What the heck. Have at it. Team Stats after the jump.

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I guess you could say we're a little heavy on football coverage around here with some passing coverage of men's basketball. I have always felt guilty about that and looked for ways to work in coverage of the other great Penn State sports and athletes that don't get the mention they deserve. So to that end, I'm going to try to start acknowledging some of these teams and players by creating a new feature called the BSD Nittany Lion of the Week. This week's Nittany Lion of the week is guard Tyra Grant for the Penn State women's basketball team.

On Sunday Tyra scored 24 points to go along with eight rebounds and two assists in leading the Lady Lions to a 76-58 victory over the Lady Wolverines of Michigan. She was 8-of-16 from the field and 4-of-5 from three point range. It marked Grant's eighth time this season and fifth time in the last six games in which Grant has scored 20 points or more. It also marks the 18th consecutive game in which Grant has scored in double figures. Grant is second in the Big Ten in scoring averaging 19.4 points per game.

The win was crucial in that it gets the Lady Lions back to .500 at 7-7 (2-2 Big Ten). This weekend they face a tough test as Indiana (10-2, 3-0 Big Ten) brings their nine game winning streak to the Jordan center at 2 PM on Sunday.

They say wearing Orange adds ten pounds. Just sayin'.

The rumor has been floating around all morning. I've just been waiting for a non-paying site to publish it. David Jones, as always, is our man. Larry Johnson is interviewing with Ron Zook for the Illinois defensive coordinator job.

Two sources in Illinois have called and said that Larry Johnson is a target of Ron Zook's at Illinois, possibly as a co-defensive coordinator and especially as a top recruiter to replace departed Mike Locksley on the Illini staff.

I don't have to tell you this is bad bad bad. With an 82 year old head coach who can't spend more than two hours sitting down in a car or airplane, the assistant coaches are our greatest asset when it comes to recruiting. And Larry Johnson is one of the best of them.

Johnson flat out owns the state of Maryland bringing in such talented players as Aaron Maybin, Navorro Bowman, Bani Gbadyu, A.J. Wallace, Derrick Williams, Phil Taylor, Devon Still, Darrell Givens, Stephon Morris, Devon Smith, Sean Stanley, Derrick Thomas, and Malcolm Smith. He is also a fantastic defensive line coach having coached players into the NFL like Courtney Brown, Jimmy Kennedy, Michael Haynes, and Tamba Hali. To lose him would be, in a word, disasterous for our program.

Last night was another great win for Ed DeChellis and the Penn State Nittany Lions. After falling to Rhode Island and Temple earlier this season and watching teams like Michigan and Minnesota pull off major upsets I must admit I was feeling a little bit uneasy about going into Big Ten play. But Penn State came through last night with a 67-64 win over the Boilermakers who most people predicted to win the conference. Here are a few of my random thoughts on the game.

The Boilermakers were playing without Robbie Hummel and Chris Kramer, but it was still a difficult win. Penn State shot themselves in the foot too many times with turnovers, poor shot selection, and missed free throws. But they made up for it by dominating the rebounds and getting themselves more possessions to work with.

Andrew Jones was the star on the boards pulling in a game high 11. Eight of those were offensive rebounds. He's not a huge scorer, but if he can maintain that kind of rebound production and provide some interior defense we'll be more than ok.

Good God our offense looks terrible at times. They just kind of dribble around handing it off outside the circle while everyone stands around. Then when they get down to about ten seconds on the shot clock either Pringle or Battle take their man one on one and throw up a shot or dump it off to a teammate who has a guy in his face. Once in a while someone will decide to break this routine by throwing up a quick shot that really isn't there. It's maddening to watch long stretches where we struggle just to get a good shot while we're giving up uncontested layups on the other end.

David Jackson just doesn't seem right this year. He has lost his confidence and aggressiveness. Last night he uncharacteristically bricked his two free throw attempts. He isn't mixing it up going after rebounds in the paint. And beside all of that he just doesn't look right, almost like he's lost a lot of weight and feels tired. Maybe he's getting over the flu or something.

I thought Jeff Brooks looked pretty good in the early part of the game. He got the start but then he disappeared and only played 14 minutes. I don't recall seeing him at all in the second half. What's up with that?

Danny Morrissey played his best game of the season finishing with ten points and four rebounds. He also played pretty good defense and took a key charge late in the game.

As I keep watching these games it's exciting to see this team get better, but I'm starting to get concerned about next year. Ed isn't getting any playing time for Chris Babb and Cammeron Woodyard. And I already mentioned Jeff Brooks only playing 14 minutes. Next year we lose Pringle, Cornley, and Morrissey. Last night those guys combined for 38 points and 14 rebounds. Pringle and Cornley played 37 minutes each while Morrissey played 24. What is Ed doing to develop the younger talent?

But those are things we can worry about next year. For this year I'm just going to enjoy this team. We've got another tough game coming up on Sunday when Penn State travels to Minnesota. Then we come home next week to face Michigan State next Wednesday. If we can win one of these two games Cinderella can go and start picking out her party dress.

We kind of put the basketball team on the back burner during bowl season and the winter break, but it's time to shake off the cobwebs and get geared up for the Big Ten basketball season. The Nittany Lions are off to a pretty good start so far having dispatched Northwestern and coming up just short in Wisconsin. I know a loss to the Badgers doesn't sound like a good thing, but Penn State led the game with five minutes to go and they were in it to the end. Compare that to trips to Madison in recent years where we're down by 30 points at halftime and I would call that progress. Tonight will be a much tougher challenge against a much more talented team. But Off the Tracks is reporting that Robbie Hummel and Chris Kramer will not be playing, so it sounds like Purdue might be ripe for the upset.

