I talked to people from Altoona, Johnstown, Pittsburgh, Philly, Bellefonte, Philipsburg, and Harrisburg. One guy and his son drove up from Kentucky.

There were hoards of students who walked over from their dorm rooms in East and West or North Halls or from their apartments downtown. There were players from other Penn State teams, wearing their colors, their team jackets, and their numbers.

Of course there was also the fleet of media vans and trucks, with the reporters and camera men rushing around trying to get the best images or statements.

The occasion was a 6 a.m. rally, thought up at the last minute by a local radio host, designed to show support for the players and coaches on this Penn State football team.  The idea was to meet at the entrance to the Lasch Football Complex and greet the players as they arrived for their Tuesday workout.

I expected to see a couple hundred people, but instead there were at least a thousand, maybe two, all chanting and cheering as if this was a pep rally and Ohio State was coming in tomorrow.

And when the band showed up, playing all the football favorites, all of this officially turned into “An Event.” Sort of like midnight madness with doughnuts and coffee instead of whatever they eat and drink before midnight.

Everyone I talked to, though, no matter what their exact words were, all had the same thoughts as to what this rally was really all about: we are here to show our support and enthusiasm for the players on this football team. We are like a family, and at times like this, families pull together.

At about 6:15 the first of the players began to show up. All of them were greeted with cheers, shouts of encouragement, signs, and high-fives. Some of the players were followed by newsmen with microphones and cameras. Some walked in alone, some in  small groups. Some smiled and waved and signed autographs. Others stared ahead intently, maybe already focusing on the job at hand and the season to come. Still others seemed to be taken aback by the size of the crowd and didn’t quite know how to react.

It didn’t matter. The all received the same loud and raucous welcome, the same chants of “We are number one” and “We are Penn State.”

By 6:45 all of the players had pretty much arrived, and with the band still playing and the radio people still broadcasting,  people began to drift away, while some of the fans that stayed longer were allowed in to watch some of the workouts.

One couple, all dressed in blue and white, passed by me on the way out. I said hello, and the guy looked at me and said, “That was pretty amazing, wasn’t it?” Yes it was.

On the way to my car, I walked around the site where they are building the new hockey complex. It is a giant mess now, holes everywhere and everything scattered all around in big piles. But soon they are going to start building, and that giant mess will slowly become one of the finest college hockey facilities in the country.

There is a different kind of construction that will be going on in the Lasch Building, and they are going to try to build something that will be just as impressive as that hockey building.  Maybe that work started today.

Disraeli

If you think that the incessant arguing on sport’s TV is bad now, wait until the beginning of December of 2014.

That, of course, will be the time that the NCAA will announce its first “final four” playoff teams in the inaugural “tournament” to decide the college football national champion once and for all.

With the BCS shown the door, this will be a mega-bucks, three game showdown to determine the best of the best in NCAA division 1 football.

The four teams selected and their fans will be elated, no doubt, and the players will square off in Pasadena or Miami or wherever for a chance to travel to the Super Bowl of college football.

Teams No. 5 and 6? Maybe in a new bowl game—The Snub Bowl—played somewhere far away in a place like Wales or Mexico City.

It is essential, then, that the NCAA gets this right. The four teams chosen have to have impeccable credentials, with great seasons, quality wins, conference titles, etc, and be clear choices to be in the final four.

That we have clear choices will never happen, of course, so we are going to be relying on a committee to decide the four teams. That committee has yet to be envisioned, but my guess is that it will be largely modeled after the basketball committee that selects the teams in the NCAA tournament.

That committee uses records, quality wins, strength of schedule, RPI, conference strength, conference record, and many other parameters to decide who to invite to the tournament. The members are well respected and hail from all areas of the sport. What they do is essentially what the football committee will do—rank and seed the teams according to what they consider to be their relative strength.

Now, basketball is a different sport than football, and the basketball tournament has 68 teams and there are many upsets (although football has many upsets as well, maybe as many percentage-wise as any other sport).

We are not talking here about the tournament itself, though, but about choosing the best four teams. And the basketball committee does that, and has been doing that for a long time using all those statistics, and they name what they believe to be the best four teams in the country. They are the regional #1 seeds. The football people will be asked to do the same thing, although their ranking will be final.

The cool thing about the basketball tournament is that we get to see just how accurate the seedings were.  How often, with all this information and all these qualified people, have they been right?

The numbers are revealing. In the last 10 years, of the 40 teams that were seeded #1 in their regional—essentially thought to be one of the best four teams in the country—14 advanced to the final four. So fewer than half the teams that were thought to be in the top four actually made it into the top four.

There were 10 #2 seeds, who would be placed from five to nine in the national rankings, six # 3’s, and seven #4 and # 5s. And an 8 and two 11s.

Interpret those numbers as you will, but the committee did redeem itself in the finals. Of the last 10 champions, six were #1 seeds, one was a #2, and three were #3s. 2008 was a great year for the committee because all four teams in the final four were #1 seeds in a tournament won by Kansas.

2011, on the other hand, was not a good year. The highest team to make the final four was UConn at #3, the team that eventually won it, and it was joined by a #4, #8, and a #11. None of the teams proven to be playing the best at that time were indentified.

What does all of this mean for Football? Not much, probably, if we realize that whatever teams the committee chooses will all be more than qualified and a product of endless number crunching and wrangling among the various factions in the room.

What we will get is a no-questions-asked, definite, winner of the committee’s final four. With only four teams selected, there will be lots of teams out there that could win it but had an early stumble or injury that blocked them. That’s the way it goes in college football where a loss or two is usually the end for title hopes.

