Penn State 67, Purdue 64

(Video highlights from the BTN)

There were many positives from last night's game at the BJC.

Rebounding and Hustle - Yes, Penn State (13-3, 2-1) outrebounded a Big Ten opponent 41-27, which is proof enough that the program has improved. This was apparent from the very beginning of the game as Penn State grabbed five consecutive offensive rebounds its first possession before Talor Battle finally converted the opportunity with a three-point play. It was a theme for the entire game.

"A lot of the rebounds were hustle plays, long rebounds, scrapping," Purdue coach Matt Painter said. "Battle's proven sometimes it's chasing the ball as well as getting it above the rim. Whenever there was a 50/50 play and the ball was loose, Penn State got the majority of those, and that's how you're gonna win games."

Confidence? Rising.

"Last year when we were freshmen, we all would've been jumping up and running around the gym after we beat the 14th ranked team in the country," Battle said. "Now we really just expect to win. We feel we can play with anybody."

Also rising are the opinions held by other conference coaches about the PSU program.

"We’re better," DeChellis said. "I’m not gonna take any credit. Our players are better, we’ve elevated our talent."

Painter, whose team dusted the Nittany Lions by 22 points in the Jordan Center last January, would agree. "They’ve made improvements," he said, "but they’ve also made improvements together, and that’s important."

So, there's a catch?  It's Nittany Lion basketball, there's always a catch.  For a team so heavily dependent on guard play, the team's free throw shooting is just abysmal.    This team isn't nearly talented enough to be so awful at the line.  We need to be winning games at the stripe, not giving them away. 

I love to say that Jamelle Cornley is 6'4", but 6'2" of it is balls.  He's an undersized hustler, and his passion for the game is unquestioned.  At the free throw line, however, he's one hitch away from being Chuck Hayes:

Perhaps some actual, professional advice is in order?

Okay, Joe Paterno is going to be the head coach at Penn State for a few more years.  It's good news in many ways -- he's fun to have around, the team seems to be on stable ground and just won a conference title, etc. -- but with the stubbornness of an 82 year old coaching icon comes the occasional slap of reality.

"I don't know whether it's important for the team (for him to be back on the sideline in 2009), but it's important for me," he said. "I'm frustrated. That was a very frustrating (year).

"You're up there (in the press box Thursday at the Rose Bowl), and there's ol' Pete Carroll barking at the officials and grabbing them and the whole bit, trying to get a break here and there. And I'm sitting upstairs. I'm not down there telling some of those guys, 'Hey, why don't you wake up?' "

Although most of the leg work has been done for Penn State's recruiting class, Paterno hopes he can go on the road in the next several weeks. He was recovering from his sideline collision at Wisconsin during the winter of 2006-07 and from pneumonia last winter, which prevented him from visiting recruits.

"We'll have to see," he said. "Doc (team doctor Wayne Sebastianelli) is not sure he wants me up and down in the little airplane because of the blood-clotting (factor)."

So it's important for Joe to be on the sidelines (check that, it's important to Joe), but when it comes to visiting recruits in their homes...not so much. 

How did he get to Pasadena, stage coach? 

We have to ask, how substantial is this unwillingness or inability to travel?  There are plenty of highly regarded recruits left in our region, most notably Jelani Jenkins, a five-star linebacker in Maryland who could be swayed by a rare Paterno in-home visit.  I would be more than happy to chauffeur him around the mid-Atlantic, with hourly stops to get out and stretch.  Seriously.  I'm available for that job any day.

Good morning, have you made Nick Saban scream an obscenity today?  Grab a coffee and enjoy your Saturday news roundup.

Be prepared to read a variety of this column until further notice.  Kirk Bohls of the Austin American-Statesman cobbles together the boilerplate Big Ten Sucks article. Nebulous crap that can't be proven?  Yes.

Chief among the reasons for the franchise league's falloff is inferior quarterback play. The best quarterback in the Big Ten — either Penn State's Darryl Clark or Ohio State's blossoming Terrelle Pryor — would probably rank seventh or lower as a Big 12 quarterback.

So, yeah.  Daryll Clark = Joe Ganz*.  Or worse.  Got it. 

Really odd comparisons?  Yes.

Top schoolboy talent would rather play for young, aggressive coaches like Urban Meyer and Bob Stoops than Joe Paterno and whomever the Indiana coach is now.

Totally, or they'd rather play for Joe Paterno and Jim Tressel than Bob Stoops and whomever the Mississippi State coach is now.  But hey, at least Bohls is complimentary of Penn State!

Penn State had a rare great season.

Again, it's absolutely true.  If there's one thing that Penn State fans aren't used to, it's winning. But enough about that, let's talk THREE YARDS AND A CLOUD OF CRAP WOOOOOOOOOOO!

Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez might ultimately be the best thing to happen to the Big Ten since Ohio State coach Jim Tressel. Rodriguez will revolutionize that conference with a dynamic spread offense like Penn State and Northwestern now feature. But it could take time.

Spot on.  In fact, Rodriguez's influence was so great that eight other Big Ten teams decided to run the spread upon his arrival!  Because we're gracious hosts.

This is the classic example of the media echo chamber.  It's the college football equivalent of the country focusing its energy and attention on The Summer Of Shark Attacks or Pretty Missing White Girls or SEC Speed.  Every talking head opinion and lazy news column leads to more talking head opinions and lazy news columns.  Hey, I'm totally willing to accept the premise, just give me some basic reasoning that won't make my brain melt.

