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Penn State Nittany Lions (2001: 21-12)

The following team preview is provided by Blue Ribbon. For the nation's most comprehensive look at this and all Division I teams, be sure to order the 2001-02 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, on sale now at 1-800-775-2518.

At some schools, a season that ends in the NCAA Sweet 16 is hardly something to shout about. For a select few -- Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, etc. -- it could even be considered a disappointment.

But at Penn State, where just such a thing occurred last season, a Sweet 16 trip is a big deal. Big enough to cause school icon Joe Paterno to declare it, "One of the memorable highlights of our athletic program in my 51 years here."

Happy Valley didn't earn its nickname based on being a basketball school. It has been Paterno's football teams to quite literally put the central Pennsylvania school on the map and define its athletic image. Last March was perhaps the first time since before Paterno's ascension that the basketball team took center stage in State College.

For PSU to continue putting itself on the map, it will need to cash in on last year's success during recruiting. The Sweet 16 team, like most Nittany Lion squads before it, banked on leadership and teamwork to compensate for a lack of athleticism. Few true blue-chip prospects tend to look at the school for basketball. And the trend continued with Penn State's top target for 2002. Gerry McNamara, a 6-1 point guard from Scranton, Pa., generally considered among the nation's top 30 players, ended up choosing Syracuse over the Nittany Lions.

But McNamara may have been too far along in his recruitment to be swayed by the memory of PSU's March run. That might not be the case much longer. That the Nittany Lions would accomplish anything remotely resembling their second-round upset of second seeded North Carolina -- a team that stood No. 1 in the country only a month earlier -- seemed unimaginable much of the season.

Penn State was, by all indications, an average team, one that went 7-9 in Big Ten play, lost to Northwestern and could have missed the NCAAs altogether if not for Gyasi Cline-Heard's last-second reverse layup to stave off 10-18 Michigan in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament.

Penn State is essentially starting over, having lost star guard Joe Crispin (19.5 ppg), his brother and fellow starter Jon Crispin (7.2 ppg) -- who transferred to UCLA -- starting point guard Titus Ivory (15.8 ppg) and dominating power forward Cline Heard (16.0 ppg, 8.2 rpg).

Another player who probably would have started this season, 6-10 sophomore Marcus Banta (1.7 ppg, 1.8 rpg), flunked out of school in the spring. He had improved throughout the season, grabbing five rebounds in 10 minutes of action against the Tar Heels.

What's left to carry on the 2000-01 team's legacy? One senior starter, five underclassmen of limited experience and four freshmen.

"I certainly don't want to put any pressure on our players," Dunn said. "The pressure I keep in myself is to continually get better. I understand what pieces of the puzzle are needed to surpass past accomplishments as well as what we will have to acquire."

Backcourt

The most experienced guard is 6-0 junior Brandon Watkins (3.2 ppg), the main backup to Joe Crispin the last two seasons. Watkins notched 37 assists and shot 42.9 percent on three-pointers, playing 12 minutes a game. His most impressive figure: eight assists and only one turnover in the three NCAA Tournament games. Watkins also scored a career-high 12 points in the finale against Temple.

Likely to join Watkins in the backcourt is 6-5 sophomore Jamaal Tate (2.4 ppg, 1.2 rpg), who played in all 33 games as a freshman, starting two. He saw significant minutes in Penn State's postseason games, notching a season-best 12 points in the Big Ten Tournament win over Michigan.

The Nittany Lions will need Tate to provide help at guard, but he is big enough to play wing forward and should be able to grab rebounds. How shallow is Penn State at guard? The only other scholarship player at the position is 6-1 sophomore Sharif Chambliss (1.3 ppg), though he can play at either spot. Dunn expects him to provide speed and energy off the bench.

Frontcourt

Junior B.J. Vossekuil (1.0 ppg, 0.8 rpg) is a 6-9 forward who can also play multiple positions. He will probably be used more as a wing player. Vossekuil appeared in 23 games, averaging only one point and one rebound, but Dunn insists, "he's capable of being one of our better offensive performers and rebounders."

Also factoring into the picture in the frontcourt are 6-7 sophomore Ndu Egekese (1.4 ppg, 0.7 rpg) -- whose slight minutes increased over the course of last season -- and a pair of freshmen. Six-foot-seven Darren Tielsch, a Pennsylvania prep star last season, and 6-9 Jason McDougald, who won two small-school state titles at Reynolds High in Lewisville, N.C., will get a chance to play right away.

The wildcards in the equation are 6-11 Jan Jagla and 6-10 Kevin Fellows, Dunn's other two freshmen. Jagla hails from Germany, where he started for a team that won the world Under-20 championship. Fellows brings an impressive 245-pound frame but played his high school ball in not-exactly-loaded-with-talent Idaho, where he was state player of the year.

Bottom line

With all the enthusiasm generated in Happy Valley by the basketball team's unlikely breakthrough in 2001, it's a shame most of the players who contributed to it have moved on. Any dividends the Sweet 16 trip might pay in recruiting won't show up for another year, and in the meantime, this season's overly young squad may go through the kind of struggles that can kill momentum in a hurry.

Penn State's non-conference schedule isn't particularly daunting, aside from a Thanksgiving weekend trip to Big East champion Boston College and a road rematch against Temple. But the Big Ten isn't getting any weaker, and the schedule includes a three-game road swing in late January/early February to Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa.

A return to the NIT would be disturbingly familiar territory for Dunn's Lions. But it also wouldn't be that bad an accomplishment for a rebuilding club.