The best team? The basketball people predict  it six out of ten times, not bad, so football can do just as well, maybe better, we hope. But there will be lapses.

And think about the selection shows. An hour at least, for just four teams, with 55 minutes taken up with talk and seven or eight video clips each played about 35 or 40 times, in case we missed something. Then—bam!—right at the end, team A will play team B and team X will play team Y. Cut to commercial.

Let the arguing begin.

Who would have guessed that that “something” was just to return home?

The next game on Penn State’s schedule was the home opener at Medlar Field against Pitt. Jordan Steranka had four hits in the game, four RBIs, and nailed a three-run homer in the third inning. Penn State won that game 5-3, and since then the Lions have been tough to beat–by anybody.

Going into the Big Ten tournament opener on Wednesday against Ohio State, #3 seed PSU has an overall record of 29-25, a conference record of 15-9 (good for a tie for third place), and an incredible 18-4 record at home.

Since that lowly day in March, Penn State is 25-11, and it won the last six straight series against Big Ten teams, three of which were on the road. The last time Penn State won three Big Ten road series was in 1996.

It would be an understatement to say that head coach Robbie Wine and his team deserve a mountain of credit for turning this season around, and a lot of that credit rightly should belong to a very strong senior class.

Jordan Steranka, the senior first baseman from Pittsburgh who was drafted last year by Houston and chose to stay for his senior year, was the offensive leader for the Lions all season. He batted .362 with 11 homers, 18 doubles and 39 RBIs and started all of Penn State’s 54 games.

Third baseman Joey DeBernardis was not far behind Steranka. He hit 281 with 8 homers and 35 RBIs, and senior outfielder Sean Deegan added 11 homers and 41 RBIs. These three seniors combined to drive in 115 runs, more than half the team’s total, and hit 30 of the team’s 37 home runs during the season. It would be easy to point to them as the major reasons for the team’s success this year.

On the mound, the Lions got a combined 13 wins from Joe Kurrasch, Greg Welsh, and Steven Hill, and another 8 more from John Walter, Mike Franklin, and Cody Lewis. Kurrash led the team with a 1.98 ERA in 15 appearances, and Hill pitched Penn State’s first ever Big Ten no-hitter at Iowa. Reliever Dave Walkling led the team with 7 saves in 19 appearances.

The Lions, however, do not have a great record in the Big Ten tournament. They are 13-18 overall in tournament games, and they lost their first two games in 2011 to Purdue and Minnesota.

Maybe that is something else this 2012 team can turn around.

The winners will meet on Saturday night at 7 p.m. for the championship.

All time, Penn State is 45-2 against Princeton and defeated the Tigers (13-9) twice this season, 3-0 and 3-2. Those numbers could be deceiving, however, because PSU had to come back three times in the Lions’ 3-2 win at Princeton on March 30th.

Penn State evened that match with an incredible 37-35 win in the fourth set and was able to hold on in the fifth set for the win. Princeton, by the way, is the last team to defeat Penn State in EIVA tournament play when it won a 3-2 decision in 1998.

Penn State also defeated Harvard (10-4 in EIVA) twice this season, but the Lions were pushed to the limit by the Crimson in PSU’s 3-2 win at home on April 7th. The same is true of George Mason (8-6 in EIVA) who Penn State defeated 3-0 on February 25th, but who gave PSU all it could handle in a 3-1 Penn State win at George Mason on March 31st.

In all, the four teams seemed to be bunching up in the later stages of the season, and that could lead to some entertaining matches in this year’s tournament.

Elsewhere, the Penn State baseball team continues to improve. The Lions won for the seventh time in the last eight tries when they defeated Kent State, 6-4, on Wednesday afternoon. Senior Sean Deegan struck the big blow when he hit a bases-loaded triple in the bottom of the fourth that put the Lions ahead for good. Deegan’s triple was the 14th of his career and set a new Penn State all-time record.

Freshman catcher JC Coban picked up three hits on the day, raising his average to .301 for the season, and sophomore Tim Dunn got the win in 3 1/3 innings of relief.

It’s back to Big Ten play this weekend for PSU as Ohio State comes to Medlar Field for a big three-game series. Penn State will have a chance to continue its climb back to the .500 mark as well as improve its standing in the conference.

Football coach Bill O’Brien will throw out the first pitch on Friday night (so we’ll get to see how good his arm is), and pitcher Steven Hill will be honored before the game for throwing Penn State’s first Big Ten no-hitter against Iowa on Saturday.

There will also be fireworks after the game and probably quite a few during the game as well.

Finally, the #8-ranked women’s lacrosse team will finish out its regular season on Saturday with a Senior Day contest against Princeton at the PSU Lacrosse Field at 3 p.m. The Lions (10-5) already have more wins this season than any other since 2005, and are looking forward to the playoffs, which start next week in Florida.

Also, senior goalkeeper Dana Cahill has been selected as a nominee for the 2012 Tewaaraton Award, which is presented to the nation’s top female collegiate lacrosse player. She was one of 20 players selected out of an original list of 57, and the five finalists will be announced on May 10th. The award will be presented on May 31st at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

The junior from Colleyville, Texas threw a no-hitter against the Hawkeyes in a 2-0 victory on Saturday that marked the first time a Penn State pitcher threw a no-hitter in a Big Ten game. It was also the first no-hitter thrown by a PSU pitcher since Nate Bump did it in 1995 against Duquesne.

Freshman catcher JC Coban supplied all the offense Hill needed when he hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning that plated the only two runs in the game. Hill, who allowed only two base runners and threw just 105 pitches, took over from there, winning his fourth consecutive game and running Penn State’s winning streak up to five games.

