Many years ago, on the now defunct PennStateHoops.com site, I’m paraphrasing a post that said Penn State basketball was best watched in the dark, all alone.
That perfectly captures the feelings of a lifelong Penn State hoops fan - a fandom that seems to have its darkest, Lucy pulling away the football from Charlie Brown moments before something good happens.
Famously in 2001, the Lions famously blew a huge lead to Ohio State on Senior Day, putting NCAA hopes in jeopardy. However, Penn State wound up playing themselves into the Sweet 16 as has already been covered on this site.
In 2009, the Lions were a banked-in 3-pointer, double overtime heartbreaker at Iowa from finishing tied for second in the conference. It was as disheartening a loss as one could imagine, but one that Penn State rallied from to win the NIT.
Even just back in 2023, a year the Lions nearly won the Big Ten tourney title and won an NCAA tournament game, there was a disastrous late season loss at home against Rutgers.
But likely no team at Penn State captured this back-against-the-wall, never-say-die ability to bounce back more than the 2010-11 team.
We’ll get to the great finish to the season and a specific hidden gem of a game in a moment. But let’s remember that this group, bolstered by a lot of seniors who were key contributors on the 2009 NIT title team, was coming off a horrendous, basem*nt of the Big Ten season. It wasn’t like they were setting the world on fire in the non-conference portion of the schedule either. There were road losses in the pre-conference season at Virginia Tech and Ole Miss. In the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, Maryland embarrassed the Lions 62-39. And, of course, there was a loss to Maine.
But once conference play started, this senior-laden group was incredibly competitive. They earned three wins over ranked teams in league play and entered a senior night battle against No. 1 Ohio State with a chance to put an emphatic “yes” on its bubble resume. Instead, the Lions were emphatically beaten by the Big Ten’s regular season and tournament champion.
Penn State closed the regular season with a win at Minnesota and knocked off Indiana on Thursday at the Big Ten tournament. That put Penn State in a quarterfinal game against Wisconsin at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, a game I’ll never forget and the ugliest hidden gem that one could imagine.
The Lions had split with the Badgers, who entered as the tourney’s third seed and ranked No. 13 in the country. A personal note - I attended this game and it remains the only game I’ve ever bought tickets from a scalper on the street. I waited until the Michigan State/Purdue game tipped and was nearing halftime and then I pulled out some cash (back when that was a thing at sporting events) and grabbed a pair of lower level seats.
Turns out, I had no idea how good those seats were. They were in the second row of Michigan State’s family section. So, I sat next to Kailin Lucas’s mom as her son helped the Spartans navigate an upset of second seeded Purdue. That left me sitting near courtside for one the most remarkable - and ugly - wins in Penn State hoops history.
Wisconsin, as teams who earn the conference tourney byes often do, came out slow and simply struggled to get the ball in the basket for the first 10 minutes or so of the game. Penn State, behind the stellar floor play of point guard Tim Frazier, rolled to a 12-0 lead when Badger coach Bo Ryan pulled his starting five. Eventually, the lead hit 18-2 and it seemed like the Lions would be rolling into only their second Big Ten semifinal appearance ever.
But Penn State went cold and by the half, Wisconsin had closed to within 20-16. It was the lowest scoring first half in Big Ten tournament history.
The second half didn’t bring much more offense. It was the basketball equivalent of a Big Ten West game from 2023. Wisconsin tied the game, but never took the lead.
Clinging to a 32-30 lead, my favorite Penn State basketball player ever - Talor Battle - hit the game’s biggest shot. The senior guard came off a screen and faded to his left, burying a 3-pointer that gave the Lions a two-possession lead.
It was also a basket that made Battle the all-time leading scorer in school history. Still, the game wasn’t done. Wisconsin answered with a 3-pointer to make it 35-33 and had a chance to go ahead a moment later. But a Badger 3-pointer fell short, Battle made one of two free throws and a desperation game-tying shot was off the mark.
The Lions had survived 36-33 and put themselves solidly in the “in” side of the bubble with the win. Of course, Penn State would play a much more aesthetically pleasing game a day later where Battle went off - as he was known to do against Michigan State - and the Lions solidified their resume with a semifinal win against Sparty. Penn State wound up dropping its last two games of the year - the conference championship game against Ohio State and a heartbreaker against Temple in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
But the game I’ll never forget from that season was the Big Ten quarterfinal against Wisconsin. It was ugly. There were moments of absolute desperation. It was a night of survival. But Talor Battle pushed himself to the top of the record books and his team toward the NCAA berth it so coveted with one more contested 3-pointer that made plenty of Penn State fans scream loud in those dark rooms.
