You're delusional or high on that "sweet" NIT nectar if you really believe that winning the NIT is at all noteworthy.
I'm glad you enjoyed this run, but winning the NIT is still unimportant. Cornley is a good player...and so are Battle, Pringle and others, but don't kid yourselves- outside of the PSU family, this "tournament" run was unimportant. In all honesty, I didn't even know the NIT was still going on until I saw some of the celebratory posts by the PSU faithful this evening...and I love college basketball (especially when it counts).Even big sports fans don't care about the NIT because they understand how watered-down a championship (in name only) from this tournament is. I think it can be fairly argued that a pre-conference NIT championship is more important to a program than the post-season post-season variety.
There are teams that might benefit from such a run- young teams that are trying to get their legs under them might learn what it takes to be a champ from this tournament played in the gaps left by the NCAA tourney...in theory.But, outside of Memphis and Wake Forest, no programs have gone on to "greatness" the next season because of the momentum, knowledge or team unity gained in this tournament. In fact, NIT championships for Michigan did little more than stunt the growth of their program and push them to set the bar ever-lower.
Penn State did belong in the real tournament more than many teams that got in, PSU was a good team in '08/'09. That said, the last few victories don't help this team's resume or their legacy to the world outside of State College, PA. In fact, they might even cheapen the quality wins versus MSU, Purdue and others that occurred when something was actually on the line and all parties were playing as if their lives depended on it.
I've even heard some of you say only two teams end their seasons "victorious" as champions...not true...there are two more unimportant tournaments below this one- the CBI and CIPT...and those two tourney "champs" whomever they are, have also "earned" banners for their schools that should never see the light of arena rafters.But hooray for PSU, I guess! Their championship tonight goes in the same trophy case as Purdue's extremely-important Sun Bowl and Motor City Bowl trophies.
Yeh for mediocrity.
(By the way, if you're offended by this, you're precisely whom I'm talking to and about...if not, this post isn't directed at you.)
53 comments:
the ES absolutely agrees. Penn State finished #66 in my book.
Huzzah, huzzah!
Great post, couldn't agree more. PSU enjoy your #66 ranking!Congrats by the way on defeating those annoying bastards from UW. I'm an MSU alum and now live in Portland,OR and relish watching the Huskies lose, especially to a fellow B10 school! Only wish Purdue could've done the same to UConn!
I'm happy for Penn State and glad that the Big Ten is building up to the point where all teams 1-11 are decent competition. So, unlike this post, I tip my hat to the Nittany Lions.
While no one is going to mistake Penn State for a basketball power, it's still a good thing for the Big 10 to have postseason success. Also, I would hope that the Boiler faithful would turn out to Madison Square Garden like Penn State's fan base did (I didn't really know they had a basketball fan base), which is unlikely though for proximity reasons.
This post is far more victorious than PSU was.
So instead of writing something great about your own team that managed to fizzle its way out of their post season tournament.
You guys manage to mock Penn State's basketball accomplishment. The fact that they are still playing today while your own team is now at home scratching themselves must be the reason why you have nothing better to say about your own team than laugh at someone else's.
Hell if we devoted all our time at Penn State laughing at the mediocrity of Purdue's football program, we would never run out of things to say. But luckily our own successes keep us occupied enough to belittling another program's achievements. Congratulations on that Sweet Sixteen run, hope you enjoy that new banner which might as well be for attending the tournament. Hell, I'm sure CSU Northridge will hang one up as well.
But in all seriousness, Hooray for mediocrity!
A NOTE TO DELUSIONAL FANS IN.. HELL.. INDIANA, I GUESS?
*Checks Wikipedia*
Two national titles? Mens golf and women's basketball? NIT victory, 1974? One more final four than the nittany lions? "Best coach to never go to a final four"?
Great night to learn stuff all around, i suppose. Guess i'd be bitter too.
Win something. Win anything. Two-peat in golf or something. Leave the big teneleven trash talking to the heavyweights, like Northwestern. Next time clean the windows before you go picking up stones.