“When you are in it,” PSU coach Robbie Wine said, “you don’t really think about it. And still it really hasn’t sunk in yet. But for Steve Hill to go out there and do that for the team in such a crucial game, it’s huge. For the season it means a lot and for him, he’ll remember that forever. It’s just a fun event and once again, it reinforces why you coach.”

Penn State finished the weekend by taking two of three from Iowa, but missed a chance for a sweep with a 4-2 loss to the Hawkeyes on Sunday. The Lions have now won 12 of their last 15 games, and after a miserable start that saw them as much a 11 games under .500, the team has fought back to an 18-21 record, including 6-6 in the Big Ten.

Penn State next plays at home against Mount St. Mary’s on Tuesday.

There were only basic defenses. Bill O’Brien used only 10% of his offense. Matt McGloin said the offense ran only “three or four” different pass plays. There were five interceptions, eight sacks, and no sign of the multiple formation offense and attacking defenses that so many people have been talking about.

In other words, things were pretty generic, and the 2012 Nittany Lion opponents–along with the rest of us–are going to have to wait until the fall to see what Penn State is really up to.

None of that means, though, that there isn’t anything to discuss about the game. It was actually very interesting for a number of reasons.

No issue has been more in the forefront than the battle for the quarterback position, and nothing that happened on Saturday went very far toward resolving that issue. The general impression seems to be that Rob Bolden had the poorest day of the top three–he completed 7 of 14 passes for 78 yards, along with three interceptions–but Bill O’Brien said after the game that he was not upset with any of the quarterbacks’ play.

Bolden certainly has the arm and the athletic ability to be very successful, but he still sometimes seems indecisive in the pocket and makes errant throws. That could be a function of learning a new offense, something that O’Brien mentioned after the game, and he easily could improve as he gets more familiar with the system.

Or not, but anything can happen during the long season, and I think that he will be given chances to prove himself when PSU begins to play for real.

Matt McGloin went 6-13 for 105 yards with a TD and an interception, while Paul Jones was 6-15 for 113 yards and he also threw a TD and an interception. Not much of a difference there, and both players showed different strengths and weaknesses (although Jones has a great arm). If the season started tomorrow, one of these two would probably start, but frankly, most people are hoping for quite a bit of improvement here.

One other note about the passing game: the quarterbacks completed passes to a total of 14 different receivers, including four tight ends, and there were nine completions that were 15 yards or longer (the longest was 42 yards to Shawney Kersey). As advertised, the tight ends will be very involved the the passing game this season.

Silas Redd played the first series, ran the ball three times for 12 yards, and then didn’t play again. There’s obviously not a lot of debate about who the starting tailback will be.

Zach Zwinak (28 yards) and Bill Belton (48 yards) did most of the running, and both played well. It’s noteworthy that there were no fumbles in the game.

It looks–as it does almost every year–like Penn State again will be able to rely on its defense. There were open receivers, more than you would like to see, but the secondary also snatched five interceptions. Up front, the defensive linemen and linebackers looked very solid. The offensive line had a long day trying to block these guys, especially Jordan Hill (who had an interception) and DaQuan Jones.

What we saw of the kicking game looked competent, and it seems as if Penn State is putting a big emphasis on special teams. Anthony Fera, in warmups, kicked a 57-yard field goal with room to spare.

In general, the team looked very organized and enthusiastic. There were not many penalties called and hardly any illegal motions or botched snap counts. The discipline and attention to detail that Penn State fans are used to are still there.

Oh, by the way, the defense won, something like 77-65. Please don’t ask for a scoring summary.

Fueled in part by Bill O’Brien’s more open access to his practices and players, there is a buzz about this game–if you can call it that–more than any other in memory. And with so many questions surrounding this team and its new coaching staff, it is easy to see why.

Will a 6-6, 277 pound tight end really line up behind the quarterback? Will the offense look like the Patriots’ offense? Safety blitzes? Man to man pass coverage? Silas Redd catching the ball in space? Open receivers? Stronger, quicker linemen? Eleven defenders on the line of scrimmage? No-huddle offense? Emerging stars? Freshmen on the field? Whew!

That list could go on and on, and sometime near the end of September, all the questions will be answered. Saturday, though, is just the beginning and, given coaches’ penchant for not tipping their hands too early, look for things to be pretty conservative.

So what can we expect? What follows is a totally biased, arbitrary and subjective list of the things we can expect to see–or not–on Saturday.

A big crowd? Definitely, depending on decent weather. Wouldn’t it be ironic if more people attended Bill O’Brien’s first scrimmage at Penn State than attended the Super Bowl? There were 68,000 at that game, and we can easily beat that. By the way, the weather prediction for Saturday calls for rain and thunder, but we all know that a long-range weather forecast is even less reliable than the predictions in this article.

Silas Redd? Yes! But don’t blink or you will miss him. There have been hints about him being nicked up this spring, and the staff will be rightfully very cautious with him.

Tight ends lining up behind the quarterback? Maybe. Don’t expect, however, even close to the full complement of  formations, schemes, and plays that will be on display in the fall. Until then, opposing coaches will have to look at depressing tapes of the Patriots to try to figure out what PSU will be doing. That doesn’t mean there will not be things to watch. The whole tone of the offense–and defense, for that matter–will be different, and how organized, efficient, and mistake free the team plays will be important.

Will the starters be the starters in the fall? Probably not everywhere, but the spring game is a good place to get an idea about starters. Look for a lot of scrutiny about who plays where and how much especially in the defensive backfield, offensive line, tight ends, and quarterbacks. O’Brien seems like he will be apt to mix in younger guys, even freshmen, more quickly, so the competition for spots in all positions will be high throughout the year.

