TV Alert PSU at Illinois on BTN tonight at 7. Another winnable game if they
- Thread starter CattyGuy51
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Would have loved to have seen where this team would be at if Reaves had not run into the academic issue. Can't be understated the influence he has when in the lineup and I'm thinking we're no worse than 20-6 right now if he didn't miss time. It is what it is though and have to give credit to whole team for battling through it. Remaining schedule is very tough but wouldn't count these guys out against anyone.
Penn State is over .500 in conference play. The last time they were over .500 this late in the season was 2008-2009.
Was thinking the same Va.
I was going to post and refer to it as the "January Thaw".
OL
This team may not make the tournament, but I guarantee there will be quite a few teams in the tournament that aren’t as good. That’s my problem with the auto bids and the love affair with the mid majors that the NCAA has. Who would be a more deserving #15 or #16 seed...Penn State or Nothwestern Eastern Prairie State Community College?
The only game Im sure they win out of those for is Indiana, awful defense vs Minnesota (terrible game plan too) so he wouldn't have been enough. Maybe they win at Northwestern but both of those games PSU gave sub par efforts, especially after beating Nebraska.
Agree, but it is nice for every conference to send a team. Should go to 72 or even 80 and make some of those AQ's play each other in a 16-17 or 15-18 matchup. Either that or a couple of those conferences should drop to D2, 300+ D1 teams is too many anyhow.
If PSU finishes 11-7, assuming the loss is on the road at Purdue, that means they will have gone 8-2 in their last 10 games. They will have beaten Ohio State twice, Michigan, and Nebraska on the road. I am not saying it makes them a lock, but if they also win a couple of games in the tournament I have a hard time believing they will get left out. I also believe the committee will take into account the fact that Josh Reeves was out for an extended period. Also, if the season plays out the way I described, Patrick Chambers is not going anywhere. There is no way Penn State will fire him. I would not give him a long term extension, but he has done enough to come back next year.
I doubt the Minnesota game goes to overtime with Reaves playing.
Or maybe scratch the regular season and start march madness in December with everyone aboard. Kidding of course. Its big enough as it is now. We don't need to add teams. Remember, the goal is to crown the best team,......going to the tourney should not be a participation award.
Hard to feel sorry for Illinois on many levels w/r/t PSU. When they were good it was a total troll job by them, always. Hard to win on the road no matter what.
Then this program is screwed for recruiting. You can't make a coach a lame duck -- he MUST either be extended or cut after THIS season, there is no other option. No way is he fired, so an extension is coming.
You have to give Chambers credit for the way he has recruited, particularly in the Philadelphia region. I think it is a no brainer that he gets an extension.
Recruiting Carr, Stevens, and Watkins was tremendous. Unfortunately he didn't back that up with a good class last year.
A big part of it is the luck of the draw with the unbalanced schedule. They only met the top 4 once each, while they get Rutgers, Ilinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota twice each. Still need to win the games, but it's why the committee digs deeper than conference standings when sorting teams out.
Wheeler was a steal... and let's not forget about getting Reaves in Watkins class (both were 4* recruits, Reaves from Oak Hill Academy). We have two top 150 recruits coming in this year too.
PSU will get in if they win 3 of the next 4 but the likelihood of that happening is not good.
Also, Joe Hampton was another 4* recruit that we had signed who had personal issues and never panned out.
Ok I’ll bite. How many, if any, of the next 4 games does PSU win?
I will summarily deem any non-specific response by you as a “0”. You never get into “specifics”, but I’m going to force you to do so.
I mentioned Watkins but good catch on Reaves. That's 4 quality players.
Last year's class (Wheeler, Buttrick, and Harrar) was ranked 117th nationally and 13th out of 14 in the BiG (lowest average rating but NW only signed 1).
If they win 2 out the next 4, and then make it to the Big 10 semifinals, I think they have an excellent chance of going dancing.
117th nationally is not terrible for Penn State basketball, particularly when you have 4 returning freshmen who will be be getting a lot of playing time over the next 3 years. It will be interesting to see how recruiting goes over the next couple of years. Having a winning program helps recruiting.
There needs to be some context added to the 2017 recruiting class. We didn't have any scholarships available for 2017 until guys transferred in the Spring. We turned our attention toward guys like Bolton, Dread, Dwayne Cohill, etc., that's why the class is much lower than the previous ones.
Nebraska is playing very well. They'll be awfully tough the last game of the regular season. That's part of the reason they're 10-4. The other part is the conference stinks this year. We now have a 4 game season where we can play our way into NCAA tournament consideration. Thursday vs Ohio State is the biggest game for PSU basketball in years.
117th is terrible, especially with 3 kids. Behind teams like Belmont, Santa Clara, Tennessee-Martin, Misouri State, Lehigh, etc. You would be hard pressed to find many P5 conference teams ranked lower.
2018 is much better, ranked 49th. Dread is ranked 151, Bolton is ranked 210.
They also showed the wrong standings. PSU is 8-6 not 7-7, and they are ahead of Indiana.
Sure you can respond to bdgan’s post, but you won’t respond to the “pesky” ones. pvssy
Once the product is on the court, who cares about rankings?? Wheeler has proven he was undervalued. Harrah was an army football commit till late, so he was not even really evaluated as a hoops recruit.
The 2017 class was supposed to have ZERO recruits in it. Only when late attrition set in did spots open up. Getting even one guy who can be an immediate key contributor as a last minute recruit was a win.
