It’s no secret that Penn State Men’s Basketball is overshadowed by the football program – the latter draws enough people to make State College the state’s third-largest city, while the former throws out every incentive it can just to sell student tickets. Football is the favorite son, basketball is the kid we tend to neglect.

Now that Bowl season is coming to a close, it’s time to give that kid the attention he deserves – buy him an ice cream cone, ruffle his hair, and find out what he’s into these days. We owe him at least that much.

The 8-6 Nittany Lions (0-2) sit at the basement of the conference after consecutive losses to the Minnesota Golden Gophers and Wisconsin Badgers. Penn State hoped to carry over the momentum from an NIT championship to this year, but proved inconsistent in its non-conference schedule, getting knocked out of the Charleston Classic tournament by UNC Wilmington, and losing to Temple and Virginia Tech by 3 and 2 points respectively.

However, all is not lost – the team may miss players like Jamelle Cornley and Stanley Pringle, but it flashed potential for big wins in triumphs over Penn and University of Virginia. A 47 point margin of victory in a win over Gardener-Webb proved that this squad has the ability to completely dismantle inferior opponents.

Tonight, the Nittany Lions face the Michigan Wolverines, a 7-6 team that ranks 6th in the Big Ten standings. While Penn State may appear to be superior in terms of record, the Wolverines have faced tougher competition (including No.1-ranked Kansas ), and they are coming off of a huge upset of then-No.15 Ohio State.

The game will be broadcast on ESPN2 tonight at 7 pm. It’s worth noting that Penn State has gone 12-4 the last two seasons when the game has been nationally televised on ESPN. So take a break from worshiping football and give the “other major” NCAA program some love.