the team has reacted, or not reacted, to the losses. Sure, there was the clearly audible expletive from Talor Battle at the end of the Ohio State game and the cameras have caught a few other frowns from the guys on the bench, but where's the real emotion felt from losing ten straight? There hasn't been one technical foul, one hard foul or any pushing and shoving. I know, discipline is important, but at what point does a 20-year-old kid get sick of getting pushed around, or does his coach decide to show some real emotion instead of just holding his head in his hand?

So here's a memo to the team: It's okay to be angry and to play that way too. It's okay to get sick of guys hitting uncontested layups on you or getting your shots blocked back in your face. It's okay to send a message with a hard, clean foul on a player. We're not talking about Jon Chaney's goon squad from a few years ago, just something to let the other team know you're not exactly okay with being the league's doormat.

It's going to take a Herculean effort to get that first win, with the suffocating weight of ten straight losses working to hold the team down, but today's a perfect day to break through and start the slow climb back to respectability.

BLAME IT ON THE RAIN

It was another uneventful game in a season that's been devoid of big moments for the Penn State football team. Neither the Nittany Lions or Minnesota Golden Gophers seemed to have much juice during the 90th Homecoming Game at Beaver Stadium, but at least the Penn State defense showed up to capture its first shutout of the season, 20-0.

The horrible weather going on all over the northeast scared many of the fans away and made for less than ideal conditions, but it was clear early on that the Golden Gophers just didn't have the talent on either side of the ball to hang with the Lions. Penn State had only one three-and-out possession all day and only had one drive that chewed up fewer than 31 yards. Co-Captain Sean Lee returned to action for the first time since the Temple game to help spearhead a classic defensive effort. Lee and company collected an early interception and stuffed Minnesota at the goal line while surrendering just one drive of more than 24 yards all game.

If one had to pick a pervading theme for the 2009 season so far, it would probably be the rain or the schedule, but the dominating defense would run a close second. In a very Jim Tressel way of looking at things, the season is halfway over and Penn State is 5-1 overall and tied for second in the conference. It's had one really bad quarter all season, so the glass is certainly half-full for this team as it readies for the "difficult" portion of its schedule starting with the Michigan Wolverines next week.

Perhaps the biggest concern coming out of Saturday's game against Minnesota is the health of backup running back Stephon Greene. The sophomore left the game in the first half and didn't return to the sidelines for the remainder of the contest.When asked about it after the game, Joe Paterno said, "...I know he's hurt, but I don't know how badly. It was probably an ankle [injury]."

HOMECOMING GAMETIME SET

Penn State officially announced on Monday that the Nittany Lions homecoming game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers on October 17 at Beaver Stadium will kickoff at 3:30 p.m. Along with the Iowa and Northwestern games, which were previously announced as beginning at 8:00 and 3:30 respectively, the Lions are slotted for three afternoon/primetime games this season with a fourth afternoon start (Ohio State) sure to follow.
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It was nearly a year ago that ESPN aired it's infamous Outside the Lines investigation into the criminal history of the Penn State football program. Many Blue and White fans still feel that the show was little more than a witch hunt and some conspiracy theorists hold that the show was an attack on Penn State and head coach Joe Paterno because of a hot-and-cold relationship with the network. At last check, ESPN was little concerned with fair and balanced reporting, but if it were, now might be a good time to prove it.

A good place to start would be an article written by Andrea Adelson of The Orlando Sentinel about the number of arrests the University of Florida program has suffered in the last four years...24 in case you were wondering.
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If you're looking to score tickets to that big game this year, your best chance might just to be to wait until the last minute. A post from The Business of College Sports from May 30 shows that ticket prices for some of this season's biggest rivalry games have actually gone down since they were last tracked in mid-March.