Villanova to Play Penn in Jake Nevin Field House

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Chris Jastrzembski - September 1, 2017

Photo credit: Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports

Villanova will play at least one game on campus this season. Except it won’t be at Finneran Pavilion.

The Wildcats announced this morning they’ll play Penn at Jake Nevin Field House on November 29. Originally known as the Villanova Field House, the Wildcats last played at the venue back in January, 1986 against Marist, before moving to the Pavilion.

Most of Nova’s games will be played at the Wells Fargo Center this year, as the Pavilion undergoes a huge $60 million renovation. That includes the addition of VIP box clubs, seating renovations, and what the school called a “recruiting room.”

See the designs for the new Finneran Pavilion.

Additional details also now available at https://t.co/HHTwHT0uuI pic.twitter.com/2MYqKvUzFi

— Villanova University (@VillanovaU) March 9, 2017

The Field House currently is home for the women’s volleyball team and recently underwent its own renovation back in 2012.

The place seats 1,500 people in the upper level, which is about 5,000 less than what the Pavilion has (the reno is, frustratingly, not adding any seats). My guess is they’ll add some seats (in the Field House) to up the attendance.

Penn State did something like this two years ago when they played Canisius and UL-Monroe at Rec Hall, which was their home before the Bryce Jordan Center was built. It’s a great move by Nova to have at least one game at their old barn rather than make people commute down to the Wells Fargo Center for every home game.

It’s even better that it’s a Big 5 game, but I’m for having every Big 5 game at the Palestra. But that’ll probably never happen again.

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Penn Women’s Lacrosse Team in Trouble After Allegedly Flashing Genitals and Doing Other Awesome I Mean Deplorable Things at Fado

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Kyle Scott - April 1, 2014

Ummmm… yeah, I’d like to party with Penn’s women’s lacrosse team.

Fado general manager Casey Neff emailed University of Pennsylvania administrators and the university’s paper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, after the women’s lacrosse team did some serious damage to his bar on Saturday night:

The event was a pre-planned party hosted by the Penn women’s lacrosse team scheduled from 9-11 p.m., Neff said, although he added that the group stayed much later.

In the email, the bar owner complained that the team members intentionally broke facilities such as a light fixture which caused a “broken glass hazard.” The students also allegedly stole a bottle of liquor from the bar and attempted to steal a six-pack of beer. Neff claimed that the lacrosse players also smoked marijuana in the bathroom and exposed a young woman’s genitals to the “adulation of the rest of the party.” They also allegedly tipped less than 4 percent on the $1,300 tab.

“We want people to have fun. We are happy that people come out,” Neff said. “But that was well above and beyond [the standard] of normal behavior.

“They broke the light fixture, and they literally cheered about it — ‘yeah!’ — are you kidding?”

Few thoughts here:

1) Smashing glass and drinking was a college habit of mine. We had a “keg room” my sophomore year and by about this point in the spring semester, we took turns hurling beer bottles at the rim of kicked kegs to achieve maximum shatter. There’s a certain release that comes with smashing glass. So I get it, girls. I get it!

2) Leave it to Penn students to spend over $1,000 of their parents money at a bar and leave virtually no tip.

3) …exposed a young woman’s genitals to the “adulation of the rest of the party.” Unnecessary use of adulation. Also: WHY AM I NEVER AT THE BAR WHEN THIS HAPPENS?

There’s more:

Neff said that the team members’ behavior represented “patterns of behavior with [Penn] groups over several years.” Student groups affiliated with Wharton have already been banned from making reservations at Fado, due to incidents such as students using cocaine in the bathrooms, having sex in the janitor’s closet and urinating on the bar.

The most recent incident forced the pub’s managers to hold a meeting on Monday to discuss their future policy on taking reservations from Penn groups.

I’m telling you– Ivy League students and alumni are the craziest people to hang out with. Their brains run at such maximum capacity most of the day that they have no other choice but to shut it off a few nights a week and do completely ridiculous things. I’d be more scared (excited?) about hanging out with Penn students after finals than I would be wearing an Eagles jersey to a road game in Oakland. Just total unpredictability from the Ivy Leaguers.

via The Big Lead

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Ex-Penn Basketball Star Killed by His Wife for Watching Porno

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Kyle Scott - February 12, 2013

From Philly.com:

According to the records, Garcia-Pellon went in the kitchen in the couple's home on the 800 block of Parkridge Drive, sometime around midnight. There, she retrieved a glass of water and two knives.

She returned to the bedroom and slipped the knives under her side of the bed. She took one of the knives out as her husband was asleep.

She stabbed him in the neck, the records allege.

Garcia-Pellon then changed her clothes and left the house. She went to the home of a friend and told her White had allegedly been viewing pornography on a computer and she killed him, the records state.

The friend called 911.