For those interested you can watch the game tonight on the BTN at 9 PM ET. Team stats after the jump.

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Bleacher Report can be a dangerous thing. It has the look of an official news site that offers opinions from paid professionals. But in fact it's just a blog for people who don't know what they're talking about. Case in point, this post by Andrew Kaufman titled "The PAC 10 Should Cut Ties With The Rose Bowl."

The problem for the Pac-10 is that, when USC crushes a Big Ten team in the Rose Bowl, USC’s success isn’t the story. The Big Ten’s failure is. The majority of the country considers the outcome a validation of their beliefs about the Big Ten—“Of course USC won easily, they were playing a team with worse athletes"—as opposed to a confirmation of USC as a great football team and of the Pac-10 as a great football league.

If the Pac-10 wants to establish itself as an elite football conference, it needs to break away from the chains of the Rose Bowl and start pitting its top teams against the cream of the SEC and Big 12 in BCS bowls.

Only the Pac-10 can fix this problem. The Rose Bowl has no reason to change its arrangement—it is an extremely well-watched affair and is the only BCS bowl with its own television contract.

The Big Ten is perfectly fine with things as they are: Cutting ties with the Rose Bowl would only mean less prestigious bowl appearances and smaller paychecks for its teams.

It is the Pac-10 that is suffering, and there is only one solution.

The Pac-10 must cut ties with the Rose Bowl.

This is some of the dumbest drivel I've ever read on the internet. Just because there is one giant fish in the PAC-10/Big Ten pond we should dissolve the entire arrangement? To hell with what the other 20 schools want?

Ask any one of the other PAC-10 schools if they would have liked to play in the Rose Bowl this year and I guarantee you every one of them would have jumped at the chance. I know for a fact that Penn State fans were thrilled to be playing in the Grandaddy of the All this year. Any other Big Ten fan would be equally honored. Heck, Ohio State fans were playing out scenarios in their heads that would get them into the Rose Bowl before Penn State lost to Iowa. It's still the dream of every other Big Ten and PAC-10 school to go to the Rose Bowl every year.

But according to Mr. Kaufman, USC plays by different rules. That's fine, but I don't remember anyone saying the Rose Bowl should ditch the PAC-10 when the Big Ten was dominating it back in the 90's. These things go in cycles and I suspect the day will come when once again the Big Ten is the superior conference.

If the status quo isn't good enough for USC and their fans, maybe they should consider leaving the PAC-10.

 
Gimme a defensive tackle and a siren WHOOOOOO!!!

Even though Penn State came up short in the Rose Bowl, the success of the 2008 season cannot be denied, and it isn't going unnoticed by recruits either. This weekend Penn State landed a major commitment for a position of need when Steelton High's Jordan Hill decommitted from Rutgers and gave his verbal commitment to Larry Johnson and Joe Paterno.

 
Mmmmm....leftovers

Jordan Hill always had a deep passion for Penn State's football program.

The Steel-High two-way lineman didn't get any offers from the Nittany Lions during early stages of the recruiting process, though.

Following a splendid senior season, Penn State quickly jumped on board and recently extended Hill a long awaited scholarship offer.

And Hill has accepted, he told The Patriot-News Saturday afternoon.

The 6'3" 280 lb lineman is rated as a three star prospect on Scout and a two star by Rivals. (Larry Johnson laughs in the face or your star systems! Muhahaha!) Besides his offer from Rutgers, Hill also held offers from Pitt and Temple and also saw interest from Notre Dame, Maryland, and Boston College. Had he not committed to Rutgers so early in the recruiting process it's reasonable to assume he may have received more offers. It wasn't until early December that Hill started having second thoughts about his commitment to Rutgers and opened up his recruiting once again. It didn't take long before Larry Johnson swooped in and snatched him up.

Hill was selected a first team All-State selection after recording 117 tackles, 41 TFL, and 12.5 sacks as a senior. He was also named a co-player of the year in Pennsylvania. As a junior, Hill earned All-State honorable mention after scoring 89 tackles with 16 TFL and nine sackes. I had a chance to watch his film and I came away impressed. Steelton played him mostly at linebacker where he showed surprising burst and speed. Time and again he took a straight line to the ball carrier and blew up anyone who tried to stand in his way. In my unprofessional opinion, this is a good get.

Hill is Penn State's 23 verbal commitment from the class of 2009 and will join Sean Stanley (and possibly Nate Cadogen) on the defensive line. Welcome to Penn State, Jordan.

Congratulations to the USC Trojans. Mark Sanchez had a career day. We were uncharacteristically sloppy with turnovers and penalties. They were clearly the better team tonight. I wish we could go back and replay the second quarter. Take away all those penalties and turnovers and the 24 unanswered points and we win 24-14. But that's football. That's why you play four quarters.

Penn State played their hearts out. They could have given up when they trailed 31-7 at the half. We have a lot to be proud of, and a lot to look forward to next year. Ten years from now when I look back on this 2008 team I won't remember the Rose Bowl. I'll remember moments like these.

Thanks to the 2008 Big Ten Champion Penn State Nittany Lions.

We Are!!!