State-Ment Win

How 'bout those Nittany Lions? About a month back the Maniac had Northwestern and Penn State on the radar, but was leaning more towards the Wildcats after their thumping of Florida State. Last week Penn State handled them in their conference opener. The followed up with a respectable 4-point loss AT Madison (where no one seems to win other than the Badgers.)

Tonight's game against purdue would show whether Penn State was for real, or just "Ranked #1 for a while then throttled by a USC freight-train in the Rose Bowl" real...

Their 67-64 win over a Purdue team many consider Final Four possibilities should answer that question with a resounding YES.

Sophomore guard Talor Battle continued his unlikely All-Big Ten campaign with a dazzling 21 point, 9 assist perfomance that will linger for a while. Penn State's backcourt may not be large in stature (Battle is 5'11', backcourtmate Pringle is 6'2'') but they are huge in production. They combine for an average of 35+ points and 8.5 assists a night and currently rank as the Big Ten's most productive backcourt.

Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves and punch the Lions a dance ticket; there is still a lot of work to go. For now though, they have t be solidly ahead of Ohio State (0-3 in conference) and at least on pace with Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan in the conversation.

One last cogent point: do NOT let Penn State's win tonight indicate that the Big Ten isn't as good as people thought. Parity does not equate to a lack of quality. Purdue is a very good ball club. Ask Texas and Davidson and Oklahoma (great OT loss) and Boston College. It's is simply the matter that Penn State is too. Their vast improvement and the 6-10 conference wins they will pick up makes the Big 10 the deepest most balanced league in the country.

Talor Battle and the Lions are legit tourney hopefuls for the first time
since the Joe Crispin era...

UP NEXT:

Purdue hosts Wisconsin, then takes a sneaky-tricky roadie to Northwesten and returns home to face Iowa. The Boilers would be dissapointed with anything less than 3-0 on the swing.

Penn State looks to keep the momentum going on a trip to visit Tubby's also resurgent Gophers before returning home to find Michigan State waiting. Then they mus try to keep focused for an Indiana game that equates to a win you simply MUST get to keep NCAA Tourney fires stoked.