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Johnson’s departure best for all involved:

“It’s kind of like that relationship, the one that ended so peacefully that you initially didn’t understand why it came to an end. Then you realized a little later that both parties were better off going their separate ways.

“Well, that’s the kind of love affair between Penn State men’s basketball coach Ed DeChellis and Penn State forward Aaron Johnson. Only, it will take more than a year from now to realize that both parties involved made the right decision that dreary Thursday afternoon.

“There had hardly been a visible fight or disagreement in the two-year relationship. DeChellis and the program accept that Johnson thinks he deserves a better partner. In return, DeChellis wants to discover what the program can be without Johnson. And the best part of this whole ordeal is that Johnson understands. He didn’t argue. He didn’t plead. The fact that he didn’t fight back makes the situation even harder to understand because we are so used to controversy in breakups. …”

Beaver County Times Allegheny Times – Sports – 03/29/2005 – At least Penn St. sports can’t get worse … can they?:

“In some ways, the Penn State women’s basketball team’s upset loss in the first round of the NCAA Tournament was a fitting cap to the school’s 2004-05 visible sports calender.

“The football team went 4-7 and has taken up residence among the Big Ten’s lower echelon.

“The men’s basketball team went 7-23 and is the landlord of the conference’s basement.

“And the women’s basketball team spoiled an otherwise solid regular season by squandering a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament, going belly up against No. 13 seed Liberty.

“Rundown the ‘name’ schools in the country, and it’s impossible to come up with a more feeble combination than the PSU football and men’s basketball teams have served up these last couple of years.

“Go ahead, try.

“Texas, Florida and Oklahoma have excellent programs in both sports. Ditto Wisconsin and even Utah.

“USC, Auburn, Tennessee, Michigan, Georgia, Iowa, Ohio State, LSU and Florida State have maintained excellence in football while North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest, Michigan State, Alabama, Kentucky, Kansas, Oklahoma State, Illinois, Arizona, UCLA, Washington, Louisville, Cincinnati and now apparently Texas Tech are annual NCAA tourney fixtures.

“Even the old Eastern brethren like West Virginia, Pitt, Syracuse and Boston College have more going for themselves than the Nits.

“Lump the women into the equation and Penn State can’t stand up to UConn, either.”

“For PSU fans, none of whom are currently satisfied, the upside is it probably can’t get any worse. …”

PennLive.com:

“Problems continue to mount for coach Ed DeChellis and his Penn State men’s basketball program.

“DeChellis said today that he granted starting power forward Aaron Johnson his request to transfer. The 6-9 Johnson led the Big Ten Conference in rebounding last season.

“DeChellis, Johnson and Johnson’s father, Howard, met last Thursday and reached an amicable agreement.

“Johnson, who has one year of eligibility remaining, is the seventh player who has left Penn State before his eligibility expired under the DeChellis regime. Sharif Chambliss, Brandon Cameron, DeForrest Riley Smith, Robert Summers and John Kelly transferred while Jan Jagla opted to play professional basketball in Europe.

“Because DeChellis released Johnson from his scholarship, Johnson is free to transfer to a Division I school next season but must sit out until 2006-07.

“”We just decided it was best for both of us as far as me being a senior next year and him having a great freshman class (rising sophomores),’ Aaron Johnson said. ‘It will help everyone. I’m happy with it. Coach is happy with it.’ …”

Forward Johnson to leave Lions:

“Penn State forward Aaron Johnson announced yesterday that he will be leaving the men’s basketball team and will transfer to play at another school.

“After an hour-and-a-half meeting with Penn State coach Ed DeChellis Thursday, the two decided it was best for the program and Johnson to go their separate ways.

“‘It was a mutual decision,’ Johnson said. ‘I think it was a combination of a lot of things. I think they will be a better team without me.’

“The 6-foot-9, 240-pound junior was recently named honorable mention all-Big Ten this season. Johnson led the Big Ten in rebounding with 9.9 boards per game and averaged 11.8 points a contest. He has one year of eligibility remaining, in addition to a redshirt year, after being invited to walk on to the Nittany Lion team as a freshman and starting 35 games in his 73-game career.

“‘At the end of this past season, I spoke with Aaron to discuss his future with the program,’ DeChellis said yesterday in a press release. ‘Following our discussion, both Aaron and I came to a mutual understanding that it would be better if Aaron continued his basketball career at a different institution.’

“Johnson’s exit marks the seventh player to transfer since DeChellis took over for Jerry Dunn in April 2003. Penn State now returns just seven players for the 2005-2006 season, and there is uncertainty as to whether or not sophomore guard Marlon Smith will be able to play after suffering from a transient blood clot. …”

Centre Daily Times | 03/29/2005 | Johnson latest to leave PSU hoops team:

“UNIVERSITY PARK — Aaron Johnson has always been about proving people wrong.

“He believes he has proven all he can at Penn State.

“The junior forward was granted his release from the men’s basketball team Monday and intends to spend his final season of eligibility with another program.

“‘At the end of this past season, I spoke to Aaron to discuss his future with the program,’ Penn State men’s basketball coach Ed DeChellis said in a statement issued by the university Monday.