Kthanxbai.
Big 10 teams winning in the postseason is never a bad thing, especially in the face of the "experts" who claim the conference is weak. Yes, the NIT is definitely second-tier, but overall, it's still pretty entertaining basketball, and this years' edition featured several teams that frankly should have been in the NCAA's (San Diego State, St. Mary's, and probably PSU as well). At least the Nittany Lions stuffed Big East (cough cough) superpower Notre Dame's seemingly inevitable, anointed march to the NIT gold (just imagine the press releases, media spin and hosannas if the Domers went all the way, sheesh). But 129 teams being invited to particiapte in postseason play is just too much-- heck, these secondary tournaments (CBI, CI) featured sub .500 teams! Oregon State, playing in tonight's CBI final has a 17-18 record fer cryin' out loud (it can be argued that a deciding factor in inviting them had to do with OSU coach Craig Robertson being the President's brother-in-law). But anyways... Hats off to PSU, if only becauser it helps to shut up the Diggers of the world. Now... even though it screws up my bracket, go Sparty!
@ Nittany White Out,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pm2nR7jAAo&feature=related
I can understand why you'd be jealous that PSU has such passionate fans that they'd be so excited just to win the NIT. 36 busloads of PSU students came up for the game and the entire MSG was decked out in white. That crowd was much louder than any I've seen in the Big Dance so far, and would have rivaled a home basketball crowd of Purdue, MSU, or Illinois. Heck, even Joe Pa managed to stay up past his bedtime to lead the crowd on. It's too bad you don't know what it's like to be part of a fanbase like that.
I love your posts but think you are a little harsh on PSU here. They got snubbed by the NCAA, so they did the next best thing - win the NIT. No shame in that. It's funny that their bragging about 36 busloads of fans. I mean, Bryce Jordon is a ghost town during the season. I saw a game there and found it hard to believe I was at a big ten game. Mediocrity? I think mediocrity is losing to weaker teams Michigan and Northwestern down the stretch of a competitive B10 race. Just to torture myself, I guess, I looked at the box scores from our famous flame-outs in the dance over the years last night. Kansas State, Duke, Georgia, Memphis, Texas, Stanford, Wisconsin. All games where Purdue was the better team. At least Matty loses to teams in the dance that are actually better than us. I mean really, we have been to TWO final fours in our history. You would think in all those years we would have got at least ONE Scottie Reynolds coast to coast to get us into the final four. We have just got to get there soon b/c this is kind of pathetic. Izzo has been to FOUR! go Sparty this weekend! Just win Matty!
this post embodies everything that is wrong with collegiate sports blogosphere. it makes me wonder if this guy ever played organized athletics? i guess our (formerly) lovable losers should have folded up when they didn't make the tourney, rather than knocking off a couple of quality programs. i guess our fanbase shouldn't have rallied around these guys. god forbid we should support our team. by your skewed logic, Purdue fans shouldn't even travel or support their team when they make a middling bowl game. you do your fanbase and every fanbase a disservice by immediately trivializing a big accomplishment for us (by the admittedly low standards of success that PSU basketball has). return to your day job kicking puppies and robbing toddlers of their popsicles
@ Anon,
Yes.....your basketball program's passionate fan base is clearly demonstrated by all the empty seats at Bryce-Jordan arena all season long.
@ WE ARE,
21 Big Ten championships. More than any other school.
This sums up what PSU fans are all about. Their lives are so empty, that just have to be associated with anything that wins. Talk about fair weather fans!! They don't go to their own home games, yet as soon as a championship is on the line, no matter how poo-poo of a sport or tournament, there they are! I am friends with a bunch of PSU grads and never heard a peep about basketball from them until this week. Hilarious!!
By the way, PSU owes us one for knocking them out of the big ten tourney and allowing them to play in the NIT. You're welcome!