Speaking about quarterbacks, will the game reveal “separation” between them? It would be surprising if that happened. In his first B-W game, Paul Jones looked like the best of the lot, and he is still fighting to get onto the field so the B-W can be deceiving.  This will likely be a wash, but look for all of these guys to be making quicker and more decisive decisions. The competition will really heat up in camp.

Safety blitzes? No way. The defense is going to fake a lot of them though, and if what the players have been saying is any indication, the D will be moving around all over the place. They will be fun to watch, and we will have a better feel about what to expect from them in the fall than about the offense. Everyone will be watching how the offensive line will fare against what could be a very good PSU defensive line.

Will the game be high-scoring? Possibly yes and possibly no, and both are bad in a way. If it’s low scoring, we’ll worry about the offense all summer. If it’s high scoring, we’ll worry about the defense. Does it really matter? No–look for good plays on both sides of the ball.

Will they turn down the “music” that blares the entire game? Not a chance. It might even get louder.

Will the game be entertaining? Absolutely. And the nicest thing about the Blue-White game is that the Victory Bell will ring no matter what happens.

So I joined about 50 or so media members and a far larger number of coaches and others to watch the first 30 or 40 minutes of practice, which consisted mostly of stretching and position drills without pads.

They shooed the media away just as the team began to run some non-contact offensive plays against different defensive sets. I tried to kind of hide behind some of the coaches so I could see more of that, but I didn’t last very long.

Can anything be learned, then, from watching mostly drills for such a short period of time? The answer, of course, is not much, but I did see some things that might be worth mentioning, even though most of this has probably already been said.

First, the practice was very quick-paced and very organized. There was no wasted time or wasted effort. Everyone knew where to go and what to do. There were also four cameras–high up–filming everything.

The entire time that I was watching, there were groups of players practicing special teams. This day it was mostly punt teams and punt return teams, although there may have been other things mixed in that I did not see. I couldn’t see who the players were, but I will say that someone there has a very good leg.

I paid attention mostly to the offensive line, the tight ends, and the quarterbacks. With all of the groups I saw, the coaches did not accept mistakes. If something went wrong, it was do it again. And they did it until it was right. There were a lot of questions asked of the coaches, and many of the players seemed to be talking and helping each other.

There are a lot of offensive linemen. They lined up four-deep at center, left guard, and left tackle, and three-deep and right guard and right tackle. They seemed to have good size, but there were no really big, behemoth, players that stood out.

Their drills looked pretty standard, positioning, basic movements, etc, but there were many pass-blocking technique and positioning drills. There was also a lot of pulling, both left and right, and the coaches seemed to really be emphasizing quickness. I haven’t mentioned any names because I’m not confident with the numbers the players were wearing–I don’t want to misidentify anyone.

From what I saw, the tight ends worked only on short pass routes and catching the ball. That’s all they did, catch the ball. To me, this group looked very tall and athletic, and it was hard to miss Garry Gilliam because of his 6-6 size. And Jesse James is even bigger at 6-7.

The quarterbacks drew heavy interest, of course, but they pretty much did standard types of drills. One thing I found interesting was that they worked quite a bit on dropping back, faking left, rolling right, and then throwing back to the left. Or rolling all the way to the right and throwing to the flat. I doesn’t look like they are going to be standing around in the pocket, but that there will be a lot of moving around. They also did a lot of talking and helping each other out.

When everyone got together for the full-team session, it was time for the media to leave. I did try to stick around to see a few plays, though, and noticed that there was a lot of motion before the snap in the offense. Bill O’Brien also stopped two plays before they started because someone was out of position. All the plays I saw were running plays, and the quarterbacks were switching in and out. I am pretty sure McGloin took the first snap, but don’t hold me to that.

As I left, walking back to my car, I was reminded how beautiful Penn State is in the spring, with the trees budding and the flowers coming up. I had a strong urge to walk down and join the late Friday afternoon crowd at the Rathskeller, but somehow I resisted. There will be a lot more chances to do that in the fall.

All of a sudden, the Penn State softball and baseball teams are on a roll. To say that these teams started slowly this season would be an understatement, but both teams completed sweeps over the weekend and both are seeing their seasons turn around very quickly.

Nothing pumps up a team more than a walk-off, extra-inning home run, and that is exactly what happened when the PSU softball team completed its sweep of Michigan State on Sunday afternoon. Locked in a 5-5 tie in the bottom of the 9th inning, sophomore Casie Hatfield roped a two-run homer over the left-center field wall that gave the Lions a 7-5 victory and a three-game sweep of the Spartans.

Hatfield, who was 7-11 in the series with five RBIs, hit the first pitch from MSU’s Carly Nielsen and extended Penn State’s winning streak to four games. Lisa Akamine got her second win of the series, allowing four runs on eight hits in seven innings of work and added seven strikeouts to bring her total to 19 for the weekend.

Penn State took the first game in the series, 4-3, on Saturday afternoon after scoring all four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. MSU jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the fourth, but Penn State roared right back. Hatfield, Alyssa Renwick, Alyssa Sovereign, and pinch-hitter Morgan Long all had RBI hits in the inning, and pitcher Marissa Diescher held off the Spartans the rest of the way to record her second win of the week.

In the second game, Penn State again fell behind by three runs, but two four-spots in the second and third innings propelled the Lions to an 11-5 win. Penn State crashed 16 hits in the game, including homers by Cassidy Bell, Sovereign, and Lauren Yao. Hatfield added four hits and two RBIs, while Yao and Liz Presto chipped in three each. Akamine was the winning pitcher, allowing three hits and two runs in six innings.

