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+---- Thread: Could the B1G's eastern initiative turn Penn State into an Elite Basketball school? (/thread-688771.html)
Could the B1G's eastern initiative turn Penn State into an Elite Basketball school? - Big Ron Buckeye - 05-08-2014 09:14 PM
Is Penn State all of a sudden a better much better basketball job with the B1G push to the east coast? Follow me for a minute... Back when Penn State joined the Big Ten, Jim Boeheim went on record as saying that Penn State would NEVER be good at hoops
http://m.collegian.psu.edu/archives/article_7f62f5e8-2664-5d10-abff-f1db795776b6.html?mode=jqm
primarily because of recruiting. Boeheim reasoned that top midwest recruits would want to play in the midwest while top eastern recruits would want to play in the eastern conferences. I have to give it to Boeheim, he hit the nail right on the head. Excepting an occasional upset, Penn State's Basketball program is an afterthought. They have no real hoops rivals, haven't played high level eastern teams (Cuse, UConn, BC, Pitt, Maryland, Villanova, GTown) regularly since joining the B1G, and as Boeheim predicted can't successfully recruit the Midwest or East.
But are times achanging? I think the biggest beneficiary in Rutgers, Maryland, (and hopefully UConn) joining the B1G... is Penn State. With the Olde Big East imploding there is something of a vacuum on the east coast. The football schools (which were superior in hoops IMO) from the Olde Big East have been splintered between the AAC, ACC, B12, & B1G. The New Big East doesn't have the pop of the Olde Big East yet. So the battle is on between the ACC and the B1G to see who will to muscle into that market. B1G has the benefit of proximity (thank you UMD &RU) and huge alumni bases. ACC has advantage of being a known as a basketball & lacrosse conference and having schools popular in the northeast.
Which leads us to today. Given that the B1G has made a concerted effort to push east by: 1. Adding RU & UMD 2. Adding a lacrosse league, 3. Opening offices in DC & NYC. 4. The Gavitt Tipoff. & 5. Adding UConn (If they know what's good for 'em)
Is that enough to get Penn State past the curse of the Boeheim? Only time will tell but here's where I'd start if I were athletic director to turn Penn State into a hoops monster.
1. Lobby the B1G like hell to lock the eastern schools into home & home every year in conference, eastern exposure starts in conference.
2. Lobby like hell to get another eastern school (UConn) in the conference especially if Northwestern deemphasizes athletics.
3. Build a show stopper practice facility (see Nebraska)
4. The most fun part would be the non-conf schedule. The overarching goals would be to make like the original Big East and saturate the eastern markets & get onto the slate of old school rivals. Starting with 29 regular season games take out conference games and ACC challenge and you have 10 games left (Gavitt isn't frequent enough to count.) Using a home & home model, it would break out like something like this:
New England (2): Boston College & Providence
NYC Area (2): St Johns & Seton Hall
Philly (2): Villanova & Temple
DMV (2): Georgetown & George Washington
Old Rivals (2): Cuse & Pitt
Obviously rotate the the schedule and obviously this schedule is brutal in combination with a B1G conference schedule, but I'd make damn sure the Lions are playing in each of those 4 markets every year non-conference.
In the final analysis Boeheim was right, but with conference realignment (B1G trying to fill the Olde Big East void) & Penn State playing an ultra eastern schedule, this may be the opportunity PSU needed to become a solid hoops school.
RE: Could the B1G's eastern initiative turn Penn State into an Elite Basketball school? - OrangeCrush22 - 05-08-2014 09:54 PM
Not many big city kids, where most basketball talent lies, want to play in the middle of nowhere PA.
RE: Could the B1G's eastern initiative turn Penn State into an Elite Basketball school? - brista21 - 05-08-2014 09:55 PM
I'm moving this to the Big Ten board where it belongs.
RE: Could the B1G's eastern initiative turn Penn State into an Elite Basketball school? - bullet - 05-08-2014 09:55 PM
(05-08-2014 09:54 PM)OrangeCrush22 Wrote: Not many big city kids, where most basketball talent lies, want to play in the middle of nowhere PA.
Or Lexington or Bloomington or Lawrence either, right?
RE: Could the B1G's eastern initiative turn Penn State into an Elite Basketball school? - Big Ron Buckeye - 05-08-2014 10:10 PM
(05-08-2014 09:54 PM)OrangeCrush22 Wrote: Not many big city kids, where most basketball talent lies, want to play in the middle of nowhere PA.
I'm not so sure about that. A lot of good basketbal schools are in the middle of nowhere... UConn.
RE: Could the B1G's eastern initiative turn Penn State into an Elite Basketball school? - ohio1317 - 05-08-2014 10:32 PM
It comes down to this question to me: Which (if any) recruits would Penn State get now that it wouldn't have before?
Answering that question, I have a hard time seeing many of the recruits who went to UConn, Syracuse, Pitt, Georgetown, etc now going to Penn State instead. Where they might pick up some is some of the ones from the state of Maryland who Maryland passes on, but which might have otherwise gone to some of the smaller Big East/ACC schools. Long term, I think this alignment will also mean recruits in Ohio open up more to it, but that's a little ways off.
All in all, probably not much difference, but maybe a little. Penn State is still the big winner here though as they go from geographic outlier to a division that's geographically friendly.