I like how the fact that we acknowledged that they were a good team and deserving of a better fate (i.e., should have been in the NCAA tourney) is ignored by those who would rather insult us and our..... football program? What does that have to do with PSU winning the NIT?
But since that's the predictable rant, we even compared the meaningless of the NIT title to our team's meaningless bowl wins.
See, guys, if you're going to rip us, read the whole post first. And then try to absorb it.
But kudos for defending your team's honor. Stanley Pringle wants to meet you in the library to give you his own special kind of thanks.
let me immortalize this Purdue hate in a couplet of Penn State Boilerplate
"trouble yourself not, oh Nittany Lion fans....these are simply the rantings of perennial also-rans"
2009 Attendance Figures
Penn State
Avg attendance: 8,020
Bryce-Jordan capacity: 15,261
Avg % Capacity: 52%
Wisky 17,230
Illinois 15,499
OSU 15,462
IU 14,331
Purdue 13,708
MSU 13,705
Minny 13,400
Iowa 10,861
Mich 10,568
PSU 8,020
NU 4,883
Nice job PSU. You beat Northwestern.
How does one program segue OMG 21 big ten championships into merely 2 final fours? No wonder the conference is percieved as weak. Anyways, this isn't about that. You fired the first bitter shots. I didn't read a single article about "Suck that, purdue, we won!" or "We've won as many NIT's as you!" I'd never in a million years ridicule purdue for winning at anything, and i'd certainly not be down on any other big ten team simply for not just mailing it in. Just ease up on the hater-ade, pal. I'd think finding bliss in mediocrity would be a boilermaker speciality.
Who "ridiculed" your program? Again, we said it was a good team and should have been in the dance. We're mocking the concept of the NIT being worthy of celebrating.
Don't overdo it yourself on the haterade.
Penn State fans are just celebrating a rise in the level of their program. Go back and look at what they HAD been doing after Dunn completely wrecked the entire program. Yeah PSU fans are really happy about winning something that may lead to some success (look at what Memphis and Florida have done after winning the NIT)
As a student here at Purdue, there was a LOT of hype about this team. It's justified by the highly touted recruits that Purdue is able to snag. PSU is trying to move closer to Big Ten contention, which they will be able to do by getting more gifted recruits. Shortly after winning the OMG piece of trash NIT, they signed Battle's half brother for the class of 2010, who is currently ranked something like 37th in the nation.
I honestly don't see what you wanted Lion fans to do. Pack it up after they got shafted out of the tournament? Not be happy about winning a tournament? Not be glad the team is improving? I don't think they are really rubbing it in everyone's face... Just celebrating a rise in their program.
I think this post is wrongheaded.
Winning the NIT is noteworthy. Is it as noteworthy as making it to the Sweet Sixteen? No. Is it as noteworthy as bowing out of the NCAA in the first round? Quite possibly.
If your point is that fewer people care about the NIT than about the NCAA and that winning the NIT is a small achievement relative to some other feats attainable in college basketball, then, yeah, of course you're right, and I think most PSU fans would agree with you.
If your point is that Penn State fans shouldn't care about this title for those reasons, then I think you're wrong. Their team won 5 straight games against some decent competition. Florida, Notre Dame, and Baylor aren't chopped liver. To rub their face in the fact that they didn't make it to the Big Dance is really missing the point.
One of the many Anonymous guys makes a good point. This is a noteworthy achievement for Penn State basketball precisely because it represents a possible step forward for their program. Purdue's Motor City Bowl trophies weren't nearly as noteworthy because those were really steps back.
When we (Purdue) knocked off Wisconsin at Mackey last year, lots of people made fun of our fans for rushing the court, but they just didn't get it. That win wasn't huge by some independent standard, it was huge because of where we were coming from, and it did mark a big step forward for our program.
Same goes for PSU's NIT championship. Hats off to the Nittany Lions.
i am happy for Penn st and their victiry and their victory for the big 10. Further proof they should have been in the big dance- i think they would have gotten to the sweet 16 if they would have had the chance...
