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Lady Lions Deserve Support. Men, not so much.

Submitted by on January 25, 2010 – 3:49 pm5 Comments

Women’s basketball attendance for their last home game, Sunday vs. Illinois: 8471

Men’s basketball attendance for their last home game, Thursday vs. Indiana: 8251

I don’t care that one game was on a weekend and the other during the week.  I don’t care that our women’s team is ranked 23rd and our men’s team is 0-7 in the Big Ten.  The day that any women’s sport becomes a bigger draw than men’s basketball is the day you need to press the panic button.

Thanks to all those who went out and supported the Lady Lions, and I don’t blame those who don’t support this men’s team.  Since money is all the administration seems to care about–7.5 home football games a year, and the fact that in basketball. like in football, we’d prefer to schedule cupcakes than home-and-home series with legitimate opponents tell us that–I propose a boycott of Penn State men’s basketball, at least until Ed DeChellis is fired.  Don’t go to the games, don’t buy season tickets or merchandise.  Show Tim Curley that we’re willing to root for a winning team, but not when the objective is mediocrity.

But, by all means, continue to root for Coquese Washington’s squad.  In fact, if you haven’t already done so, go down to a few games.  I can’t think of anything more emasculating to a coach like DeChellis to see a packed house for a women’s game and an empty BJC when the Lions host (and, assuredly lose) to Illinois this Wednesday.

You can still watch the men play–and lose–on TV.  The Big Ten Network or ESPN will be broadcasting every single one of those games, so you won’t miss out.  The women aren’t so lucky.  Show Tim Curley and Ed DeChellis that a winning product will bring fans, and their wallets, to the games.  The Lady Lions brought in an established coach–a former assistant at Notre Dame who played in the WNBA–and in three years, she’s got Penn State poised to reach the NCAA tournament.  You don’t think the men could achieve the same success if they took a coach from a real school and not, you know, East Tennessee State?

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  • A.s.C

    My family and I have actually started doing exactly what you listed in this article following 2006. We halted our annual renewal of the men's basketball season tickets and continued the women's. We actually live out in San Francisco, but have consistently purchased annual season tickets for football, basketball (mens and womens) to support our teams until 2006 when we put an end to the men's team. We don't expect to go to games, but support our teams financially as long as the school is committed to success. If we wanted to aspire for mediocrity, we have the Raiders here to fulfill that depressing void. Well put, we were one of many original donors when the BJC was built and it is just sad to see the men's team neglected. My checkbook is just waiting for a recommitment by this university to a winning men's basketball program.

  • TonyLion

    I think you're wrong about the administration. It doesn't matter how much the athletic department makes off the BTN and ESPN. If there's more $ to be made, you can bet they want it. It doesn't make sense that they would spend so much on building the BJC and upgrading the facilities to plateau at the level the they are at now. It's a delicate situation with men's BB right now. Things were rocking last year with the NIT championship and a just couple of Iowa bank threes kept them out of the dance. Look nobody is happy with the men's BB thing right now, but you know ED has recruited a couple of markee guys in half brothers TB. It's not his fault that 4 star recruit JB hasn't panned out. The 85 scholie football program can sufffer those kind of setbacks but not the BB program. Clearly the frontcourt post Jamelle is totally absent, but it's only going to get better. I think 2011 will field the most talented BB team in the ED era and I think he deserves a shot to coach it. If they don't make noise, then fine fire him. But who are you gonna get to replace him? Even if money is no object, who is gonna come to Penn State? That's what I want to know.

  • http://quebecpenspinning.com/ Charlie

    I just don't understand all this fear about the possibility of having to start from scratch. I mean even if we do start from scratch with a brand new coach, how much worst off could we be from our current state? We're in last place in conference play, no postseason in sight, and winless in the Big Ten. What drop off are we exactly envisioning here with a blank slate? When it comes to collegiate sports there are really just 2 types of successful coaches, those that can outcoach their inability to recruit (Cappelletti at Memphis, Ferentz at Iowa) and those that can outrecruit their inability to coach (think basketball's version of Les Miles). DeChellis has proven to be lacking in both categories, coaching and recruiting. So what exactly are we looking to lose at this point.

    The man has had 8 years to definitively show he can barely coach and recruits with a shotgun strategy. So drop the “oh we are going to suffer another 4 years all over again with a new coach” argument. At this point, in DeChellis' 8th season, we've already been suffering for 7 seasons.

  • Men and Ladies Fan

    What kind of Penn State fan stops supporting a team just because they are losing? I'm sure you wrote this exact same article for the Lady Lions last year huh? Would you write this article for football if they ever have a string of bad seasons? All this will do is deplete the basketball program of money and then the AD will abolish it because more money go towards running it then would be made from it. That sounds like a good idea. Don't punish the team for the coaches poor record. His time will be up soon and you can go back to having another winning team to support.

  • http://quebecpenspinning.com/ Charlie

    If you go through our archives, I don't believe we advocated the firing of Joe Paterno once, nor the women's head coach (although I do believe Rene Portland should have been allowed to stay but thats another debate). Let's get one thing out of the way, DeChellis is NOT Paterno. This is not some dark years Paterno experienced in the early 2000s. Paterno has a proven track record of DECADES of winning. DeChellis has had 1 winning season in the 8 he has been here. Get the difference yet? Though I understand what Devon is trying to accomplish here by asking for a boycott, he is in fact right. It inevitable that DeChellis will be fired, the question is just time. A boycott hits this administration where it hurts the most, their pocketbooks and it speeds up the process. Like I mentioned in another post, what is the biggest fear here? That we will start all over from scratch?

    Take a look at this program, we are last in the conference, winless in the conference and it doesn't look to be much better even with Taurie without a dominant post guy. What great dropoff will we actually suffer with a brand new coach here? I believe 8 seasons is more than sufficient for any head coach to show he is incapable of overcoming his inability to recruit with the best of them. We are not playing in the Atlantic 10 anymore, this is the Big Ten. Time for a change.