Garner has PSU on mark for crown
Maybe even Flavor Flav would admit, do believe the hype.
Shep Garner has brought the noise as Penn State’s career 3-point leader, a mark he set when the Nittany Lions routed Mississippi State Tuesday night in the National Invitation Tournament semifinals in New York.
Penn State fans at Madison Garden Garden — which included football coach James Franklin — chanted Garner’s name as he moved closer to the record. He hit six to reach 334 in his career and top Pete Lisicky’s 332.
Garner, a 6-foot-2 senior guard, might put that record out of reach for a few more years with another big game in the NIT championship Thursday night when the fourth-seeded Nittany Lions (25-13) play No. 2 Utah (23-11) for the title on Thursday night.
“I’m going to play big in the Garden,” Garner said.
No word yet if Garner’s cousin — Public Enemy rapper Flavor Flav — will be in the house. But Garner doesn’t need to check Flav’s signature oversized clock to know it’s time to win a title.
“We were a little disappointed not to make the [NCAA] tournament, but we made another goal,” Garner said. “We saw we were in the NIT and our goal was to get to New York and win it. That’s what everyone wants to do. We put ourselves in a good position to do so.”
The Nittany Lions advanced to the NIT championship for the third time in program history and first time since winning the 2009 title. Coach Pat Chambers, a former assistant coach under Jay Wright at Villanova, took over in 2011 and has struggled to find any kind of regular success. The Nittany Lions have never made the NCAA tournament under Chambers and they will have just their second winning recordin seven seasons.
But Penn State’s 25 wins are tied for second-highest in program history with the 1989-90 team (25-9). The Nittany Lions won a record 27 games in 2008-09. They’ve won 90 games over the past five seasons, the most by the program during a five-year span since starting Big Ten Conference play in 1992-93.
“This has got to be a springboard for us,” Chambers said.
Thursday
Game: Penn State (25-13) vs. Utah (23-11), NIT championship, Madison Square Garden, New York. When: 7 p.m. TV: ESPN.