Dateline: Indianapolis.
Humble greetings from Lucas Oil Stadium, where the Penn State football team got drilled in the B1G Championship by a talented Oregon squad 45-37, in a game that was never really as close as the final score indicated. On the bright side, the Nittany Lions now get to host a home playoff game against SMU in two weeks in the first-ever 12 team College Football Playoff—and this intrepid contributor plans on being there in person—so stay tuned!
Back on the hard court, PSU made up for almost ten years of ineptitude against then-#8 Purdue by capturing a home victory by the score of 81-70, in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated, ending a streak of 8 straight losses against the Boilermakers and marking the team’s first win over a top-10 opponent since December of 2019, while also improving to 8-1 on the season for the first time since 2014-15. Ace Baldwin Jr. continues to be a PLAYAAH—tallying a game high 17 points and 6 assists, while adding to his stat stuffing totals with 1000+ career points, 600+ assists and 250+ steals. Penn State won its B1G opener despite having been picked to finish 17th and next-to-last in the now bloated 18 team conference. So, you know, eat it.
11/30/2024
It was a case of good news, bad news, better news for Penn State this week. After opening with an 85-66 win over Fordham in the Sunshine Slam in Daytona Beach, which secured Penn State’s best start in 25 years at 6-0, the Nittany Lions lost to Clemson in the tourney’s championship game by the score of 75-67. Penn State then returned home to face the Buffalo Bulls—no, not the Buffalo Bills, but the University of Buffalo Bulls—on Schuylkill County Day, where they returned to their winning ways for an 87-64 victory. Junior F Yanic Konan Niederhauser, the mobile 7-footer from Switzerland who transferred in this year from Northern Illinois, led the way against Buffalo with a career-best tying 27 points that included 7 dunks—at least 2 of which were worthy of a poster. And he has way cool hair, too. Oh yeah, and it’s pronounced “SKOO-kill” for all of you Pennsylvania newbies. Oh yeah, and GO PSU FOOTBALL—BEAT OREGON!!!
11/22/2024
With only one game scheduled this week, Penn State looked to continue their winning ways with an on-campus matchup against Purdue Fort Wayne in the Sunshine Slam before heading South to Daytona Beach for the remainder of the tournament next week. Pop Q: What’s the mascot of Purdue Fort Wayne? Answer below!
Although the Nittany Lions trailed the Horizon League preseason co-favorite 47-41 at halftime, they erupted for 61 second half points to pull away for the 102-89 victory. The win marked the third game they have exceeded the century mark this season while running their unbeaten record to 5-0. Ace Baldwin Jr. led the squad with a stat-stuffing 25 points, 11 assists, 7 rebounds and 2 steals. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that is the first 25-11-7-2 line in PSU hoops history. Go ahead…try to prove me wrong.
Answer: The Mastodons! In 1968, four years after the university was founded, the school’s geology department chair led a team of faculty and students to unearth an entire mastodon skeleton—along with the skull of a baby mastodon—after a large bone was discovered on a farm located 40 miles up the road in Angola, IN. In the midst of deciding on a mascot the following year, the School Government committee selected the Mastadon. Who knew?!?!
11/17/2024
Penn State continued their WICKED fast start while improving to an unbeaten 4-0 record with a 92-62 home win over St. Francis, followed by an 86-64 victory over Virginia Tech in the Hall of Fame Series Baltimore that was played in, well, Baltimore. The Nittany Lions keep DEFYING GRAVITY by averaging 97-plus points per game, good for 7th in Men’s Div. 1, while their average margin of victory of +35.8 ranks 4th in the nation. But enough about this year…
In ONE SHORT DAY earlier this month PSU landed 2025 class Top-50 recruit Kayden Mingo, becoming the program’s highest ranked recruit in the modern recruiting era. The WONDERFUL 6-1 four-star combo guard out of Long Island Lutheran had also considered Wake Forest, Georgia and the Hokies, leaving excited Nittany Lion supporters wondering WHAT IS THIS FEELING? Sure, NO GOOD DEED goes unpunished and Mingo can always de-commit until he’s officially here FOR GOOD, but AS LONG AS YOU’RE MINE we can still celebrate until SOMETHING BAD HAPPENS. But enough about hoops…
Penn State football fans continue to say THANK GOODNESS for TE Tyler Warren, who has been DANCING THROUGH LIFE and opposing defenders while absolutely balling out the past few weeks. He’s already been named as one of 3 finalists for the Paul Hornung Award—yeah, yeah, Travis Hunter, I know—and as A SENTIMENTAL MAN here’s hoping he also gets a ticket to NYC for the Heisman Trophy award—yeah, yeah, Travis Hunter, I know. That said, it does appear that both of those POPULAR award ceremonies may turn out to be nothing more than a MARCH OF THE WITCH HUNTERS for Travis.
And, scene.
11/9/2024
Bon jour from Carcassonne, France! Penn State began the season with 2 wins that each cracked the century mark, beating Binghamton University (nee SUNY Binghamton, located in Vestal, NY—shout out to all the fellow Golden Bears out there!) 108-66 and UMBC 103-64. The 108 points scored against Binghamton were the 4th most in team history, while the back-to-back 100-plus points scored was accomplished for the first time in program history. The Nittany Lions have petitioned the B1G Conference head honchos to continue to play America East teams for the duration of November, at a minimum. Well, maybe all except Vermont, UMass Lowell, and Bryant, who are pretty decent. Mais oui!
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