Welcome to Rocky 32. Or Jaws 24. Or Friday the 13th Part 57. You're basically just watching the same movie over and over again.
Just like with Penn State basketball.
I mean, what are we supposed to do with this? A pathetic and crushing 72-63 loss against a terrible Nebraska team Sunday evening in Lincoln.
Are we supposed to get mad? That would be appropriate, because this was a devastating blow to Penn State's NCAA Tournament hopes.
Are we supposed to acknowledge that it really wasn't unexpected? Because this is just the kind of loss we've come to expect from Penn State for, well, forever.
Are we supposed to just shrug our shoulders? I mean, isn't this loss exactly why so many people simply don't care all that much about Penn State basketball in the first place?
I feel really dumb. OK, OK, you can throw in your own punchline here and say I'm dumb all the time, if you want to be a hater.
But in this situation, I am really dumb. Because I believed in this Penn State team.
Shame on me.
I have felt for the past two months that the Nittany Lions are an NCAA Tournament team. Hell, I've gone way farther than most and even said I felt like Penn State could actually get to the Sweet 16.
Yeah, I'm dumb. And I'll own it on this one.
I believed in Micah Shrewsberry. I believed he was a really good coach who could transform Penn State basketball into something ... different.
Now, I'm thinking Shrewsberry has blown it with this team. If he's supposed to be such a good coach and leader, then how is this Penn State team -- which includes one of the better players in the nation in Jalen Pickett -- now sitting here at 5-7 in the Big Ten with a disturbingly poor performance in what amounted to a must-win game at Nebraska?
The Cornhuskers came in 3-9 in the Big Ten, having lost four in a row and six of seven. Sure, Nebraska is usually pretty tough at home, but in two of its last three home games, the team suffered a 15-point loss to Northwestern and 26-point loss to Illinois. To be fair, the Huskers did win against Ohio State at home recently, but the Buckeyes are lousy at 3-9 in the Big Ten.
There's just no way Penn State can lose this game. And yet, Nebraska came out shooting well, built a 37-28 halftime lead and held on as the Lions tried to rally late.
Remember when I asked above if we should be angry or just shrug our shoulders at this loss? In all honesty, it's just hard to muster up any kind of real emotion about it, simply because we all have indeed seen this movie.
Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.
OK, so what happens from here on out?
The season is not over. Penn State's NCAA Tournament hopes are not dead.
Yet.
The Lions already were the seventh team out in Joe Lunardi's latest bracketology for ESPN. Nebraska's NET ranking coming into this game was 99, so this is a rough loss that will drop Penn State down even further.
The Lions are no longer a bubble team at this moment. They won't show up anywhere on any first four out or next four out kind of lists. They're probably like the 15-20th team out now.
There are still eight regular-season games left. I've thought that if Penn State goes 10-10 it could get into the tournament. But this loss to Nebraska was bad enough that it could change a lot of the metrics, so now it may take an 11-9 finish.
That means going 6-2 the rest of the way. Against this schedule:
• vs. Wisconsin
• at Maryland
• vs. Illinois
• at Minnesota
• at Ohio State
• vs. Rutgers
• at Northwestern
• vs. Maryland
Are there six more wins there? I doubt it.
Is Penn State better than most of those teams? Yes. Is six wins impossible? No. But if you're losing to the likes of Nebraska and barely showing any heart in the game, then there's really no reason to believe that this Penn State team is all of a sudden gonna catch fire down the stretch.
Shrewsberry is highly regarded, and he'll have a chance to prove why if he can pull a rabbit out of the hat over the next eight games. But we'll need to start taking a much closer look at Shrewsberry as the season winds down to determine if he indeed deserves the kind of praise he's received.
That's all I've got for now. I'm gonna stop writing and go watch Fast & Furious Part 26. You know, the one where they drive fast and do crazy stunts.
