Centre Daily Times 12/24/2004 Nittany Lions will be better — maybe sooner than you think:
“I know what you’re thinking. It’s OK, you can say it.
“Buffalo?
“They lost to Buffalo?
“A loss to Pittsburgh, a legit top-10 team, is excusable. Georgetown on the road? Sure. Even neutral-site losses to Illinois State and South Carolina State, which, so early in the season, were essentially organized scrimmages, can be forgiven.
“But Buffalo? At home?
“There are rationales, excuses, explanations, if you will. That the Bulls, though a MAC team, were a darned good MAC team. That the game was held immediately following finals week, a time during which the Nittany Lions historically struggle. That it’s hard for any team to come to play after a 10-day layoff, let alone a team as frightfully young as Penn State.
“Honestly, though, if the Nittany Lions had pulled Tuesday’s game out — as they nearly did, erasing a six-point deficit in the final two minutes — it might have been the Bulls who said: Penn State?
“There is little doubt that the future is bright for Penn State basketball, that the program is moving forward. Where it is right now, though, is a place where wins over teams like Buffalo aren’t guarantees, a place where the Nittany Lions can play with and stay with anybody but can also, as they’ve recently showed, can get beat by anybody.”