With less than two minutes left, the Penn State Nittany Lions trailed Illinois by six points at home. WIth their NCAA tournament hopes likely needing a nice little boost, this would seem to be a big game. Stanley Pringle stepped up with a three-pointer. David Jackson had an incredible offensive rebound in traffic, following it with two free throws. Penn State got a defensive stop, but turned it over on offense. They immediately fouled Illinois forward Mike Davis. The rest? Well, just watch.
You have to love the dramatic effect of the ball bouncing around the rim ever-so-slightly before going home for the Nittany Lions victory, no?
Talor Battle has been in the conversation for Big Ten player of the year for a while, and this is just another addition to his resume, despite the overall poor shooting performance. He illustrates why every basketball team has a set-in-stone go-to guy. He can be 4-16 from the floor (which Battle was), but you still know who needs to take the big shot. Kudos to Penn State for recognizing this.
Also, there are many who would say the students/fans should not have stormed the court, but I'm all about it here. Penn State has never won 10 Big Ten games in a season until now. They haven't been to the NCAA tournament since their current seniors were in eighth grade -- and it's not exactly like the Penn State basketball program is storied.
Have your fun, PSU students, you deserve it. You are about to go dancing.
Battle Sparks Penn State Pandemonium originally appeared on NCAA Basketball FanHouse on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 01:20:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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