Oct. 13, 2009
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; Oct. 13, 2009 - Fresh off a school-record 27 wins and 2009 NIT Championship, the Nittany Lion basketball team will ring in new season with a Blue White Hoops Fest this Saturday prior to the football team's kickoff with Minnesota at 3:30 p.m. in Beaver Stadium.
The Nittany Lions will return to the Bryce Jordan Center floor for the first time since closing out the 2008-09 season by winning 10 of their last 13 games, including last second thrillers over No. 23 Illinois and George Mason in the BJC. Doors to the Jordan Center will open at 11:00 a.m. with the Hoops Fest starting at 11:30 a.m. with a Blue White Scrimmage. A three-point contest will follow at noon and on-court events will concluded with a dunk contest at 12:20 p.m. The Nittany Lions will be available for 30 minutes for autographs following the dunk contest and prior to the start of the Tailgreat show at 1:30 p.m. in the Jordan Center.
Admission to Hoops Fest is free and open to the public. Team posters and other prizes will be available on the concourse.
The Nittany Lions will officially open practice at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 16 as coach Ed DeChellis begins his seventh season at Penn State. Penn State returns three starters led by first-team All-Big Ten and All-Region selection Talor Battle who returns for his junior season after setting a Penn State record with 189 assists and posting the fifth-best scoring season in Lion history with 635 points last year.
Penn State fans will have their first chance to see four newcomers to the program on Saturday as freshmen Tim Frazier (Houston, Texas), Bill Edwards (Middletown, Ohio), Sasa Borovnjak (Belgrade, Serbia) and Jermaine Marshall (Etters, Pa.) take the floor. Frazier, the top rated senior recruit out of Texas, has already become a staple on Youtube.com with his athletic ability featured in several dunk reels.
-NITTANY LIONS-