Big Ten Threat: Penn State Basketball Becoming a Force To Be Reckoned With

Don't look now, but Penn State men's basketball team is quietly becoming one of the better teams in the Big Ten.

Though the Nittany Lions lost tonight to No. 13 Purdue, the one point loss ended a four game trip against all ranked teams. The Lions went 2-2 against the best of the best, beating Michigan State and Illinois, and losing to the No. 1 Ohio State Buckeyes and Purdue Boilermakers by a combined total of four points. The team stayed competitive in both losses, and if some last-second officiating calls of tonight's game had been different, Penn State most likely would have won that game too.

Though the beginning of the season did not go as planned for the 2009 NIT champions, posting a solid 8-6 record through 14 games, but being blown out in all six losses.  The team also ranked towards the bottom of the Big Ten in team stats, something that seems to quickly be changing.

The team has showed promise over the past few games, led by Big Ten leading scorer Taylor Battle, who averaged 17 points and 4.25 assists per game during the stretch, and also by big man Jeff Brooks, who averaged 13.5 points per game including 19 points against Purdue during the same four games. However, these guys are not the only players helping in Penn State's recent surge, all of the Lion starters have contributed both on offense and defense.

With Penn State's schedule due to ease up with opponents like Iowa and Northwestern (still good, but not OSU or Purdue good), the Nittany Lions have the opportunity to load up on wins, and possibly bring them into the NCAA tournament discussion. Once in the national spotlight it would be hard to ignore this recent, and possibly future success against good teams, and for the first time since 2001, make the NCAA tournament, a big step for a team that finished a pitiful 2-15 in the Big Ten just five years ago.