“‘Following our discussion, both Aaron and I came to a mutual understanding that it would be better if Aaron continued his basketball career at a different institution.’

“Johnson also said Monday the decision was in the best interest of both parties.

“‘Penn State has been good to me and given me a chance to do what I want to do next,’ Johnson said. …”

Basketball: Johnson to leave Penn State:

“For three years, Aaron Johnson weathered the losing, but in reality, the losing weathered Johnson. ‘It was devastating, psychologically,’ his father, Howard, said.

“As Johnson developed into perhaps the most consistent contributor on the Penn State men’s basketball team, he was quietly fighting another development — his spreading belief that Penn State would never give him the feeling of a winning season.

“Three years of mostly disappointing basketball convinced Johnson that his fourth, were it to happen with the Nittany Lions, wouldn’t be any better. Yesterday, Penn State announced that Johnson — a 6-foot-9 junior power forward who averaged 11.8 points and 9.9 rebounds in the 2004-05 season — will leave the program.

“With the departure, the Lions are deprived of their most experienced player and their second-leading scorer. But Johnson felt the change was necessary. During his career at Penn State, the Lions changed coaches and reinvented their roster, but the end result didn’t change. The past three years have produced seven-, nine-, and seven-win seasons, and the losing, as if it possessed its own kinetic power, finally pushed Johnson away. …”

Nittany Lion basketball coach Ed DeChellis announced today that junior Aaron Johnson (Exton, Pa.) will not be part of the Penn State basketball program for the upcoming 2005-06 basketball season.

“At the end of this past season, I spoke with Aaron to discuss his future with the program,” DeChellis said. “Following our discussion, both Aaron and I came to a mutual understanding that it would be better if Aaron continued his basketball career at a different institution.”

“Coach DeChellis and I sat down following the season to discuss my future here at Penn State,” Johnson said. “We came to the conclusion that I would pursue my basketball career elsewhere.”

Johnson, a 6-9 power forward, averaged 11.8 points per game and 9.9 rebounds per contest this season for Penn State. He leaves Penn State with one year of playing eligibility remaining.

The Sentinel Online – Local Sports:

“Remember the moment you realized you weren’t in high school anymore?

“It could have been when the Ancient Sumerian Cultures professor slapped down a 17-page exam on your desk during the second week of classes and informed you there was a hour to get it done. No exceptions.

“It could have been the instant your parents stepped out of your dorm room and began the long trek home, leaving you independent and strangely undecided about what to do next.

“For Mike Walker, it was when he went to his first practice with the Penn State men’s basketball team and spent 2 1/2 hours learning the intricacies of defense.

“‘Then,’ Walker says, pausing slightly, ‘I knew it was a different level.’ …”

The New York Times > Sports > Sports Special > BackTalk: Impersonal and Relentless to Take Anymore:

“They were called auditions and they defined women’s college basketball recruiting in the 1970’s each spring on campuses nationwide.

“Open auditions were scheduled at each university to evaluate, to recruit and, when warranted, to offer basketball scholarships.

“Gum-chewing teenagers in tube socks arrived at 8 a.m. to register at the campus recreational facility, many after driving with their parents for hours to spare the expense of a night’s lodging.

“These single-day trials were the culmination of recruiting by college coaches who had compiled mimeographed questionnaires, watched Beta videotapes and made a few phone calls to the high school history teacher, who doubled as the girls basketball coach.

“At the end of the day’s drills and scrimmages, five or six lucky teenagers and their parents were asked to stick around, to take a quick tour of facilities, dorm rooms and, weather permitting, to watch the final innings of the baseball team in action.

“Oh, to recruit in the 70’s! Life was good! …”

The New York Times > Sports > College Basketball > Sports of The Times: With Its Old Standbys, N.C.A.A. Is Not Clicking With a New Generation:

“THERE has been the N.C.A.A. tournament’s brand-name face to love: Vermont Coach Tom Brennan looked as if he had swallowed organic moonbeams when his crunchy Catamounts left his state’s citizens leapin’ in their Birkenstocks after mercifully shortening Jim Boeheim’s annual attempt at turning Syracuse U. into Persecute U.

“There has been the bracket-busting brand-name moniker to remember: West Virginia’s Kevin Pittsnogle, a big lug with a chop-shop haircut, Dr. Seuss name and trailer-park roots, left a nation entranced as he feathered 3-pointers and inflicted death by a thousand back cuts on the tourney gods.

“There has also been the usual N.C.A.A. brand-name heartbreak to witness: Villanova’s miracle deflated when an incredulous Allan Ray had his incandescent runner wiped out by an iffy traveling call to allow the behemoths in Carolina blue to continue their post-Dean Smith renaissance.

“So much of the tournament’s brand identity is wrapped up in watching the joy register in the face of strangers, in coaches we have never seen, in players we have never known. Call it ‘Bucknell Soup for the Soul.’

“And yet, Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski has fretted aloud this past year about college basketball ‘losing our brand’ even as he becomes a bigger one. …”