Penn State will put its winning streak on the line when Temple comes to visit on Wednesday for a double header at Beard Field.

Meanwhile, over at Medlar Park on Sunday, sophomore Zach Eli’s walk-off hit in the bottom of the 9th inning against Canisius might not have been a home run, but it was close enough. With two outs and Aaron Novak on second base, Eli ripped a double to deep left-center field that scored Novak and gave the Lions a 4-3 victory and a sweep of the Griffins.

It was Penn State’s sixth consecutive win, and it improved the Lions record to 13-18 overall and 2-4 in the conference.

In Saturday’s first game, left fielder Sean Deegan and first baseman Jordan Steranka both notched five RBIs as Penn State jumped out to a 12-3 lead on the way to a 15-5 win. PSU had 12 hits in the game, including homers by Deegan and Steranka, and got six innings of solid work on the mound by John Walter to record the win.

In the nightcap, PSU and Canisius went into the 11th inning tied at three, and Deegan came through again. He hit a one-out single that scored catcher Alex Farkes win the winning run in Penn State’s 4-3 victory. Tim Dunn got the win for the Lions after 2.2 perfect innings in relief of starter Joe Kurrasch. Shortstop Elliot Searer also had two hits and an RBI in the game.

Penn State now travels to Pittsburgh on Wednesday and then returns home next weekend for what looks to be a fireworks-filled series against Michigan.

The #7 men’s volleyball team is 18-3 and coming off wins at George Mason and Princeton. The Princeton match was a grueling five-set affair that saw Penn State come back twice and finally prevail, 3-2, over the Tigers. The Lions fell behind 1-0 and then 2-1 before tying the match after a thrilling 37-35 win in the fourth set. Penn State then won the final set, 15-12, to remain undefeated in the EIVA.

Senior Joe Sunder had 25 kills in the match, freshman Aaron Russell had 14, and senior Edgardo Goas handed out 66 assists to carry the Lions.

Penn State’s only losses this season have come to Lewis (3-1) in January and to Pepperdine (3-2) on March 8th and then USC (3-0) on March 9th.

Penn State returns home on Saturday to face Sacred Heart (5-18) at 2 p.m. and then second-place Harvard (16-3) on Sunday at 2 p.m.

The #12 women’s lacrosse team (8-3) hosts defending national champion and #1 Northwestern at 7 p.m. tonight at the Penn State Lacrosse Field. Penn State is 4-14 all time against Northwestern and hasn’t beaten the Wildcats since a 13-10 victory in 2002.

The team is led by Mackenzie Cyr, who has 21 goals and 14 assists, Tatum Coffey with 26 goals and 3 assists, and Molly Fernandez with 21 goals and 4 assists.

After tonight’s game, Penn State will have four games left–at Lehigh, at Ohio State, and home against Johns Hopkins and Princeton–before the American Lacrosse Conference Championships in Gainsville, Fla. beginnng on May 3rd. The NCAA tournament begins on May 12th.

After limping home with a 3-14 record at the start of the season, the Penn State baseball team is beginning to warm up. The Lions are now 10-18 and are looking to extend their three-game winning streak when Canisius (17-14) comes into Medlar Field for a weekend series.

The Lions are scheduled to start junior John Walker, sophomore Joe Kurrasch, and junior Steven Hill against the Griffins, who are 5-1 in the MAAC Conference.

Penn State is led at the plate by Jordan Steranka, who is batting .328 with 3 homers and 16 RBI’s and Joey DeBernardis who has 4 homers, 20 RBI’s and is hitting .282.

Penn State is next at Pittsburgh on Wednesday before hosting Michigan for a big three-game weekend series beginning on April 13th.

The Penn State softball team (8-22) was saddled with a 13-game losing streak when freshman Marissa Diescher took to the mound in the second game of a double header against Pittsburgh. Diescher threw a gem against the Panthers–a two-hit shutout–that allowed Penn State to snap that losing streak with a much-needed 4-0 victory.

Cassidy Bell led off the game with a homer and, staked to an early lead, Diescher was prepared to make it stand. “Usually that’s not a lot to feel comfortable on,” she said, “but after that I knew I had to kind of keep them off the board and I knew we’d come through in the end.”

Penn State is hosting Michigan State this weekend for a three-game series with a double-header beginning at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Bill O’Brien’s camp, on the other hand, has been much more open and accessible, leading to a tremendous amount of mostly very good analysis, on this site and many others, of what coach O’Brien and his staff are planning for the new season.

There also seems to be a growing sense of  anticipation about the upcoming Blue-White game, especially in the sense that O’Brien is taking the game very seriously and therefore his players will be also. How much about the new offenses and defenses will be revealed? Who’s taking the most snaps at quarterback? Who’s playing where and how much? What recruits are on the sidelines? And so on. I can’t wait to find all of that out.

So things are very different, but PSU still has the same players, so will any of this change make a difference in the fall? It might, actually, make a tremendous difference.

Take the offensive line, for example. Doesn’t it always seem like Penn State is replacing three or four of these guys every year? And every year they have to learn to jell together, and all of that, to slowly become a good unit. That probably was in large part because Joe’s staff liked to stick with more experienced guys, mostly seniors, at those positions, and of course those seniors graduate and have to be replaced every year.

O’Brien doesn’t seem to think that way. All jobs are open, and we are more than likely going to see younger guys mixing in all those spots. The result will be more competition and more continuity from season to season.