But it is true a NIT championship isn't much to be proud of. Perhaps for a young team it gives them something to build off of. i hope it does give Penn st something to build of off.
i want the big ten to be competitive. It keeps us working hard and improving. More importantly it makes us more noticable nationally, which gives a higher seeding in the tourney, which makes it more likley to win.
And i'm not saying this to gloat like we're the best, but we want to become the best
For those of you PSU fans too blind by rage and the immensity of your success, let me quote myself to you as a response:
"I'm glad you enjoyed this run, but winning the NIT is still unimportant."
I seriously am glad you enjoyed it...this tournament is little-more than a made-for-TV stretch of bonus basketball for the teams that don't make the dance. Glad it was fun for you.
"Penn State did belong in the real tournament more than many teams that got in..."
That means PSU is a good team. So does this:
"PSU was a good team in '08/'09"
They're a good team that just won a lousy tournament and did so by beating mediocre competition.
And yes, winning the Motor City Bowl is every bit as gratifying...take that however you'd like.
Thanks for stopping by all. Come back soon.
I like this blog, but I'm not sure I understand the reason for the post. Is there really that large of a "delusional" PSU basketball fan base(?)...one that warrants an entire post on how the NIT is unimportant (um, duh)...and on a Purdue sports blog? Who are the people that are over selling this victory? Delusional about football(?)...maybe (probably)...delusional about basketball(?)...nah.
This post and the comments that followed is the funniest thing I've read in a good while.
Kudos.
To Anonymous who claims Boiled Sports "fired the first bitter shots":
http://nittanywhiteout.com/2009/04/02/penn-state-2009-champions/
I'm glad Penn State won the NIT, as I was pulling for PSU; I think it is great that they took 36 busloads of students to NY as your team deserved it; I hope it translates into more support for Penn State basketball in the future.
As far as PSU not making the tournament, the blame lies mostly with them (losing at Iowa, getting drilled in Big Ten Tournament) although Tennessee losing the SEC Conference Tournament sure helped; the Lions made the most of it though, so congrats!
I'm a PSU alumni. I love all the smugness from around the Big Ten and around the country. PSU basketball has never done anything, and PSU fans have never seen anything anyway since our team is on TV about twice a year. Now we have the Big Ten Network and we've had the opportunity to follow our team and see some success. We're not delusional. We know the NIT is nothing compared to the NCAA tournament. But they didn't want us! So screw them! PSU won the games it was invited to, won a trophy, and took it home to put in it's very empty Men's Basketball trophy case. I'm damn proud of that, and I had FUN watching it, and I don't care what anyone from purdon't or any other school thinks about it. Call me classless or stupid or whatever you want, I don't care about that either! PSU NIT CHAMPS 2008!
-showtime
further evidence that penn state fans are the most douche-tastic in the big ten
Penn State > Purdue
Got accepted to both; attended Penn State.
As Big 11 fans, you should be happy anytime someone in the conference does well in the post season.
In the bowl season I pull for every Big 11 school, even scUM.
Can't wait for fall.
Unless you've laced them up and played basketball, mocking a 20 win team for winning a post-season tournament is punk. Straight up punk. I know Purdue's filled with the petulant, pencil armed "fans" but jeez, this is obnoxious. I suspect you've never done something 1/50th as important as winning the NIT, son.
Oh, silly little Purdue. Not really that good at anything, but somehow think you can bang on another school for being happy about...what exactly? Winning basketball games? What's the matter-did someone steal your big drum?
You talk about celebratory "posts" but only link one. I guess at Purdue they don't teach the basics. Like singular and plural.
It's too bad really. I kind of liked Purdue. Even cheered for you guys against Washington and UConn.
You know you're just blowing hot air when even most of the Purdue fans posting comments didn't agree with this shlock. One would think that given MSU's win tonight, Purdue fans would hope the conference could win both major basketball tournaments. That might help make their losses to Penn State, Illinois and Northwestern (teams PSU didn't lose to) look slightly better. The league needs a boost - be happy it's getting one in basketball, and no thanks to your late round ineptitude.
