Pause for a moment and consider how much has changed in your life since St. Patrick’s Day 2011, the last time Penn State men’s basketball made the tournament.
That’s enough time to graduate from high school, graduate from college, get a job, get married, buy a home, get a different job, get another job, and uh, start a blog.
Twelve long years of buses catching on fire, unsuccessful climbs in what at times have felt like treks to Mt. Everest in nothing more than sneakers and Twitter typos that became the credence of a fan base.
Twelve years of a simple ask going unanswered: Penn State men’s basketball to make the NCAA Tournament. Not the NIT, not the CBI, but The Dance.
Those 12 long, aching years came to a screeching halt on Sunday in Chicago, and even after a loss, a new era of Penn State men’s basketball was born.
For fans who have invested so much and for the ones who are just picking this book back up, it’s a well-deserved era that went from a spark to full on inferno over four days at the Big Ten Tournament and one that will continue to grow when the Nittany Lions head to Des Moines, IA to take on Texas A&M as a 10 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Trying to capture the entire 12-year journey of a Penn State fan would take a Harry Potter-length series of books and then some. And until this year, none of those twists and turns equated to a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
There were good moments like an upset of No. 4 Michigan and former Penn State commit Trey Burke in 2013, D.J. Newbill’s several buzzer beaters and a NIT championship centered around Lamar Stevens, Shep Garner and Shep Garner’s cousin Flavor Flav.
There would be bad moments like Ed DeChellis sailing away to coach Navy, the stunning 20-point lead blown to Princeton in a game at Rec Hall that so many begged for, buses catching on fire, a loss to Rider in 2018 that likely caused that team to miss that NCAA Tournament and of course, a global pandemic that would halt the world and Penn State’s first true chance at tournament berth since 2011. Plus after that, the sudden departure of Pat Chambers after allegations around a comment he, a white man, made to Rasir Bolton, a black player, would be one more twist in that saga.
Fast forward to 2023 and Penn State’s season effectively looked over after a 19-point blown lead turned loss to Rutgers in late February. It felt like another pain point in the many painful points over the last 12 years those who have passionately followed the program have experienced.
But Micah Shrewsberry, Jalen Pickett, Camren Wynter, Seth Lundy and even you, Andrew Funk, made sure they would get the final say.
The Lions rattled off eight Quad 1 wins in 18 days, arguably the best stretch for the program since the 2001 Joe Crispin-led Sweet 16 run. Wynter, a senior transfer, would hit two buzzer beaters, including one to give the Lions their most memorable senior day since 2011. He and Funk would then combine for 38 points to clinch Penn State’s trip to the tournament in a win over Illinois in the Big Ten Tournament’s opening round.
That win was all Penn State needed to get in to the dance. But they kept going.
They kept going past Northwestern in overtime (again) and Indiana, all while Nittany Nation would be re-energized. People who haven’t tuned into games in years tuned back in. People who have been along for every bump in the road shedded tears of joy for three straight nights. The wishing, the waiting, the pain was finally all over.
And even when Penn State lost to Purdue on Sunday, no one hung their head because every knew what was coming next.
Greg Gumbel was going to announce Penn State’s NCAA Tournament on CBS at roughly 6 p.m. and Penn State hoops fans would get the one thing they so desperately wanted.
The best part is that it doesn’t have stop after “Penn State” appeared on the 10 line.
Even if their corner of the bracket is tough, so is this team. It’s got arguably the school’s best men’s basketball player ever in Pickett. It’s got the right coach in Shrewsberry. Most of all, it has enough talent to have a real chance to make something happen in the month of March on the national stage.
That renewed hope and energy is the reward for the last 12 years. This is what Penn Staters who remained faithful deserve. It’s a new era of Penn State men’s basketball. One that actually feels promising. One that doesn’t need a snake-oil slogan to get your attention. One that has a new Athletic Director who will do everything he can to keep this program’s new leader. One that really feels like the next 12 years are going to be much better than the last 12.
One that quite simply feels long overdue.
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