Tight end will be another example. Penn State has a history of great tight ends, from Ted Kwalick through Kyle Brady, but recently the position has mostly disappeared from the PSU offense. That may have been because of the spread HD offense, or other factors such as injuries, but I don’t think it was because of lack of talent. Penn State has players there, Kevin Haplea, Garry Gilliam, Jesse James, and I haven’t heard O’Brien back off even a little bit about making the tight end a big part of the offense in 2012. That has to tell us something.

And the heavy, new emphasis on strength and conditioning is encouraging. Penn State has always been difficult to play against in the fourth quarter; you had to play PSU to the bitter end and no lead was safe (see 1993 PSU 38, Michigan State 37 for an example of that). Not so much lately, though, and teams have been beating the Lions down the stretch or holding on to slim leads. Looks like Penn State plans to change that.

Finally, a few thoughts about the quarterbacks. Chuck Burkhart never lost a game as Penn State’s quarterback, and I don’t think he could throw the ball 50 yards if you allowed him two bounces. (And, yes, you had to have a passing game to be successful then as well as now.) PSU doesn’t need a superstar, but someone who can avoid mistakes, make consistent throws and good decisions.

Oh, and about Danny O’Brien. He came to check out a PSU practice, and of course his competition at quarterback, and the next day announced his decision to go to Wisconsin. I wonder if there is anything we can infer from that.

So the vibrations are good. At this point, Joe would probably have said, “We’re mixing guys in and out. I don’t know, it’s hard to tell what we’ve got.” (Translation: “We’re going to show up ready to play football.”)

I have a friend, Frank Ahrenhold, who played defensive tackle for Penn State from 1968 to 1972 and who has one of the two game balls given out after one of Penn State’s most iconic victories: the 30-6 stomping of Texas in the 1972 Cotton Bowl. This was the game that showed the country how to stop the wishbone and that brought Penn State, once and for all, into the national discussion.

I recently talked to Frank about that game, and other things about Penn State, and I’d like to share what he said.

It’s a well known story. Penn State was undefeated in 1968 and finished second in the national polls. The next season, Penn State went undefeated again and, after Richard Nixon declared Texas the national champion on a visit to Texas, the Nittany Lions were voted second in the polls again.

“We had the ’68 and ’69 teams that ran off 22 games in a row,” Ahrenhold said, “a couple Orange Bowl victories, and we finished #2 in the polls both years. And then we came to sort of a down year, after Mike Reid and Steve Smear and all of those guys graduated. We lost three games that season, and I think we were offered the Liberty Bowl or something like that, and we just said the heck with it and passed on it.

“So anyway, people were saying that we were just another flash in the pan. You know, another eastern school who made a little bit of noise and then at the end of the day just kind of disappeared into the background. But I came in with a talented recruiting class. I came in with guys like Franco Harris, Lydell Mitchell, Gary Grey, Dick Joyner, just big time Pennsylvania kids, big 33 kids, solid recruiting class. We were chaffing a little about the fact that people were dismissing us. So we saw our chance to make some noise in the 1971 season, and we came into that year with a chip on our shoulder and I think the staff did, too.

“We started off strong, too, and just kept on going. We went into Syracuse, who was supposed to be the team to beat in the east, and just crushed them. I don’t think they got a first down until the second half. We ran off the rest of them until we went to Tennessee, and I don’t know, that was one of those games where we couldn’t get out of our own way–we fumbled three punts and stuff like that–and ended up losing the game. And it was just so disheartening.

“But it was our only loss, and then we were offered a shot at the Cotton Bowl. And for all of us guys on that team, that meant a lot because we all felt that we got snubbed when Texas got that championship and we thought this was our chance at retribution. We saw an opportunity to shut some people up, to be honest with you. We had a good team and we knew we did.”

“It was also Texas, so it was payback time. We had a chance to beat a big-time southern school on their own turf, and do it convincingly.”

So the stage was set to face the Longhorns and their wishbone offense, which had yet to be even slowed down. The Lions, however, had a plan. “We knew we had to get them going sideways,” Ahrenhold said. “We were an eight-man front, basically a stack-eight. The only two down linemen we ever played were the two defensive tackles. So our job was just create havoc. Get on their guards and drive them into the backfield, and have the linebackers just scrape off that. So basically, we dared their five offensive linemen to block our four, and we didn’t think there was a team in the country who could do that.

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Maggie Lucas hopes to lead the Lady Lions to an Elite 8 appearance. photo by Mike Carter-US PRESSWIRE

When the two teams meet on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. at the Ryan Center in Kingston, RI it will mark the 19th straight season that UConn (31-4) has reached the Sweet 16. The Huskies are rated the #3 team in the country, and they defeated Prairie View A&M 83-47 before crushing Kansas State 72-26 to set up the showdown with Penn State.

PSU (26-6) scored 175 points in its two tournament wins against UTEP and LSU, and the Nittany Lions will need every bit of that offensive prowess in this game. UConn leads the nation in scoring defense, holding teams to just 45.1 points-per-game, and they also rank number one in field goal percentage defense with an average of  .297.

Penn State is 3-6 all time against UConn and 0-3 against the Huskies in the NCAA tournament. UConn prevailed in the Elite 8 in 2004, the Sweet 16 in 2002, and then in the final four in 2000.

Still, the Huskies are wary of the Nittany Lions. “At this time of the year, the 16 teams that are left are all good teams,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “We’re playing the Big 10 regular season champions and they won that for a reason. Their guards are very good. They shoot the ball well. They get to the free-throw line and they are great free throw shooters.

“It is going to be a challenge for our guys to get back on defense and match up quickly. In games in which Penn State has gotten off a lot of shots, they have been extremely successful.”