And to think, Purdue used to be one of my favorite conference teams.
Thanks for all the backhanded compliments. Too bad, because I was rooting for you guys in the tourney. Must suck to have lost to such a crappy team with a delusional fan base. GO SPARTY!
Thanks for posting this. The fact you felt compelled to write this just validated the point you were arguing against.
Somebody is upset that Penn State now has exactly the same number of post season championships that Purdue does.
1 NIT Championship
Your post was EPIC FAIL
and here I was rooting for purdue in the tourny. i will have to re-evaluate that.
You have to understand just how bad the basketball tradition was at Penn State. When we say its bad, it was real bad.
This post was definitely an epic fail. stay classy, Purdue
I went to Penn State, and I totally agree with this post.
Everyone was wayyyyy too excited about this.
Considering how irrelevant the NIT is and how shameful it is to be found playing in it, I'm surprised you even noticed Penn State was in the NIT. I suppose if Purdue ever suffered the misfortune to back their way into the NIT they'd bow out in the firt round against George Mason and you'd be proud of the Boilers for having the good sense to not waste any sportsmanlike effort or show even a tiny amount of heart or pride in playing for such a meaningless title.
Serious congrats on your Sweet 16 run, wish you could've beaten UConn. Glad Sparty did, because I can't stand Calhoun or the Huskies.
I don't know if or why you have a problem with PSU, but it's unfortunate you feel the need to lash out about this. It strikes of the kind of petulance you'd see after losing a game of HORSE to a younger sibling...pissed off for no reason.
I'm proud of the Nits because they came from nothing...two conference wins just two years ago. You have to start somewhere, after all. I think you'll learn this soon, having Hope in his first year for the football team.
Ultimately, if you do believe most of this stuff you wrote, I truly feel sorry for you. "66th best team" comments and the like are pretty trite. You should be pulling for our conference depth, so let's hope you're pulling for Sparty tomorrow night...
I have to tell you this post is total bush league. Instead of saying congratulations to PSU and celebrating your sweet 16 run you place your focus in the negative.
Your engergy is a finite resource. I hope someday you will learn to focus on the positive. Go MSU...How outstaning is it that Purdue and MSU had and are having the runs they are having. PSU was awesome to have won the NIT. In reality, it is 30-60th best teams in the country...
there is not that much difference between 40-30 and 30-20. To win the NIT is a great accomplishment and helps the whole Big 10 image.
Go SPARTY..Beat the Tar Heals!
yeah to bad your "all big ten defender" Chris Kramer cant defend battle or pringle. he got smoked all day. he's worthless to you guys. honestly you should cut him. most overrated player in the conference. and at least we have 2 successful basketball and football programs. purdue football. haha
Hey guys, thanks for the commentary. And those "epic fail" comments -- hey, very original! And creative!
Posts with high-brow name-calling and profanity have been deleted.
Oh, and for those of you who apparently think you're threatening us in some way by saying you "used to root for Purdue" (and thus, I guess, implying that you won't anymore)... be gone. Shoo. Nobody cares.
Why do you care so much as to write a blog about this? please inform me as to why you would call out a school in your own conference? Worry about your own team and leave the jealousy aside.
This post is an epic success based upon all the PSU fans who stopped by to post nonsense.
I think all 28 of the Penn State Basketball season ticket holders dropped by to post. Impressive!
I am definitely rooting for MSU to win tonight, and in previous games as well......but rooting for PSU in the NIT? I just don't care, and neither does anyone else outside of Waco or Happy Valley.
I think most PSU fans are willing to admit that PSU's b-ball program has little to no tradition. PSU winning the NIT is similar to Indiana winning a bowl game.
That being said, of all programs to badmouth PSU, Purdue is towards the bottom of the list. Your b-ball team has had moderate success. Your football team is incredibly mediocre...Purdue is good for keeping the score close against a ranked opponent, but not much more.
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