Penn State basketball couldn’t have asked for a better draw in the Big Ten tournament.
Then again, that’s assuming you’re looking down the road that far.
“I don’t even know who would be after Nebraska,” Head coach Pat Chambers said on Tuesday. “All I know is Nebraska right now.”
For the rest of the world Penn State’s path deep into the Big Ten tournament isn’t impossible. A game against the Cornhuskers starts off the potential run at 4:30 EST on Wednesday. Penn State upended Nebraska with relative ease earlier this season in a 56-43 victory at the Bryce Jordan Center.
From there the Nittany Lions would face Iowa, a team Penn State lost to in overtime. So it’s not hard to see that game going in a different direction if played again. After then it’s Purdue, another team the Nittany Lions lost to in overtime. Three straight wins puts Penn State in the Big Ten Tournament semi-finals.
Certainly, it’s a tough ask for a team that has won four Big Ten games all year, but with so many coming down to the final minute, Penn State could always claim to simply be a better team with a bad team’s record. Unfortunately that’s not how the world works and Penn State’s record is ultimately the result of its play, fair or not.
The good news for fans, DJ Newbill still has at least one game left in him, if not more, for Penn State this season.
Less than 24-hours removed from somewhat surprisingly being left off of the All-Big Ten first team, Newbill just smiled when asked about the snub.
“It’s definitely a motivator,” He said before moving on to talk of team goals and focus.
For Newbill it has to be a frustrating feeling to play so well and to get so little in return. But the week hasn’t been all a negative for him. A buzzer beating winner against Minnesota was a shot a long time in the making for the senior. He has had the ball in his hand at nearly every big turn of the season, but it has been a long time since he finally got a winner to fall.
Even for a player in his final games at the collegiate level, there is a certain relief in seeing it go well for once.
“Anytime we’re in a close game my teammates look for to make the game winning shot and I also believe in myself for that shot,” Newbill said. “For it to finally fall, and the way that it did, was a great feeling for me.”
“It’s a good thing,” Geno Thorpe said of seeing Newbill finally have the winner fall. “We’ve been in late game situations before and you know they didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to. So to see DJ hit that shot was definitely a good thing.”
Penn State is flying to Chicago on Tuesday afternoon for at least one more game.
But with a favorable bracket and a motivated star, who knows how long the Nittany Lions will be hanging in the Windy City.