The Big Ten deserves some grief.  I don't think anybody can deny that. The conference is down -- very down -- and was obviously not served well by getting two BCS slots, bumping up the level of bowl competition for the soft middle of the conference.  Many of them may be bowl teams, but nobody confused with with being good teams.  Not even their own fans.

Still, for those of us slopping at the media trough, win or get used to it.  More news and miscellaneous garbage after the jump.

* - Who completes about 71% of his passes, but come on.

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[Reportedly, Mike has wandered off to a remote cabin to contemplate life and grow an Al Gore beard.  For today, it's up to Kevin and myself to sift through the rubble.]

The Internets are always a funny place the day after a Penn State loss.  It's not even 11 a.m., and I've read all sort of discussions about how awful Penn State's recruiting is, why we'll never win another national championship, how unbelievably screwed the team will be in 2009, and so on.  It would also seem that every one of our coaches is a certified Window Licker, and we're probably not going to win more than seven games next year.

These feelings should have subsided by approximately 10 p.m. last night.  This being The Internets, the sentiments will probably last until late August.

It's a meltdown!

Penn State didn't have to face any sophisticated pass offenses or elite quarterbacks this season -- until the Rose Bowl.  Think about it, who was the best passing quarterback Penn State faced?  Lyle Moevao?  Ricky Stanzi?  All year long, the Penn State defense had the luxury of sitting back and waiting for a game-changing sack or poorly thrown ball for an interception.  Against USC, that philosophy results in a lopsided 7-on-7 drill.

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Not that anybody should be particularly surprised, but Joe Paterno sent a clear message to his team that Fun Time is over and Game Time is upon us:

Because a few Nittany Lions committed minor transgressions, the Penn State coach temporarily demoted a few starters. Defensive end Aaron Maybin, center A.Q. Shipley and guard Rich Ohrnberger were wearing second-team jerseys at practice Saturday.

According to the team, Maybin missed the Lions' event at Disneyland on Friday; Shipley and Ohrnberger were late for a breakfast.

Defensive coordinator Tom Bradley said Maybin's demotion was related to practice.

"I think Coach wanted to make a point," Bradley said.

Maybin was scheduled to participate in yesterday's news conference, but he was a scratch and safety Mark Rubin replaced the redshirt sophomore. Maybin, a first-team all-American, will be available to talk with the media tomorrow.

None of this will affect anyone's playing time.  Meanwhile, remember L.A. Times writer Chris Dufresne, who wrote this masterpiece after the Ohio State game?

Penn State kicked a field goal, and then Ohio State did.

Ohio State tacked on another, and then Penn State missed one.

And then, late, an Ohio State quarterback fumbled, and before you knew it people were pulling Penn State’s backup quarterback out of a goal-line pile that resulted, with 6 minutes 25 seconds left, in the game’s only touchdown.

Joe Paterno, relegated to the Ohio Stadium press box, looked down from high above, with Woody Hayes possibly peering down from even higher.

What tension, what drama, what a job by the chain gang moving those sticks… . what in Helena was that?

It was Penn State 13, Ohio State 6, that’s what it was.

And you wonder why no one wants to see the Big Ten Conference champion back in another national title game.

Well, Chris is back with a brand new invention.

The Big Ten is 8-9 in Bowl Championship Series games since 1998 and hasn't claimed a Rose Bowl win since Wisconsin plucked mediocre Stanford after the 1999 season.

You know who gets dragged down in this holiday Big Ten muck and mire?  The Penn State Nittany Lions, who have actually won nine of their last 11 bowl games and their last three.

Here's a shock: The last time Penn State played in the Rose Bowl, on Jan. 1, 1995, it won to cap a perfect season.  Coach Joe Paterno is 23-10-1 in bowl games.

Can't match Southern speed?  Three years ago, Penn State beat Florida State in the Orange Bowl.

Can't hang with the SEC?  Two years ago, Penn State defeated Tennessee in the Outback.

Sharing the Big Ten's reputation with 10 other teams hasn't been easy, or perhaps fair, to Penn State.

Of course, Dufresne is singing a different tune now that USC is shut out of the BCS Championship Game, but his point regarding PSU needs to be repeated on a constant loop.  Besides, is an 8-9 record in BCS games a sufficient reason for the national media to heap ungodly amounts of scorn upon a conference?  Sure, nobody's proud of it, but...

There's a weird dynamic when it comes to comparing conferences, especially with respect to the bowl season.  The Big Ten is favored in exactly one of its matchups -- South Carolina is a slight underdog to Iowa.   If the Big Ten was favored in six of its seven matchups and went 4-3, that would be a disappointment by any reasonable metric.  So without wading too far into the soft bigotry of low expectations, would it not be a successful bowl season if the Big Ten won three games? 

It's understood that the perception of conference strength is drawn from the top of the ticket, but Penn State and Ohio State remain substantial underdogs in their matchups*.  If the Big Ten can split those games and pick off two or three other victories, the bowl season will have been a success, even if the final tally is three wins and four losses.  Given the point spreads in the lower-tier bowls, three or four wins could even be considered a tremendous success. 

* - Although the spreads in each game seemed to have ticked down approximately two points since the opening lines were posted, which is mildly interesting.