"I caught him looking at pornography, young girls, I love kids," Garcia-Pellon told investigators. "I had to do it."

…

White was starting center in 1979 when Penn made it to the Final Four of the NCAA basketball championship.

White played for the varsity team from 1976 to 1979. He holds the school record for field goal percentage among players with a minimum of 250 made field goals.

Wait. She killed her husband for watching porn? [rolls over, goes willingly] Two things:

1) Um, can you blame him?

2) How young were the girls? Like, was it one of those barely legal, they are totally 18 just trust us this is their first time despite that gaping vacancy pornos, where the girls are ostensibly of age and there are all sorts of disclaimers and shit and was Jordan Capri in it because that chick is totally 30 and has been doing this for years? Or was this real, honest-to-goodness kiddie porn? Because it makes a difference.

Still, knifing your husband is a bit much. Perhaps call 911. Or get a divorce. Or out him to a certain local sports blog that will blog about things barely related to current local sports. I think there’s a happy medium there. Nope– just killed him. There’s always weird shit going on with UPenn folks. Too smart for their own good. Should have gone to Villanova… where the basketball arena was named after a murderer. Never mind.

Screen grabs via 6 ABC

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Scott Paterno is Devastated About Losing Twinkies in His Life

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Kyle Scott - November 16, 2012

We haven’t heard from big Scott Paterno in a little while – perhaps because he’s been stocking up for the long winter… perhaps because he’s been defending his father’s good name against a smear campaign launched by a committee of valley gnomes who’ve removed Joe’s name from their Tree of Honor – but we shouldn’t be surprised that, today, Scott Pa resurfaced to weigh in on our national tragedy, Hostess closing its doors:

OH MY GOD HOW IS SCOTT PATERNO GOING TO LIVE WITHOUT TWINKIES?!

I thought about checking out what the responses were to Scott, by clicking on his Tweet, but then I learned that he blocked me on Twitter. Victory, it’s mine.

H/T to (@VometCometCapt)

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Boston College Women’s Soccer Player Suspended Over Penn State Tweets

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Kyle Scott - November 16, 2012

Thanks to our friends at Onward State for dutifully chronicling the Tweets of a Boston College women’s soccer player who doesn’t mind showing off her DSLs through avatar.

Stephanie McCaffrey – whose Twitter bio was (account since deleted) “Just off the binky, time to get kinky” – tweeted a few things about her team’s upcoming match at Penn State. Go:

She was suspended for the game and has since deleted her account. The BC AD released this statement: “The student-athlete used very poor judgment and exhibited insensitivity towards Penn State for which she apologizes. This type of behavior is not tolerated among our student-athletes.”

Yeah, the comments were insensitive, and not particularly funny, but eh, she was ripping Sandusky for his rapist ways, not condoning his actions. Poor choice, but we’ll let her live.

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Penn State Products Briefly Disappeared from the NCAA Website Today (and why the explanation is likely bullshit)

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Kyle Scott - November 13, 2012

This morning, Zoo With Roy, who for some reason was shopping the official NCAA site, which is run by Fanatics Inc. (an offshoot of King of Prussia based GSI Commerce, which was sold to eBay last year), discovered that Penn State gear was not available for sale. Here, look:

582 NCAA teams are said to be available in the store. But, for a short time this morning, no Penn State (they’re back now).

So, was that intentional?

Centre County Report, Penn State’s student run TV station, wrote the following, on Facebook:

The NCAA's merchandising website has stopped sales of Penn State apparel and merchandise. Comments posted on Twitter today made note of the change, and a call from the Centre County Report to the website's customer service center confirmed the change.

A representative told us they received an email from the NCAA today that said the organization decided to take Penn State items off the site, but gave no reason. A search for "Penn State" on the site results in this message: “Oops. We couldn't find the page you requested and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”

A spokesperson for Fanatics told Philly.com something much different, that it was a “technical glitch" (the same message later appeared on the website). But that’s a suspect explanation, at best. Having worked for the company when it was GSI and knowing a bit about how the back end works, it would be pretty difficult for an entire category to disappear due to a technical glitch. Fanatics runs other stores besides the NCAA Shop – like Football Fanatics and the NFL Shop (and MLB, NBA and NHL) – and Penn State gear was still available on those sites. Generally speaking, products are listed under sport and team categories on the back end and pushed out to all relevant sites. I can’t say for sure that’s the case here, but it certainly worked that way three years ago, when I handled this kind of stuff at GSI. It’s the reason why the following two product listings are identical. One is from the NCAA Shop, the other from Football Fanatics:

Can’t see the line, can you, Russ?

So, for a technical glitch to remove Penn State and only Penn State, it likely would have removed them from all stores, which wasn’t the case. It is possible, however, that someone unchecked a box, effectively removing an entire category from a single store… but that would have been awfully coincidental.

