Oh..My..God!

Some years ago, a good friend of mine advised me that "the Big 10 is first and foremost, a basketball conference". I'd never viewed the Big 10 in such a light and wasn't convinced at the time of the significance of the declaration.

This morning, however, my friends' words came back to me in haunting fashion when my father announced "Penn State is undefeated in the Big 10! They're on their way to the Big Dance!"

Penn State (10-4 overall, 1-0 Big 10) defeated Northwestern (10-4 overall, 0-1 Big 10) 83-57 last night in a basketball contest.

Now, my father competed in high school football and wrestling and was an All State performer in both sports. In my entire life, he has held any contest other than football, wrestling and baseball in some degree of disdain. The fact that he even knows Penn State plays basketball is unsettling, let alone expressing optimism that the roundballers are going to have a good season.

Coming off a 20-10 Outback Bowl victory over Tennesee on New Year's Day, all expectations would be that the discussion around here would center on how well the football team played and how this performance would bode well for the 2007 campaign.

But just 3 days after a big victory by the football team, my father is crowing about the Penn State basketball team.

And I'm blogging about it.

The basketball team.