Penn State Director of Athletics Tim Curley once again reinforced his belief that Penn State basketball is heading in the right direction in an interview published in the Centre Daily Times on Sunday. He said that the Lions are very, very close to reaching realistic goals of being in the upper echelon of the Big Ten conference and consistently being in the NCAA tournament (after 9 long years of missing the Big Dance, mind you). As a basketball fan, it is hard to watch Butler be able to make it all the way to the national championship game while we cannot even be a speck on the selection committee’s radar year after year.

He also reaffirmed his confidence in the job that Coach Ed DeChellis is doing, saying:

I like the way Ed runs his program; I just like everything about it. I like the coaching staff, I like the people he’s bringing into the program; I think they’re a good fit for Penn State. And I just like the program that he runs, and so I want to try to support him. We both realize that winning is important and trying to reach those goals, that’s kind of the measuring stick these days, but I just like everything his program stands for.

It is hard to call the Director of Athletics of a school with so many winning teams into question, but one has to wonder about Curley’s decision to stick with a system that is not working in the second biggest collegiate sport. With heralded recruit Taran Buie joining his brother Talor Battle in the backcourt next season and with 4 senior starters, every bit of Dechellis’ job had better be scrutinized, or else people will question whether the head coach should be the only one to go after the 2010-2011 season.

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