Monday, February 21, 2011
Posted: 6:10 p.m.
By David Jones
CSNPhilly.com Contributor
The point has been raised recently that Penn State combo guard Talor Battle will soon be among the very best Division I basketball players to last four seasons at a high-major program and yet never play in an NCAA tournament.
His plight is comparable to Antwaan Randle El, a spectacular quarterback at Indiana (1998-2001), never seen by many college football fans because he toiled in a program seldom televised nationally that never played in a bowl game during his four seasons. Randle El was certainly the most exciting Big Ten player of his era and probably made the greatest impact on his team of any.
Some might say the same of Battle. He is about to become the first player in Big Ten history to accumulate 2,000 points, 500 rebounds and 500 assists in a career. He needs three assists when the Nittany Lions visit Northwestern on Thursday night.
A little perspective on just how difficult this trick is: Only nine players in major college basketball history have completed that disparate trifecta since the NCAA began logging assists as a stat four decades ago. Anyone on this list you've never heard of?
Danny Ferry and Johnny Dawkins (Duke), Jameer Nelson (Saint Joseph's), Greivis Vasquez (Maryland), Danny Ainge (Brigham Young), Ronnie Lee (Oregon), Chris Thomas (Notre Dame), Tim Smith (East Tennessee State) and Speedy Claxton (Hofstra). Maybe two or three.
The dreadlocked Smith actually played for PSU coach Ed DeChellis at decade's outset. No one outside the Southern Conference knew he existed until ETSU scared the wits out of 2-seed Wake Forest and 4-seed Cincinnati in consecutive NCAA tournaments.
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Lee played for Dick Harter's Kamikaze Kids back in the early '70s before the Pottstown native and 1960s Penn coach eventually returned home to try his hand coaching Penn State (1978-83). Like those before and since, including his PSU predecessor and fellow NBA lifer Johnny Bach, they found Penn State a perplexing job.
More than a quarter-century later, it remains so. The Nittany Lions have not made an NCAA tournament in a full decade since the Pitman, N.J.-bred Crispin brothers, a do-it-all winger named Titus Ivory and Garfield Heard's kid Gyasi Cline-Heard led them on an unlikely odyssey to the 2001 Sweet 16.
Battle reminds some of Joe Crispin during his do-or-die 2001 senior season. The little combo guard, now playing pro ball in Sicily, peppered Big Ten defenses with not always accurate but never bashful three-point salvos and fearless forays to the rack.
The difference is, Crispin had a much deeper and more versatile supporting cast.
Ivory and Cline-Heard were top-shelf all-Big Ten players. Battle has been toiling the last two years with an amalgam of often timid and reticent teammates. His only true wingmen this year have been Tim Frazier, a blooming sophomore point guard just now exploring the borders of what could someday be a spectacular skill set; and Jeff Brooks, a big (6-8) springy senior winger who finally got serious in honing his jumper and handle over the summer and came to camp a new player.
The Lions appeared headed for at least a 50-50 shot at making the NCAAs when they embarked three weeks ago on a road trip to Illinois, a nationally ranked contender they'd already beaten along with Michigan State. (Since then, Wisconsin and Minnesota have been added to Penn State's list of ranked victims.)
But in the first half at Illinois, Brooks' right shoulder partially emerged from its socket during a rebound scramble and he crumpled to the floor in agony. PSU was soundly beaten. Brooks was out for the next gamea crushing loss to Michigan in which the Nits blew double-digit leads in each halfand then returned but didn't start at MSU, a third straight loss.
And so, the Lions now stand 14-12, 7-8 in the Big Ten, and on the periphery of the NCAA conversation. They have those four quality league wins and a borderline scalp over Atlantic 10 contender Duquesne. Their Rating Percentage Index rank is a representative 60 and their schedule strength is a superb 6.
But they have all those losses and nothing at all to show on the road. Narrow defeats that went down to the final seconds at leader Ohio State (69-66) and at second-place Purdue (63-62) now stand out as excruciating what-ifs. The latter turned on a blown out-of-bounds call with :05 left by usually expert official Ted Hillary, whose vision was blocked on the play. Likely Big Ten player of the year JaJuan Johnson then calmly hit the winning shot off an in-bounds pass with
:02 showing.
After a decisive 76-66 loss at Wisconsin on Sunday night, it's come down to
this: In all likelihood, to make the tournament, the Lions must get to 10-8 in the Big Ten. Which means winning out in their final three gamesat Northwestern, in the home final against sputtering Ohio State on March 1, then at equally desperate Minnesota. An awfully tall order.
Then, they probably also must win their opening-round game in the Big Ten tournament. That's four consecutive conference wins for a team that hasn't won more than two in a row all year.
For those who believe 9-9 in the nation's second strongest conference this season should be good enough, many times it has been. Big Ten teams who've played .500 ball in-league have made the NCAAs about half the time since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
The problem is, PSU would be just 17-14 under that scenario even providing a Big Ten tournament win. Only one team in the last 20 years of the NCAAs has gained an at-large invitation with an overall record fewer than four games over .500Georgia in 2001 (16-14). And those Bulldogs had four road wins over top-40 teams.
Battle is often caught in a push-pull between whether he should just attempt to take over games tilting in the balance or continue trying to involve second-tier teammates who've spit the bit as often as not. It's never an easy call.
Like Crispin, Battle is sometimes criticized for taking ill-advised shots. Most annoyingly, Big Ten Network drone Shon Morris has taken up a metronome-like chant all season that Battle must trust his teammates, a cover version of a clueless mantra started last season by Dan Dakich, now at ESPN.
But what does one do when nobody else on the team can dependably hit a three-pointer? When senior post man Andrew Jones commonly fumbles catchable passes?
When senior winger David Jackson goes through long stretches virtually invisible at the offensive end? When DeChellis' offensive system commonly distills to high ball screens for Battle with :08 left on the shot clock? That's the plight of a 22-year-old whose dream of just one NCAA tournament is on the line now. And no margin for error remains.
David Jones is a columnist for The Harrisburg Patriot-News. His columns may be found at www.pennlive.com.