NEW YORK — Bubble America, here is your new nightmare: the Penn State Nittany Lions.
From Los Angeles to Starkville, from Austin to Providence, you now have cause to fret: The Nits have no desire to play in the NIT. They are coming to steal your NCAA Tournament bid.
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They might have done it already with their third victory this season over No. 13 Ohio State in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament. But probably not. Let’s just say they aren’t counting on it. If they win the league's automatic bid, though, they'll leave no doubt.
“That’s the outside noise, really. We’re focused on winning one game at a time,” said senior guard Shep Garner, whose steal off Big Ten Player of the Year Keita Bates-Diop set up the game-winning basket. “You don’t want to go home. You don’t want to end it. Everybody wants to be in March Madness. It’s no secret. It would be big for us to play in it.”
Penn State won its second consecutive game following a three-game losing streak exacerbated by the loss, likely for the season, of powerful center Mike Watkins — their leading rebounder and shot-blocker.
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In the first of those three games, Watkins was sidelined for all but a few minutes against Purdue because of foul trouble. In the second, at home against Michigan, he was lost in the first half with a knee injury that won’t require surgery but won’t permit him to play here at Madison Square Garden. He did not appear at all in the loss to Nebraska at the end of the regular season.
“They said we lost our swagger,” Garner said. “We’ve got that Philly swagger. We take it personal. We saw everything they were saying. We still can play. We lost a huge piece of our team. All the little stuff matters now.”
With Watkins on the bench with fouls, the Lions battled the Boilers for 40 minutes but lost in the end. With him injured and unavailable, they began to dissolve. They were lifeless in the next two losses, even in their opening tournament win Thursday against Northwestern.
Garner told Sporting News the issue was getting used to playing without Watkins.
“We’re used to the big fella all year. He covers up a lot of our mistakes,” Garner said. “So it took a couple of games just to get used to playing without him. We’re kind of used to playing without him now. We kind of have it covered.
“We play below the rim now on defense. There’s not too much shot-blocking going on any more. Our details and our habits have to be intact.”
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Garner knew Bates-Diop wanted to make a move to his left on OSU’s penultimate possession, with the Buckeyes protecting a one-point lead and the shot-clock lapsing. Garner overplayed the left, encouraging Bates-Diop to spin in the opposite direction.
“Once he spun back right, I went for it. And I got it,” Garner said. “We call it calculated risk. I took one, and I got it.”
Ohio State had chosen to take the court with 6-foot-8-inch Bates-Diop as the closest thing to a big man prior to that possession. This meant that he was forced to guard 6-11 Lions backup center Julian Moore once Penn State had the ball. That put backup point guard Andrew Dakich on Penn State star guard Tony Carr, and fellow Buckeyes guard C.J. Jackson dropped toward the middle to try to cut off a potential drive.
Carr tricked Jackson into leaning toward a help position, and Lions forward Josh Reaves saw an opening to cut down the lane behind him. Carr’s pass was perfect, and Reaves dunked for the winning points.
That gave Penn State a third victory against what the NCAA selection committee calls “Quadrant 1” – games against top-25 teams at home, top-50 on neutral courts and top-75 on the road. All three of PSU’s wins against Quad 1 teams (3-7 overall) were against the Buckeyes.
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Is that enough? Vanderbilt got there as a No. 9 seed last season; the Commodores were 19-15, with six losses against teams rated between 51 and 100 but four wins against the RPI top 25. Three of them were against Florida.
“The climb is never straight up, is it? Down, sideways, it's crazy,” PSU coach Pat Chambers said. “I just really appreciate all the support when Penn Staters come out like that, the last four home games were outstanding. They do want good basketball here, and it's been dormant a little bit but we're starting to see it and it's getting exciting.”
Or frightening, depending on how close you reside to Bubble America.