Why not? Philly, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and DC are within a few hours of State College. Why do other non-city schools do so well in basketball but PSU can’t? 13 years ago, PSU wrestling was a middling program sitting in a talent-rich state. It took an amazing coach to buy in to what PSU offered.
i think money was definitely an issue. he is now the highest paid basketball coach at any college in Indiana. More than Painter, Matta and Woodson. That is actually kind of bizarre given that his best season was 10th place in the big ten, and that his 2024 team was guaranteed to tank
I think paying $4 million gets us into the Mike Rhodes, Dusty May, or Wojo range...we pay closer to $2 million, and it's more like the Matt Langel, Gerry McNamara, Darian DeVries, John Becker range. Promote Adam Fisher and it's probably closer to 1.3 to 1.5 million.
When we hired Cael, didn't we make him the highest paid head coach in the country? Do you think doing the same thing is realistic in basketball? Again, any comparison between men's basketball and wrestling is apples and oranges....the level of commitment it takes to be a big time program in men's hoops is completely different than in wrestling (and it gets even exponentially bigger in the age of NIL).
Yes, totally agree that the comparison is dumb…which is why I was originally arguing with BB for implying that PSU fans are clueless because they support wrestling. What the hell does one thing have to do with the other?
we heard for a long time that we couldn't get any players from Philadelphia. they just wouldn't come to PSU, we were told
You're ignoring that no one in the Big Ten was doing much damage in the Northeast...then the Big Ten network and the addition of two Northeastern schools increased our Northeastern footprint, the Big East fell apart and they lost some of their grip on the talent in the region, and many schools in the conference are pulling in more players from the region. It simply goes deeper than "the problem was we weren't trying"...and Pat's philly connections also played a large role in really getting the Philly kids (as did Urgo's with the DMV).
i totally disagree
Ed pulled in Drew Jones, made a run at his teammate Jason Love, got Ott, etc. He was obviously trying.
We could certainly get better, but we’ll never dominate basketball like we do wrestling…neither will any basketball program.
Ed was quick to retreat and his recruiting comfort zones seemed to be upstate NY, Ohio and the Harrisburg area. plus his experiment with Euros. He just didn't make any sense to me. He didn't belong in the Big Ten at all
yeah exactly. Oklahoma State won 34 national titles in wrestling. Penn State won 10 within a 15 year time span. There is no basketball program that does that because it is much more competitive
Because no school dominates basketball like PSU dominates wrestling. Plus far more schools care about basketball than wrestling, so the pool of competition isn’t nearly as big.
No school dominates any sport like PSU dominates wrestling. The most enjoyable thing about winning these wrestling titles is witnessing Iowa fans eat their own livers. They are so flustered, they’ve resorted to “but…but….but…Sandusky” (and of course booing our injured football players).
Fair enough. Perhaps I should have said…”After celebrating with our individual athletes and team performance, the most enjoyable part…”. Assumed you would have understood that the first part was a given.
Why not??? We’ve been say that for decades.. why not? Because they do not want to. The fat cats want to give it all to Football which is a money pit because they will never elevate to the level that at least 10 other schools are, including O$U, scUM, and soon to be USC. Never. BB is like wrestling was and can be. Kraft sees it but the rust on the BOT and within the “establishment” is disgusting and so disabling. It won’t end until the old fat cats are purged. The same people that have allowed a great university to operate at a 9 figure deficit claiming they never new. Incompetence is the only word to describe it. Do not give a dime until the systemic issues change. Sorry… it’s like an alcoholic who has to hit rock bottom.