Connecticut is led by four double-digit scorers. Freshman forward Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis leads the team with 15 points per game. Senior Tiffany Hayes scores 14.8 per game, sophomore Bria Hartley adds 13.8, and Stefanie Dolson chips in 10.

Penn State counters with high-scoring guards Maggie Lucas, who had 30 against LSU, Alex Bentley, and Zhaqua Gray, with 6-2 Mia Nickson and 6-5 Nikki Greene  starting up front.

“I thought that when Coquese Washington got the job at Penn State, it was a great hire,” Auriemma added, “and they have done a great job since she has arrived. She has a lot of great things in place and does it at a place like Penn State. It’s not just any school. I’m really impressed with the job she has done.”

With a spot in the Elite 8 going to the winner, Penn State will surely be doing its best to change one more thing–that losing streak to UConn.

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Senior third baseman Jordan Steranka had four hits, including a three-run homer, and four RBIs to lead the Lions (4-14) to a 5-3 victory over the Panthers.

Senior Sean Deegan and sophomore Steve Snyder both added two hits each in the game, and left-hander Mike Franklin had an effective outing, throwing 5 2/3 innings, giving up three runs, and picking up his first win of the seasons.

Penn State went on top in the second inning after both Deegan and Snyder led off with singles. Then, with one out, Steranka blasted a 3-run shot into the right field stands that gave PSU a 3-0 lead.

Pitt came back in the fourth inning when Elvin Soto hit a two-run single, but Penn state struck again in the fifth. Snyder again singled and was driven home by Steranka’s third hit, and then junior Luis Montesinos was walked with the bases loaded to give PSU a 5-2 lead.

Pitt would score another run off Franklin in the fifth, but relievers Greg Welsh and freshman Casey Kullina combined to shut the Panthers out the rest of the way. Kullina picked up his second save of the season.

The win comes after a very tough weekend for the Lions at East Carolina. ECU swept the three games against PSU, the last of which was a stinging 6-5, 10-inning win on Sunday.

Penn State went into the bottom of the ninth inning in that game with a 5-1 lead. But ECU’s Corey Thompson nailed a three-run homer that gave his team life, and then John Wooten hit  solo shot to tie the game at five. ECU then went on to win on a throwing error in the 10th that scored a runner from second base.

Yesterday’s Pitt game began a six-game home stand for the Lions. Indiana comes into Medlar Field on Friday to start a three-game series, and then Coppin State visits for a double-header on March 28th.

The Nittany Lions are hoping that a little home cooking will help them begin to turn their season around.

Ahead by eight points with more than a minute to play, PSU’s Maggie Lucas picked up a loose ball in her own end and started up court. As she crossed the mid-court stripe, she spotted Marisa Wolfe alone along the baseline. Wolfe took Lucas’ pass and started toward the basket, but when a defender showed up, she stopped, backed up, and passed the ball back out to Lucas.

Rather than take a contested shot, Wolfe chose to run some clock and put the ball into the hands of Penn State’s best foul shooter. UTEP was then forced to foul Lucas, and after two swishes, the game was essentially over with PSU up by 10 with less than a minute on the clock.

The ability to hold onto leads and close out games is absolutely critical to success in the NCAA’s, and, with many plays like Wolfe’s,  Penn State has shown that ability throughout this season.

Now tonight comes LSU, 23-10 and playing at home in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, in what looks to be a classic match-up of differing styles.

LSU is big, relies on its rebounding and defense, and wants to dictate the tempo of the game with a controlled, deliberate offense. Penn State, on the other hand, is up-tempo, fast, guard oriented, and feels most comfortable in a wide-open, full-court game.

Whichever team can impose its will on the other will have a big advantage.

“Penn State does a great job of running the basketball with their guards,” LSU head coach Nikki Caldwell said. “We are going to have to be aware of where they are at all times. I do see transition defense as being a key for us. If you control the boards, you control the tempo of the game.

“We have to make sure that offensively we are making those easy baskets so we can set our defense. We want to control the tempo through defense and our board play.”

LSU is led by 6-2 LaSondra Barrett who led the Lady Tigers in points with 417 (12.6 ppg) and rebounds with 230. Adrienne Webb added 326 points, and 6-2 Courtney Jones had 297 points and 194 rebounds.

LSU is also 14-3 on the season playing at home, including an 8-1 record against non-conference schools.

“We want to dictate our tempo,” Barrett said, “and keep them in the 50′s or 60′s if we can. They are a high-scoring team. They have a lot of guards who love to score the basketball. It all comes down to who is the toughest team, who wins the board play, who has the hustle plays and things like that down the stretch. I think that the toughness and bringing the effort and intensity will determine the game.”

The Penn State guards that LSU is talking about are high-scoring Alex Bentley, Zhaque Grey, and Lucas. All three are playing at the top of their games right now, and they will be joined in the starting lineup by 6-2 Mia Nickson and 6-4 Nikki Greene.

“We are just going to be playing to our strengths,” Lucas said. “They have a big lineup, so we’re going to do what we do and that’s push the ball. We like to push, so if we’re able to get turnovers, we are going to look to get going off that.”

“We got to watch them a little bit,” Bentley added, “and they’re big. They have a lot of post players. We watched some of them today, and I mean they’re strong.

“They like to play a slower game. We like to play a fast, up-tempo game. I’m going to be pushing the ball and I’m pretty sure my teammates will be right there with me. So they’re just, basically, going to have to pick their poison.”

Either of these teams could get hot, of course, and run away and hide in this game. That doesn’t appear to be as likely as a close, back and forth game that comes down to the final minutes.

In that case, Penn State will need all of that aforementioned experience and maturity if they are going to make the trip to this year’s Sweet 16.

