Centre Daily Times | 11/20/2005 | Extra effort:
“UNIVERSITY PARK — The old sports adage that you can’t tell the players without a game program has new meaning for the Penn State men’s basketball team.
“Nittany Lion players, for the first time in years, are not wearing their names on the back of their jerseys. Coach Ed DeChellis said he is more concerned with the name on the front.
“On Saturday afternoon, before a Bryce Jordan Center crowd of 7,456, Cornell found out what that name means as the Nittany Lions used a 30-8 run late in the second half to win their season-opener 66-54.
“And most encouraging for Penn State was that the run came generally without the services of standout sophomore Geary Claxton, who was on the bench with four fouls.
” ‘I think we made somewhat of a statement when we went on that run,’ DeChellis said. ‘Geary and Travis (Parker) are our two best players, and we are looking for our role players to step up more — and I definitely made a statement by doing that.’ …”