The rest of the men's basketball schedule (i.e. the conference portion) was announced today.  Check it out on gopsusports.com.  Also, TV info for home non-conference games were included.  Some highlights:

Previously announced TV listings were the game at Virginia (Mon 11/30) as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on ESPN2 and the first round Charleston Classic game against UNC-Wilmington (Thur 11/19) on ESPNU.

Virginia Tech at home on Sat 12/12 will be on ESPN2

Gardner Webb home on Sat 12/19 will be on ESPNU

The Big Ten opener at Minnesota (Tues 12/29) will air on ESPN2

Home games versus Michigan (Thur 1/7) and Indiana (Thur 1/21) will air on ESPN2

The home game versus Michigan St (Sat 2/13) will be on ESPN

The away game at Michigan St (3/2-4) and home game versus Purdue (3/6-7) are "wild card" games that could appear on BTN or ESPN/ESPN2.  The Purdue game could possibly air on CBS as well.

That''s a lot better TV coverage than we are used to.

Penn State women's volleball, the back to back national champions are ranked #1.  See the article here from gopsusports.com.  The AVCA has ranked them #1 with them getting 52 of 60 first place votes.  Other ranked Big Ten teams are Illinois (#10), Minnesota (#11), Michigan (#16) and Purdue (#19).  Last year, the team finished 38-0 and they currently have an NCAA record 64 match winning streak. 

The team opens up the home schedule on Fri 9/4 against Buffalo, which is the weekend of the Akron football game.  They also have games that Sat.  If you are in town, check them out.

Men's volleyball won the EIVA tonight, defeating Juniata at Rec Hall and earning a berth to the NCAA final four.  They'll be joined by Ohio State and either Pepperdine or USC (champions of the MIVA and MPSF respectively) plus a fourth team selected as an at large (certainly a team from the MPSF).

Penn State is looking to repeat as NCAA champions and match the accomplishment of the women's team.  They also won the national title in 1994.

Jones column

David Jones is reporting that PSU and Virginia Tech are negotiating a home/home series in hoops, with PSU hosting the Hokies in 2009-10.  He also mentions that the suspected away game at Temple (after PSU hosting them in 2008-9) is happening.  So, right now for the 2009-10 schedule we seem to have:

Virginia Tech

at Temple

at Virginia

Charleston Classic (3 games)

We've also apparently been talking to Siena to have them play at the BJC.

Penn State has made a significant upgrade to their basketball non-conference schedule by agreeing to play in the 2007 Old Spice Classic over Thanksgiving.  It will provide 3 games against mostly decent competition on a neutral court.

There's been some legitimate griping about the weakness of out non-conference schedule this season.  If we manage to win enough games to be a bubble team, the terribleness of our non-conference games might keep us out of the tourney.

Update [2006-5-24 19:22:43 by dajafi]: Hamels will miss at least two starts, according to the Inquirer. Clay Condrey has been recalled to take his roster spot, and Ryan Madson will return to the rotation.

Apparently, the "savior" Cole Hamels has hurt his left shoulder and is out for his start against NY.  Lieber will start instead.

On a bad night, it's just gotten worse.

It'll be interesting to see what becomes of this. Hopefully, he's just got a strain and he'll be back to pitch on, say, Saturday or Sunday. If he's out, I guess it means Madson back to the rotation on the heels of his 7+ inning quality relief outing.

Richard Hidalgo signed a minor league deal with the Baltimore Orioles over the weekend.  I'm pretty disappointed, as I thought he'd be a good fit for the Phillies who could use a right-handed outfielder for the bench and pinch hitting duties, plus I thought he'd be intreesting with us playing the Venezuela team in exhibition and having Abreu and Tomas on the team from his native country.  The fact that he signed for only a minor league deal is even more frustrating.

At this point, the Phillies seem likely to break camp with 3 backup infielders, none of whom can hit, and one or two of whom will also be backing up the outfield.  It's absolutely idiotic.  And it's frustrating that all have been given guaranteed deals.

I'd actually like the see the Phillies sign Sammy Sosa who may be old and declining (for whatever reason) but can still outhit out middle infielder bench.

The Phillies have re-signed left-handed reliever Aaron Fultz to a one year, $1.2 million contract, avoiding arbitration.  For those of you who don't understand the arbitration process, the Phillies already controlled Fultz for 2006 because he's not eligible for free agency yet.  In order to keep him on the roster for 2006, they'd have had to offer arbitration by December 19 which would mean he would have had an arbitration hearing to set his contract for 2006.  This contract superceeds that process, as Fultz and the Phillies have agreed upon a mutually acceptable number for 2006 before the arbitration process even begins.

This is a good move on many fronts.

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Branden Looper signed a three year deal with the Cards.  It was well-reported that the Phillies were pursuing him strongly.  

The deal is 3 year, $13.5M.  The breakdown is $3.5 million in 2006, $4.5 million in 2007 and $5.5 million in 2008 with performance incentives.  At that price, I don't think I'd have wanted the Phillies to sign him.  It's pretty hefty for a reliever coming off a bad year and I don't like more than 2 years for any reliever.

Year after year, I'm shocked at how much money is spent at bullpen pitchers, whose performance is often wildly fluctuating.  It's a poor allocation of resources and I hope Gillick continues to get cheap, decent upside guys like Santana and Booker.

With the recent announcement of some significant details for the World Baseball Classic and the greater international flavor of baseball, I'm often struck by what the Phillies could do to increase their presence in foreign markets.  Certain teams have made it a point to "recruit" heavily in other countries - the Mariners and Yankees in Japan, the Dodgers in Mexico and the Far East, the Rangers in Puerto Rico - which makes it easier to sign players from those countries.

The Phillies are potentially poised to use this environment to become a dominant force in Venezuela.  This baseball-crazy country is steadily becoming a pipeline of talent.  The 2004 Cy Young Award of Johan Santana brought the country some prominence in the international world.  But, more importantly, in the first truly international "competition" sponsored by MLB, The Phillies own Bobby Abreu won the 2005 Home Run Derby at the All Star Game.  This was notable as it was set up in a "best of each country" format and Abreu's record setting performance brought out an outpouring of support from his countrymen.  For years now, Bobby Abreu has been regarded as the most popular and recognized player in Venezuela, taking over that role as Andres Galarraga declined late in his career.

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