Tournament letters mean little to Cornley

NEW YORK (AP) — Jamelle Cornley has a sense of history that few others do.

The undersized senior forward from Penn State realizes that the NIT isn’t the NCAA tournament, but understands that for many years the NIT decided the true national champion. The list of winners is every bit as decorated as its more visible cousin.

“Any time you are able to play for a championship, regardless of the circumstances, you really want to leave all that you have on the table,” Cornley said.

Especially when your program has never won one.

Penn State plays Baylor for the NIT title tonight, two schools with very little basketball tradition vying for one of the game’s most tradition-rich championships.

The Nittany Lions (26-11) set a school record for wins in a season with their 67-59 semifinal victory over Notre Dame at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night. They lost in the NIT title game in 1998, the closest they’ve come to winning a major postseason tournament championship.

“Our goal is to win the championship, and we are going to do everything we can to prepare our guys,” coach Ed DeChellis said.

When their name wasn’t called on Selection Sunday, DeChellis turned to Cornley and fellow senior Stanley Pringle and asked what they wanted to do.

Cornely had only one answer.

“By playing in the NIT tournament, with all the history that’s been made here, I think it’s very fun and exciting,” he said. “Hopefully we are able to come out and put on another great performance.”

They’ll have to do it against a team that has become something of a sentimental favorite.

Four years ago, the Bears (24-14) weren’t allowed to play a non-conference schedule because of the fallout from a scandal in the program.

In stepped coach Scott Drew, who had spent nine years as an assistant to his father at Valparaiso and one year as head coach when Homer Drew retired.

Now, that senior class has won a school-record 64 games with a chance to win a championship.

“When we brought in this group of seniors now, we knew that they had the character and they had the potential and the ability to be playing in Final Fours and having a chance to do these kind of things,” Drew said. “Credit them for putting in the hard work, getting better, improving, but it’s really a tight team and you need that to be successful.

“Down the stretch, every coach knows you always want to finish strong, and again, it’s been a blessing that they have been able to go out the way they have.”