RE: Could the B1G's eastern initiative turn Penn State into an Elite Basketball school? - Big Ron Buckeye - 05-08-2014 11:02 PM
(05-08-2014 10:32 PM)ohio1317 Wrote: It comes down to this question to me: Which (if any) recruits would Penn State get now that it wouldn't have before?
Answering that question, I have a hard time seeing many of the recruits who went to UConn, Syracuse, Pitt, Georgetown, etc now going to Penn State instead. Where they might pick up some is some of the ones from the state of Maryland who Maryland passes on, but which might have otherwise gone to some of the smaller Big East/ACC schools. Long term, I think this alignment will also mean recruits in Ohio open up more to it, but that's a little ways off.
All in all, probably not much difference, but maybe a little. Penn State is still the big winner here though as they go from geographic outlier to a division that's geographically friendly.
I will say this. Nebraska went from the worse team in the Big8/12 to the worse in the B1G to respectability in about 3 years. It'll take administrative commitment, the right coach, & fan support... then winning comes. Penn State is a huge name out east. All it takes is a little sustained momentum to change the course of the program.
To answer your comment specifically about recruiting, I don't know who they could sway now, but unless they get committed to playing eastern opponents non conf and step up admin support I think they'll continue to suck.
RE: Could the B1G's eastern initiative turn Penn State into an Elite Basketball school? - john01992 - 05-08-2014 11:53 PM
psu BB is the most frustrating thing about penn state. the b10 can't do sh!t about building psu BB until PSU starts to CARE about that program.
psu BB is not bad because of luck, randomness, or bad hires. PSU BB is bad because PSU neglects the sport. considering how much resources psu has and how so little gets put into psu BB you can't label it anything other than intentional sabotage and neglect.
every single school understands that you can't ignore BB and must put some amount of resources into the sport. alabama, texas, ohio state, michigan, usc, nebraska, notre dame, and even oklahoma understand this ==> psu does not.
if psu can get 16,000 fans to show up to a wrestling match then how in the world are they averaging only 4,200 for ooc basketball and 5,800 for b10 BB games????? need i remind anyone that psu has 45k enrollment?
the psu basketball coach is the lowest paid among b10 schools. yes that is correct, northwestern one of just 5 d1 schools that has never been to the tourny, and the smallest athletic budget in the b10 pays its coach more than psu who has often had the largest athletic budget in the b10.
psu starts playing its best BB in decades, is on the verge of a tourny bid, has the entire campus starting to care for the sport and the psu admin decides that now is a perfect time to give the teams practice floor to bon jovi for a month long practice session. The other floor psu can practice gives priority to womens & mens volleyball, and so they get demoted all the way down to the rec center.
for psu it is painfully obvious. they don't have good basketball because they legitimately do not want a good BB program. there is no other school in d1 that gives such a small % of their resources to BB. i don't care if you have been a college admin for 1 week or 50 years, any admin who looks at those attendance/coaching salary stats should immediately see a serious problem there that needs to be addressed.
no offense to the OP, but this thread pisses the hell outta me because psu doesn't need the b10 to help them make their bb better. what is preventing good bb at psu is PENN STATE and as a die hard CBB fan and a die hard psu fan ==> it pisses the hell outta me ESPECIALLY when after the scandal/sanctions all psu has done about this issue is ENHANCE the problem.
Could the B1G's eastern initiative turn Penn State into an Elite Basketball school? - BruceMcF - 05-09-2014 11:27 AM
(05-08-2014 11:02 PM)Big Ron Buckeye Wrote: Nebraska went from the worse team in the Big8/12 to the worse in the B1G to respectability in about 3 years. It'll take administrative commitment, the right coach, & fan support... then winning comes.The only thing I would flip around with this is that with the administrative commitment and the right coach ... the winning and fan support both come in a positive feedback loop.
The way that the Eastern adds help Penn State is if Penn State looks at the Eastern adds and says that they should finally shed their old East Coast Independent FB mentality of ceding BBall so they can concentrate on FB, and instead adopt a Big Ten mentality of leveraging resources to try to have both a top notch FB and BBall program.
I don't expect they will do that. Indeed, I would not be surprised if they had a break out year in Big Ten hockey before their first break out year in Big Ten BBall.
RE: Could the B1G's eastern initiative turn Penn State into an Elite Basketball school? - Big Ron Buckeye - 07-04-2014 02:58 PM
http://www.pennlive.com/sports/index.ssf/2014/07/penn_state_basketball_jumps_to.html
Just saying... their recruiting is getting better.
RE: Could the B1G's eastern initiative turn Penn State into an Elite Basketball school? - Big Ron Buckeye - 03-30-2018 05:26 PM
Hate to say I told you so but... Penn State hoops is coming.
RE: Could the B1G's eastern initiative turn Penn State into an Elite Basketball school? - TerpsNPhoenix - 03-31-2018 06:49 AM
(03-30-2018 05:26 PM)Big Ron Buckeye Wrote: Hate to say I told you so but... Penn State hoops is coming.
I started reading this and was like, "oh, that is interesting". Then I saw the date of the OP. This was a bit prophetic. You have earned the I told you so.
RE: Could the B1G's eastern initiative turn Penn State into an Elite Basketball school? - GE and MTS - 03-31-2018 03:27 PM
I hope Penn State hoops are on the upswing. Now is the time to strike as Pitt couldn't be worse (but they can keep trying!). Syracuse will soon need to replace Boheim and UConn is spiraling down. St. John's and Providence are not threats. Basketball needs to be a premier sport and the talent around is there for the taking.