Let The Third Season Begin!

After failing the first two, Penn State is ready for phase three to begin. This is also known as "The Big Ten Tournament" for you non-basketball gurus.

For Penn State coach Ed DeChellis, conference tournaments are the start of what he calls the "third season."

"It's pretty big," DeChellis said at Monday's press conference. "You're trying to play in the NCAA tournament. It's important, because we're not there. So, we got one more chance and you got to try to put all your eggs in one basket." -Daily Collegian

Very....interesting. Making it sound like you were saving your energy during the first two "seasons". I like this approach.

Reporter: "So coach, 86-49, what gives?"

DeChellis: "Patience, my young one, the third season is nearly upon us!"

Well I'm buying, what the hell. The great/terrible thing about basketball is that, until this Thursday (and really, not until next Thursday) games simply don't matter. Teams are truly 0-0...which is good news for us.

PSU Basketball Loses Game, Claxton, Season

The Penn State Basketball team was totally owned last night by the Wisconsin Badgers, who at one point took a 31 point lead as PSU failed to score for like 10 minutes in the second half (edit: actual drought: 11:50 to 3:36). The leading scorer for the Badgers was a guy named Flowers. Insert girly/sally joke here.

Besides another Big Ten loss, which is nothing new for the Nittany Lions, who have lost just about every league game since 2001, Senior forward Geary Claxton went down with a knee injury. Non-sarcastic condolences go out to Geary, who has been a hard fighting member of the team for four years now. Injuries suck. You know you are a valuable member of the team when grown men are crying and telling you they love you after you get hurt.

"It's devastating for Geary. I went into halftime, and told him I loved him and hugged him," Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said after the game.

Claxton was the team's leading scorer and the Big Ten's second leading scorer. He was in the middle of a four game double-double streak. He is also the Big Ten's second leading rebounder, and after he went down in the first half PSU managed to grab just 21 of the 60 rebounds in the game.

So, what does this mean? Well, for one thing, the season will not be pretty. I'm going to throw that out there. Without a rebounder this team could finish dead last in the Big Ten for something like the 7th time in eight years*. So much for offseason fun.


*I attempted to look this up but then realized it doesn't really matter. Our basketball team is poor, that is the point.