The latest Little Lion to make that trek will be 5-11, 215 pound running back Jack Haffner, who joined the class of 2012 as a preferred walk-on.

Haffner is an interesting prospect for a number of reasons, not the least of which was his absolute monster senior season at State High. In 2011 he rushed for 2143 yards (a single-season total second only to Larry Johnson), scored 28 touchdowns, had five 200+ yard games, and was named to the first-team, Pennsylvania AAAA All-State Team.

Statistics can be deceiving, of course, but Haffner faced only top-level, AAAA competition. At least nine of SC’s opponents went on to the playoffs last season, and the Little Lions played eventual state champion Central Dauphin twice. Haffner didn’t see many 190-pound defensive linemen.

So how did he end up at Penn State as a walk-on? Surely, he must have been recruited–and he was. But a lot of big schools had him on the proverbial “you’re our next guy, right after so-and-so” list, and the more serious teams from the Patriot League were good but failed to fire up his enthusiasm.

Then Penn State called.

“Last season, my speed definitely improved,” Haffner said, “and I got a lot stronger as well. And I got the ball a lot more and so I was a lot more productive. Offensively and defensively I think I did pretty well.

“I was recruited by a lot of Patriot League schools, William and Mary, Army. I went on a visit to Holy Cross. Pretty much the recruiting thing came down to Holy Cross, which I liked, or walking on at Penn State.

“Penn State called me and asked me to come to a game, and I came to the Nebraska game. Things died down a little after that for a while, and then I got a call from coach Vanderlinden and he kind of persuaded me. He told me that they would like me to walk on there. And what he said really swayed my decision to come to Penn State.”

It also helped that he was impressed with the new Penn State coaching staff. “They all seem really great,” he said. “I mean they definitely have a lot of experience and they know what they are doing. They all have been very successful.”

Haffner is going to be enrolling for the summer term, but he is unsure about a schedule for team workouts and activities. “I am going to a walk-on day on April 2nd. I know that I am going to have to improve my strength and work really hard, but I would do that anyway. I mean nothing really changes. I think my toughness and determination will help me up there.”

No one has seen or knows more about Haffner as a football player than State High coach Al Wolski. “We had to go to more of a running game this season,” Wolski said, “and Jack really stepped up and did an excellent job. He combines speed with toughness, balance and determination.

“One game against Father Judge, his helmet came off at about the five-yard line, and with people all around him he took it into the endzone without a helmet. He’s that kind of kid. He’s a great running back, and he can catch the football, too. He never drops a pass. He’s the complete package.

“But as a walk-on–and I told him this–all the stars have to align right. But if anybody can do it, it’s him. He has a lot of determination and focus and all those intangibles that people look for in a player.”

As for Haffner, all of this can’t start soon enough. “I’m ready,” he said. “I’ve been ready all year.”

He sounds like the kind of player who’s not going to wait around for the stars to align themselves.

Surrounded by parents, friends, classmates, and a horde of media, the Lady Lions knew they would be chosen for the tournament. They knew they would be getting a higher seed, but they didn’t know who they would be playing or where they would be going.

No matter, because this was a celebration of a season well played, a Big Ten regular season championship, and the reward of  a second-straight trip to the tournament.

“We won a Big Ten championship this year,” high-scoring guard Maggie Lucas said, “and that is something this program hasn’t done in a long time–2004 I think–and it feels really good to get that, but we have more goals that we want to reach in the NCAA tournament.

“We are happy with what we’ve done. We improved SO much during the season until now. I think that is the most you can ask out of yourself is to improve.”

When asked about what was in store from the selection committee, Lucas had no preference. “You are not in control of it,” she said, “so there is no use getting yourself, you know, I want to play this team or I want to stay on the east coast so the best way to go into it is to be happy we’re in the tournament. There are a lot of teams that would like to be in our position, so we’re excited to play whoever they are going to put us against.”

Guard Zhaque Gray is the only senior on the Lady Lions’ roster, and this will be her second and final trip to the tournament. “I thought we had a great season,” she said. “I think that we improved a lot in terms of playing together as a team and defensively and offensively. And I am excited about all of this, to watch the selection show and everything.

“It’s bittersweet for me, but I’m just looking forward to where we are going and what we are going to do. I’m really excited for it and looking forward for it to happen.”

The show began, and everyone in the room hushed as each selection was announced. Finally, midway through the second bracket, Penn State was announced amid wild cheers and applause. The Lady Lions are the fourth seed in the Kingston bracket and will face the University of Texas El Paso at 5:15 on Sunday in Baton Rouge, La.

The #13 Miners are no slouches. The are 29-3 on the season and are the Conference-USA regular season and tournament champions. They have won 19 of their last 20 games. UTEP will be a stern test for the Lady Lions.

Penn State coach Coquese Washington was asked if she knew anything about them. “Not now,” she said, “but by 8 a.m., I will be well versed about UTEP.”

The Kingston bracket also includes #1 Connecticut, #2 Kentucky, #3 Miami, and #5 LSU. This will be no easy road for anyone, but the Penn State players were undaunted.

“It’s exciting,” junior forward Marisa Wolfe said. “We feel like we are in a good bracket, we do. It was just exciting to see our name and to know where we are going finally and to be able to prepare.”

“I think the big thing is not to worry about the other team,” coach Washington said, “but to worry about us. We are going to spend a lot of time working on us and the things we gotta do on both ends of the floor. We will get familiar with UTEP, but at this point we can’t change our stripes. We are going to be who we are, and we are going to work to be the best Penn State team that we could be.”

So it’s off to Baton Rouge to face a hot and confident team right from the get-go. No one said it would be easy.