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Cory Giger

Giger: Lions right ship in crucial game

UNIVERSITY PARK — Most coaches won’t admit publicly that one contest is a must-win game, even when it’s pretty obvious. Like the game Penn State played Saturday afternoon. “Was it a must win?” Patrick Chambers replied when asked. “I don’t believe in that. I believe there’s a lot of basketball left to be played. There’s still a lot of time.” Be that as it may, Penn State would have been in a world of hurt had it lost to Ohio State in front of a packed house of 14,785 at the Bryce Jordan Center. Everybody knew it. Including Chambers. “For my sanity,” he said ...

Giger: Bad week, bad signs for PSU basketball

UNIVERSITY PARK — There was a distinct sound of bricks being thrown at the basket as Penn State started Saturday’s game 0-for-12, and the end of the disappointing loss to Wisconsin brought about the sound of people starting to jump off the Nittany Lion bandwagon. Maybe that’s unfair — to start getting serious doubts about a solid team that’s done a lot of good things this season. This is still a team that has a very good shot at making the NCAA Tournament. But this is Penn State basketball. It’s hard for casual fans to get interested in the team in the first place because ...

Memphis has impressive showing in defeat

DALLAS — How about a tip of the cap — or cowboy hat given where the game was played — to the Memphis Tigers. To be honest, I thought they were on the verge of getting blown out. Memphis started out well, but once Penn State figured out it could run at will and grabbed a 28-13 lead, there wasn’t much reason to believe the Tigers could regroup. This is a team that lost its head coach, Mike Norvell, and defensive coordinator, Adam Fuller, to Florida State a few weeks ago. A Group of Five team that doesn’t have anywhere near the overall talent that Penn State has. A team ...

Coordinator needs freedom to make changes

This is exactly the kind of hire James Franklin should have made for the offensive coordinator job. The key word there is “kind.” I cannot sit here and tell you Kirk Ciarrocca is a home run hire who will do Joe Moorhead type of things for Penn State’s offense. No one can predict the future when it comes to that sort of stuff. Ciarrocca might be awesome. Even better than Moorhead. He might turn out to be blah. Even worse than Ricky Rahne. But that would be a big surprise given his track record. See, Ciarrocca has the “kind” of track record Franklin needed to ...

Welcome back: PSU men return to top 25 for first time in 23 years

Remember 1996? That was a cool year. I graduated from college that year, so yeah, that seems like a long, long time ago. Way back in 1996, the Penn State men’s basketball team was ranked in The Associated Press Top 25. The Nittany Lions finished that season 21-7 and No. 18 in the ...

Giger: Fans should climb on PSU hoops bandwagon

UNIVERSITY PARK — Penn State absolutely has a great chance to make the NCAA Tournament this season. Yes, it’s true. Really. No, reeeaaallly. I know, I know, PSU hoops history has beaten down so many college basketball fans around here that you just simply will not let yourself believe in the Nittany Lions. If fans let themselves have high hopes at all — and that wasn’t even possible with last year’s 0-10 start in the Big Ten — those hopes have been dashed time and time again by one bad loss after another. This year has a chance to be different. Penn State proved why in ...