| University Park has been home to a variety of great NCAA Tournament memories. |
Fans have witnessed some incredible NCAA Tournament moments in Happy Valley over the years, and with the event making its return to the BJC in March, plenty more are sure to come.
By Stephanie Petulla
Penn State's history as an NCAA Tournament host is a rich one. In fact, the Lady Lions will always have the distinction of playing and hosting the first-ever NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament Game. On March 12, 1982, they welcomed Clemson to Rec Hall for an early tip by most standards that year.
"We did it [started earlier] on purpose," remembers Lady Lion head coach Rene Portland. "Everyone else started at 7:30, and we moved it back to 7 o'clock. The Clemson game was exciting and we won. We will always be first in the NCAA record books."
All told, Penn State has hosted NCAA women's basketball games on more than 20 occasions. Among those have been countless memorable moments, and University Park is looking to make more memories this year when it hosts the 2006 NCAA Women's Basketball Championship First and Second Rounds on March 19 and 21. Tickets still remain for those contests, but for now??a walk down memory lane.
March 12, 1982 * NCAA First Round
No. 4 seed Penn State 96, No. 5 seed Clemson 75
First NCAA Women's Basketball Championship Game Ever
In the first NCAA Tournament Game ever, Penn State defeated Clemson by more than 20 points to advance to the school's first regional semifinal. Associate head coach Annie Troyan, a junior on that team, recalls the scene:
"[Clemson's] Barbara Kennedy scored 43, which is still a record for most points against us in the NCAAs. Looking back, for her to come out and have that in the first women's NCAA Tournament Game was neat. She had the most points, but they didn't get too many points after that," she points out. "We still tease Louise Leimkuhler today. We say 'who was guarding that girl?' since she was the one guarding her. Any time she came through the lane there were three of us and she still scored. But we still beat them pretty bad."
And so it was, the first NCAA game like so many others since went down as a win for the Lady Lions.
March 24, 1983 * NCAA East Regional Semifinal
Unseeded Penn State 73, No. 1 seed Cheney 72
The very next year, Troyan made history of her own when the Lady Lions beat N.C. State in the first round, 94-80 in University Park. Troyan's 19 assists in that game is still an NCAA Championship record. The win set up a meeting with Cheney in the NCAA East Regional Semifinal, the only basketball regional to be held in Rec Hall. Only 32 teams made the tournament in those early years, and Penn State was taking on fifth-ranked Cheney, then a perennial powerhouse foe of the Lady Lions. Behind at halftime, Portland injected some creative coaching into her locker room activities.
"Cheney was a great rival of ours," remembers Portland. "At halftime we were losing, and we made the kids draw a caricature of the player they were guarding. They were afraid of the Cheney players, and we made them human by drawing the pictures. They went out and beat them because they weren't afraid anymore." The Lady Lions eeked out the one-point win, 73-72, advancing to their first of four NCAA Regional final in program history.
The Rec Hall Years * 1982-1995
12 Games (8-4 record)
Rec Hall, the home of Lady Lion basketball for the first 14 years of the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship, provided an atmosphere unequalled in college basketball at the time. Then, as is still true today, home court advantage is an intangible factor that can't be quantified with numbers, but translates to a feeling of support and comfort for the home team and one of fear and foreboding for the visitors.
"We got as many fans as anybody. We still get great crowds and great support," says Troyan. "Being at home was so important because we were tough to beat at Rec Hall. Back then if you won your conference, you could stay at home until the Final Four, and home court advantage was very important. Nobody liked to come into Rec Hall."
The Lady Lions hosted 12 NCAA games in Rec Hall, winning eight. The effect of Penn State's sixth man won't be found in any box score, but lives on vividly in the hearts of Lady Lion alumnae everywhere. "The fans were on top of you," says Troyan. "You could barely fit a size 12 shoe from the stands to the sideline. If you had to throw the ball in, the student section was right behind you. The whole section across from both benches, it was first-come first-serve and they would run in."
March 16, 1996 * NCAA First Round
No. 2 seed Penn State 94, No. 15 seed Youngstown State 71
First NCAA Women's Basketball Championship Game in the BJC
As the Lady Lions said goodbye to Rec Hall in mid-January of 1996, it was with both extreme excitement and anxious anticipation. As expected, Penn State nation still made its voices heard for the Lady Lions, just from the East side of campus now. That year, a combined two-game total of 17,152 fans flocked to the Bryce Jordan Center for the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship First and Second Rounds.
| From the first-ever NCAA Tournament ever played to record attendance marks, Penn State has been a big part of the Championship's history. This year fans can witness even more when the event returns to Happy Valley March 19-21. |
For former Lady Lion Angie Potthoff, 1996 signaled her third-straight NCAA appearance. "My junior year was when we made our big run. We were seeded in the West but hosted the first two rounds at home. We had a great run. We won two games and being able to host up to the championship of the sub-regional is huge.
"Anytime you can play at home, especially at Penn State, it is an advantage. It's something special to be able to start the journey to the NCAA Tournament at home with your crowd in familiar surroundings, which is just huge. I was always one who had the Penn State pride and really enjoyed being a part of that. To continue that to the tournament was just a great advantage."
After a pair of NCAA wins in the Bryce Jordan Center that first year, the question was quickly answered of how incredible the atmosphere would continue to be in the Lady Lions' new home.
March 17, 2000 * NCAA Second Round
No. 2 seed Penn State 75, No. 7 seed Auburn 69
The Lady Lions' Run to the Final Four
Back-to-back wins over Youngstown State and Auburn at the Bryce Jordan Center got the ball rolling toward the program's first-ever Final Four and continued to solidify why University Park was such an exceptional place to play.
"I was told when I came into the Jordan Center we'd never have the Rec Hall excitement, but the Lady Lions have done that," says Portland of the unflappable support NCAA women's basketball receives at Penn State. "We're still bringing in fans. We've been very, very fortunate with the fan support here and they like us because we work hard and bring emotion."
On a team that featured such Lady Lion greats as All-American Helen Darling, Penn State's pair of wins that year is part of an unbeaten 8-0 NCAA record for the Lady Lions in the Bryce Jordan Center. In total, nearly 60,000 fans have attended NCAA Women's Basketball Championship games at the Bryce Jordan Center in the 10 years the facility has operated.
How good of a home the "BJC" is to the NCAA Women's Basketball Championships is evident to all, as indicated by the selection of University Park as one of the first 16 predetermined host sites for the Championship's First and Second Rounds. This year, Lady Lion fans have the opportunity to show their spirit again when the tournament comes to Happy Valley in March.
"This building has always been electric for us any time we've hosted the NCAA Tournament," says Portland, who expects this year to be no different.