By Kevin Wesley
Ed DeChellis and his players shouldn’t read this. The Nittany Lions should be focused solely on this week’s Big Ten tournament, specifically their very winnable opening game Thursday against Indiana. For all the things that are beyond their control regarding a possible NCAA tournament berth, a win on Thursday is fully in their hands.
No, this is for the rest of us: the fans and observers wondering just how close the Penn State basketball team was from being a tournament lock, as opposed to the tournament long shot it is now. By beating Minnesota Sunday in their regular-season finale, the Lions added a rare, semi-impressive road win to their resume. Even with that victory over the Golden Gophers, Penn State still needs at least two wins in the conference tournament to make a legitimate NCAA case.
Winning just one of a handful of costly regular-season losses might’ve changed everything. Here are the five that got away.
Virginia Tech: It’s debatable, but of the Nittany Lions’ three “big” non-conference games, their Dec. 12 trip to Blacksburg is the one that hurts the most. A 13-point loss at Mississippi in November is forgettable enough now, and that 62-39 home loss to Maryland in December remains painfully embarrassing. But as missed opportunities go, it’s the Hokies: They’re 19-10 overall and 9-7 in the ACC, with a solid RPI of 64—a resume similar in many ways to the Lions’. The difference? Three more wins, one of which came at Penn State’s expense.
Maine: Nobody has let the Lions’ forget their 10-point home loss to Maine on Dec. 21. It’s not that a win over a middling America East squad would’ve done much to boost Penn State’s tournament case; it’s simply that losing—at home—to a small-conference team with an RPI in the 200s sticks out like a hammered thumb: ugly, painful and impossible to ignore. It remains the biggest black mark on the Lions’ slate.
Ohio State: Certainly, we don’t mean last Tuesday’s blowout loss at the hands of the No. 1 Buckeyes, a game the Lions were never really in. No, we’re talking about that three-point loss in Columbus on Jan. 15. It was a great team effort in a hostile environment, and it gained Penn State a lot of national respect. Seven weeks later, though, it’s simply another Big Ten road loss. Speaking of which…
Purdue: Four days after that heartbreaker in Columbus, the Lions had their hearts broken again—and if possible, this one was even more painful. Against the 14th-ranked Boilermakers in West Lafayette, Penn State took a one-point lead into the final seconds, and looked to have stolen the win when the ball went out of bounds under the Purdue basket with five seconds left. Replays showed the ball came off a Boilermaker, but the officials called it off the Lions. Purdue took advantage, All-American candidate JaJuan Johnson hitting a long jumper just before the buzzer to win it.
Michigan: The Nittany Lions were in both of their games against the Wolverines, leading by five at the half in Ann Arbor in early January before dropping a 10-point decision. But it’s the sting of Penn State’s 65-62 home loss five weeks later that really lingers. Playing without senior forward and second-leading scorer Jeff Brooks, the Lions nonetheless led by 10 points in the second half before collapsing in the closing minutes. At season’s end, Penn State found itself tied with Michigan in the final conference standings—and having gone 0-2 against the Wolverines, the Lions are solidly beyond Michigan on the NCAA tournament waiting list.
Winning just one of those five games would have made Penn State a much more attractive bubble team; winning two of them might have the Lions off the bubble altogether. Instead, Penn State might just have to win the conference tournament to get into the Big Dance. Lion fans can’t do anything about the past; they’d better hope their team can pull of a near-miracle this week.
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