I threw this poll up on Twitter Sunday evening and the results here are somewhat surprising to me:

42.8% pulling for Penn State, 29.5% not pulling for PSU, and 27.7% don’t care one way or another. I thought the responses to “yes” would be a lot lower.

I ran the poll because the City 6 got blanked this year. No local teams in the men’s tournament. Villanova is a four seed on the women’s side, but the only “regional” teams on the men’s side are the Nittany Lions and Princeton as well.

Princeton doesn’t count as a Philly team and never well. Anything north of Trenton is no-man’s land, and they’re a Penn rival and not very big to begin with. They do get the occasional local kid, and this year have a St. Joe’s Prep and La Salle CHS alum on the roster, but outside of those local connections, they’re not gonna get coverage here or in Philly in general.

Penn State basketball is a little weird, because the baked-in hate for the program just doesn’t seem to be there. That’s my observation. I think a lot of people who abhor Penn State football probably don’t carry the same disdain for the basketball team, because PSU basketball historically has not been very good. It would be like having a burning hatred for the Arizona Coyotes. How do you hate a team that typically stinks?

PSU has some good local angles though. Starting guard Seth Lundy is a Paulsboro kid who went to Roman Catholic. Andrew Funk is a Bucknell transfer from Bucks County who went to Archbishop Wood. Camren Wynter played at Drexel before going to Happy Valley. There’s also a pair of freshmen who don’t play much but both hail from Philadelphia.

Maryland has a couple of Philly kids as well, so there’s another local angle if you want.

The thing about the NCAA Tournament is that it’s one of the easiest sporting events to watch without a rooting interest. You sit there and watch game after game and just absorb it all. You follow the Cinderella run and/or just enjoy close games. You don’t necessarily have to have a team, but since Philly got blanked on the men’s side this year, Penn State honestly isn’t a bad follow. For real.