Penn State vs Northwestern Basketball Recap

Penn State no longer has to wonder if it will go winless in the Big Ten this season. Northwestern will definitely continue to wonder when its historic streak of basketball futility will ever, ever end.

Milestones were achieved Wednesday night in Evanston, Ill. A convincing road-court conquest by the Penn State Nittany Lions removed a goose-egg from the Big Ten win column, giving Coach Ed DeChellis's charges their first conference victory of 2010. After many near-misses that left a locker room bruised and baffled, the Blue and White broke through and relieved themselves of the burden no college kids should have to endure. Penn State hasn't had a fun season, but the knockout of Northwestern will allow many Nittany Lions to sleep much more peacefully as they return home to a truly Happy Valley.

This 11-point PSU popping of coach Bill Carmody's mortally-wounded Wildcats left Northwestern and its long-suffering fan base without an NCAA Tournament berth for the 72nd straight season. Yes, they've been staging the Big Dance (which used to be a little one) since the 1938-'39 campaign and Northwestern has never been able to crash the party. This loss to the Big Ten's cellar dweller will ensure that the Purple People must once again play in the NIT.

It's true that Northwestern had to take the court this season without its leading scorer, forward Kevin Coble. It's also true that Jeff Ryan, a member of the supporting cast, was also felled for the season before a single game had been played. This was not the best team NU could have fielded; prime performers were benched before the first ball was tossed up in early November. Yet, with that having been acknowledged, this loss stung - and deeply so - for a team that did not figure to lose to the Big Ten's 11th-place ballclub.

After pulling out an improbable come-from-behind win over Minnesota on Sunday, the NU crew expected to have an easier time of things against the Nittany Lions, but with more shaky play up and down the roster, the Wildcats fell off the NCAA precipice for yet another season. They'll console themselves with an NIT invite - and will try to advance in that tournament this season - but for now, the knowledge of another Big Dance strikeout will cause a substantial amount of sadness for a bad-luck program.

What stands out about this game is the fact that Northwestern actually shot the ball reasonably well. If you had told Carmody and the other NU coaches that their team would shoot 48 percent from the field and score 70 points, they would have loved their chances. If you had told the NU staff that Penn State's one and only star, do-everything point guard Talor Battle, would post only 10 points, the Cats' coaches would have been ecstatic.

Unfortunately, their defense fell apart.

Yes, Northwestern shot well and contained Mr. Battle, but everyone else in a blue jersey thrived. All five Penn State starters scored in double figures, with guard Chris Babb and forward David Jackson both ringing up 20 points for the Nittany Lions. PSU shot a sizzling 56 percent from the field (27 of 48) and hit 20 of 23 foul shots. Even more instructively, the Nittany Lions produced 21 assists on their 27 makes, an astoundingly efficient performance for a team that has struggled on offense all season long. Northwestern needed to shoot 60 percent from the field in order to overcome Penn State's offensive excellence, and that didn't happen. When one also considers the fact that NU big man Luka Mirkovic went 0 for 6 from the foul line in the second half, it's no wonder that the Cats couldn't climb past DeChellis's motivated young men.

The Chicago Cubs represent the ultimate in sports futility. Not too far away from Wrigley Field, however, stands Welsh-Ryan Arena, home to the college basketball equivalent of the Cubbies. "Wait 'Til Next Year!" is the cry of Chicago's beloved baseball team. It's also the mantra for college basketball's most snake-bitten school, forced to wait yet another season in the quest for a first-ever NCAA Tournament berth.

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