It’s Time For Penn State To Honor The 2019-20 Hoops Team
Everyone knows the conclusion of the 2019-20 men’s basketball season probably was the most “Penn State basketball” thing to happen ever.
The Nittany Lions climbed as high as No. 9 in the AP Poll after securing their first ranking since 1996, claimed a 20-5 record before a late-season skid, and had a first-team All-Big Ten superstar in Lamar Stevens.
Most importantly, Penn State was more than poised to appear in the NCAA Tournament. Depending on how they played in the Big Ten Tournament, the Nittany Lions could’ve secured as high as a No. 4 seed in what would’ve been their first time dancing since 2011.
We all know what happened in March 2020. No one wants to talk about it. But, perhaps it’s time to talk about honoring what was objectively one of the best Penn State basketball teams of all time.
Florida State recently went viral for hanging a banner to commemorate the 2020 season in its gym. While the Seminoles got slightly clowned for doing so, Penn State could put something similar up in the Bryce Jordan Center.
This might sound like a joke, but it’s actually not. The basketball program could certainly do something more tasteful than the featured image I made for this post, and fans would certainly be on board.
This is a team that has an “Overcoming Historical Irrelevance” section on its Wikipedia page, for crying out loud. Penn State’s made the NCAA Tournament only nine times and is averaging just one win per appearance. At this rate, it should take every victory it can get.
A banner could be a great way to commemorate a forgotten era of Penn State basketball — a nine-year run of below-to-slightly-above-average play with Pat Chambers at the helm capped off by a Cinderella season and a tournament that never happened.
Whether the Nittany Lions were poised to turn one magical season into sustained success or not is debatable. I certainly thought so, but no one will ever know the truth. The door of this era was closed after Chambers left — supposedly via his own resignation as the result of an internal misconduct investigation.
As a new, exciting, and fresh era is ushered in under Micah Shrewsberry, Penn State should officially lock-and-key what happened in the past. The 2019-20 season almost feels like an elephant in the room, and the administration should do something to honor that group of guys.
For now, a banner feels like a perfect period at the end of that sentence.
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