That’s a basketball score folks, men’s basketball, even. G Talor Battle stunk up Conseco Fieldhouse for the second consecutive night, but he scored enough, including a late trey and a critical 1st foul shot in 1 and 1 to get Penn State to the insurmountable 36th point. In the process of scoring about 9 points on the night, Battle passed Jesse Arnelle as the all-times points leader for Penn State basketball. Battle still has a long way to go before he catches Arnelle in years served on the Board of Trustees though.

Penn State started 14-0, then 16-2 before letting Wisconsin back in it. It was 20-18 at one point and I think the Badgers actually got ahead 22-20 early in the second half. I was not the greatest tribute to basketball one will ever see. I think most of my games in 4th grade (go BULLETS!) were higher scoring. By the way, Jay Paterno is mighty defensive about this win on Twitter.

I don’t know that a 36-33 win is exactly the stuff the NCAA Tournament selection committee looks for in picking bubble teams. Penn State and Battle better play a lot better at 4:15 p.m. (CBS) against Michigan State if they want to go somewhere other than the NIT.

UPDATE: Nittany Lions time travel again to peach basket days, beat Badgers 36-33 in Big Ten tournament

It doesn’t look like they are in the tourney yet based on what I am seeing on colleerpi.com and ESPN Bracketology. They need to beat Sparty today — I don’t know if that will be enough. Win today and tomorrow and it is all a moot point because they’d get the automatic bid. They ought not get ahead of themselves though.

The Nittany Lions split with the Spartans this year and have done okay against them over the years.