College Basketball 1/16-1/22

[DragonsDoExist]

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[Crimson's Ghost]

Penn State lost to perennial Big 10 doormat Northwestern 60 to 39 today. Newbill didn't have a FG till around the 2:00 mark left in regulation.Anyone want to continue to baby powder Chambers butt on how he should still continue to keep his job ??? I don't want to hear about oh but he's got some ok talent coming in, that literally means next to nothing on how badly motivated and coached this team is. One thing I don't understand is why they don't just play their home games(except maybe against ranked teams) at Rec Hall again? With the upper deck shut off, might as well try and sell out one building and give your team a feeling of home court advantage again with the small arena.

I have to agree, Pat Chambers may have some issues retaining his job. I don't as a whole Penn State values basketball too much, but his being outspoken and drawing attention to himself is probably what is going to cost him a job. Penn State has a lot of holes, 3 three-star recruits will help, but still not expecting much. Michigan and Michigan State are pretty average this year, they're going to get their act together. When it is all said and done, Penn State's probably the 12th best program in the conference, but they happened to lose to #13 and #14 this season.


I always advocate for them to go back to Rec Hall, it would be a much better homecourt advantage. I don't think it will ever happen though for a variety of reasons.

[El-Moldo]

I see that Chambers and his crew did NOT have that Philly Swagger today, that he talks about. 15 for 55 from the field, 1-8 from the foul line? YOY!! They did out-rebound the Wildcats, but with ALL those missed shots, they were bound to get their share. The game was not on TV that I know of, so I saw none of it. But Newbill DID play 30 minutes. Not like he was hurt or anything. He ONLY took 6 shots and missed 2 free throws. Hit a 3 pointer at the 1:25 mark of the 2nd half.....As far as THON is concerned, thanks for the info. Just wanted to know how it was going.....Next years PSU conference opponents have been announced. They will play single games at home with Ill, Ind, Minn, and Wisc. They will play single away games with MD, OSU, Pur, and Rut. They will play home and away games with Iowa, Mich, Mich St, Neb, and NW. And, of course, I do believe Chambers should be allowed to finish his contract. I do know the AD likes the direction in which he has the team headed.

[Crimson's Ghost]

The game was on ESPNU, channel 303 on Atlantic Broadband in the Johnstown region.

[abpk2903]

If today was a snapshot of next year without Newbill....

As much as I wasn't an Ed DeChelis fan, the year he "resigned" he was coming off a NCAA appearance and 2 years removed from a NIT championship and 3 years removed from an NIT final 4. That is the most sustained "success" the program has had since the late 90s.

I give Chambers 2 more years. The program needs to try stability. I'm not sure what recruiting service you are referring to Crimson but the last I checked they had 2 4* recruits (both ranked in the Top 100) and a 3* recruit that is in most services top 250. Got to give him a chance with good players but I'm not optimistic.

[Crimson's Ghost]

I subscribe to Pantherlair, so I mostly use the Rivals rankings when I refer to recruits.

Mike Watkins 3-Star Center from Philadelphia. Ranked in the Rivals150, but does not have any other offers.
Deividas Zemgulis 3-star Small Forward from Maryland. Has no other offers.
Josh Reaves 3-Star SG from Oak Hill Academy. Ranked in the Rivals150. Reportedly had offers from Nova, Georgetown, Maryland and VCU.


Reaves seems like a good one, but the other two aren't likely high impact guys. OK recruiting class. We'll see if that's good enough to change their fortunes. Rutgers and Northwestern managed to land a four star player in each of their respective classes.

[DragonsDoExist]

247 has both Watkins & Reaves as 4* top 100 guys and actually has Watkins higher than Reaves. They have the class as a whole ranked 6th in the conference and 36th in the country. Either way some of the guys on the current roster are going to have to improve significantly real soon!

[PLDragons24]

I always use 247 composite because they combine all the major recruiting sites. Just from watching film Reaves is clearly more athletic than anyone on the team right now and is probably more athletic than any baskeball player I can remember playing at Penn State. He is very explosive and gets to the rim and finishes with ease. Watkins is also much more athletic than any of PSUs current bigs and already looks like he has a better post game. They'll both get a lot of playing time next season. Zemgulis Is more of a perimeter player and has a nice shot. He's similar to Payton Banks. He'll probably redshirt next season.

[El-Moldo]

Jack, Taylor, Dickerson, and Foster will all be seniors next year. This leaves Thorpe and Garner as underclassmen. Somebody better get better fast. Too bad 7'2" Dickerson wasn't given that early playing date by the NCAA, or else he would have 2 years left. Be careful what you wish for.

[El-Moldo]

Like I said a week or two ago. The favoring of one team over another does exist. EVERY Pitt headline and story shows some kind of negativism. On today's front page sports in the Tribune we read, "Pitt Holds Off Syracuse Rally". There's always some impression that Pitt should have done better, or that they struggled in their game. You NEVER see headlines like "Pitt beats Orange in Dome", or "Panthers Trip Syracuse on the Road". There's always a shred of "doubt" in the headlines. Meanwhile, where was the story of the PSU/NW game? Buried on page 8, a generic headline about PSU's devastating loss read, "Northwestern Rolls By Penn State". ROLLS BY!!!!!! How about "Northwestern Thumps Penn State"? or "Wildcats Dismantle Lions"? With PSU, it's keep defeats as tame as possible, and bolster up the wins. The bias is there.