Whatever the case, the products are back up, the world is saved, and you can now purchase your Blue and White gear.

UPDATE: A customer service rep told Onward State the following: “an intentional decision made by the NCAA. The NCAA pulled merchandise off its site and we will no longer carry Penn State merchandise.”

More: [The Big Lead] [Philly.com] [Deadspin]

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This “Mini Movie” Says Joe Paterno was Framed, Blames Media

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Kyle Scott - November 9, 2012

This Joe Paterno video is making the rounds, especially among Penn Staters. Its premise? Paterno is a saint and could never do wrong Joe Paterno, and to an extent other Penn State administrators, were made scapegoats in the Jerry Sandusky saga because it was convenient for the school and perhaps people as high up as Governor Tom Corbett. It also focuses on the media coverage of Paterno, rather than Sandusky himself.

Most of you already have your mind made up, and I do too. But, there are still many who believe that Paterno, somehow, was completely unaware of what his right-hand man was going right under his nose. The truth? It’s probably somewhere in the middle. You can judge for yourself, though. Or just laugh at Franco Harris.

Watch the video after the jump.

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Graham Spanier SLAMS Governor Tom Corbett

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Kyle Scott - November 1, 2012

Earlier today, as you’ve probably heard, ex-Penn State president Graham Spanier was charged with crimes relating to the cover-up surrounding Jerry Sandusky. Among the charges were three felonies– perjury, endangering the welfare of children, and conspiracy. Not good for a once respected university president and published family psychologist.

[Charges were also added for Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, the latter of which apparently kept a “Sandusky” file detailing child incidents and was billed for 2.9 hours of work by Penn State’s law firm the Sunday after hearing about what Mike McQueary saw in the showers.]

A few months back, Spanier ripped the Freeh report and it’s findings. Now he’s going after Governor Tom Corbett and state attorney general Linda Kelly. Like, really going after. This is the statement released by Spanier’s lawyers today. Buckle up: [NBC Philadelphia]

Today’s Presentment is the latest desperate act by Governor Tom Corbett to cover up and divert attention away from the fact that he failed to warn the Penn State community about the suspicions surrounding Jerry Sandusky, and instead knowingly allowed a child predator to roam free in Pennsylvania. Its timing speaks volumes. These charges are the work of a vindictive and politically motivated Governor working through an un-elected attorney general, Linda Kelly, whom he appointed to do his bidding and who will be a lame duck five days from now.

There is no factual basis to support these charges, which may explain why the Attorney General and her staff have steadfastly refused – for a full year – to meet with Dr. Spanier or his lawyers to discuss this matter despite repeated attempts to do so, or to accept Dr. Spanier’s offer to appear before the grand jury again to clarify any misconceptions.

From late 2008 through November of 2011, as Pennsylvania’s Attorney General, Tom Corbett clearly knew about the allegations against Jerry Sandusky and yet failed to act. And this failure allowed Sandusky to continue to harm children for nearly three years after he could have and should have been warned, stopped or indicted. The Governor’s legally indefensible explanations, repeated by Attorney General Kelly at her news conference today – that he couldn’t expose Sandusky for fear of compromising an ongoing grand jury investigation or that he needed more evidence – are patently absurd.

And so, on the one hand, Corbett had access to detailed allegations about Sandusky’s child abuse and, as the chief law enforcement officer for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, allowed it to continue. On the other, Dr. Spanier was not privy to any details about a 1998 investigation that actually exonerated Sandusky and then, in 2001, was told only about an incident characterized as “horseplay.”

Governor Corbett has made no secret of his personal hostility toward Dr. Spanier, as many witnesses will attest. He is now manipulating public officials and resources to settle a personal score.

Linda Kelly’s willingness to continue this farce, on behalf of the politically motivated Governor who appointed her, apparently knows no bounds. She has already been put on notice by both candidates for Attorney General, one of whom will replace her, that they intend to review her investigation thoroughly. For her to deny, as she did a few minutes ago, that politics played no role in these charges being made five days before an election, is patently false.

Graham Spanier has committed no crime and looks forward to the opportunity to clear his good name and well-earned national reputation for integrity. This Presentment is a politically motivated frame-up of an innocent man. And if these charges ever come to trial, we will prove it.

The people of this Commonwealth, and the next Attorney General, should be outraged by this blatantly political, transparently vindictive, last-minute act of cowardice and desperation.

Shit. That’s not just the standard my client is innocent and being set up response. That’s Spanier, through his lawyers, attacking a sitting governor for not only endangering the welfare of children, but also for playing politics with the legal system.

This could all be the actions of a desperate man (Spanier), or, some serious truth being spit by a guy with a top-secret government clearance.

Once thing is clear, however: Somewhere, Greg Bucceroni is applauding.

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