Penn State

Bruce Arians, head football coach at Temple, is ambitious but realistic. That means he knows what loyal Owls fans may find hard to accept - Temple will never be the Penn State of Philadelphia. Never, Arians says flatly. "Penn State and Temple are two different teams in two different cities," he explained. "It just won't happen. " That is the bad news. The good news, at least on the surface, looks like more bad news: Arians does not want Temple to be another Penn State - except when it comes to the win-loss column.

Two free throws by DeRon Hayes gave Penn State the lead for good, and the Nittany Lions held Rutgers to four points in the final 6:37 to defeat the Scarlet Knights, 58-55, last night in Piscataway, N.J., and advance to the semifinals of the National Invitation Tournament. Penn State (24-8) closed the game with a 10-4 spurt after Earl Duncan's 18- foot jumper gave Rutgers (18-17) a 51-48 lead. The game ended as a three-point shot by Rutgers' Mike Jones bounced off the backboard, never coming close to going in. Vanderbilt 88, New Orleans 65 - Vanderbilt's Eric Reid scored 18 points as Vanderbilt stopped New Orleans in Nashville to advance to the semifinal round at New York's Madison Square Garden.

The decision came down to Jonathan Jackson's open mind. Namely, could he keep one? Jackson, a 6-foot-1, 180-pound senior defensive back and wide receiver for West Catholic, had been recruited by several Division I schools over the last year. Syracuse, Wisconsin and Minnesota had been in hot pursuit. So had Iowa, Michigan State, Boston College, Pittsburgh, and others. Every one offered him a scholarship. Penn State? The Nittany Lions seemed out of the picture a long time ago. So how - and why - did Jackson announce yesterday that he will play for the Nittany Lions and not those others schools?

TIM FRAZIER HIT a floater in the lane with 8 seconds left and Jermaine Marshall blocked Sam Maniscalco's layup at the buzzer to give Penn State a 54-52 upset of No. 22 Illinois last night. Frazier finished with 12 points and nine assists for the Nittany Lions (10-10, 2-5 Big Ten), who ended a three-game losing skid. Off a timeout, Frazier drove at the top of the key before Jon Graham's pick freed him from hounding defender Brandon Paul. The Illini (15-4, 4-2) lost for the first time since re-entering the AP Top 25 this week.

Penn State coach Joe Paterno will have to dig even deeper into his depth chart in order to patch up his ravaged defense for Saturday's regular-season finale against Michigan State at Beaver Stadium. Paterno announced that two more defensive backs - free safety Kim Herring and strong safety Cliff Dingle - had surgery yesterday on their injured knees. Neither will be available for the Big Ten Conference game against the Spartans (5-5), as well as the matchup with Oregon in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 2. It was a big blow for the secondary, which had already been weakened by the loss of strong safety Clint Holes and nickel back Mark Tate.

Forty-two black students graduated from Wissahickon High School in June. Seventeen enrolled in four-year colleges, but not one chose Penn State. "It never really crossed my mind to go there," said Amy Wilson, one of the graduates. She chose Spelman College, a black women's college in Atlanta. This fall, her black classmates will be attending Temple University, Bloomsburg State University, Hampton University in Virginia, Morehouse College in Atlanta, Morgan State University in Baltimore and LaSalle University.

Throughout the career of point guard Suzie McConnell, Penn State had made a habit of surprising the glamour teams on its schedule. However, there was no surprise for the Nittany Lions against Auburn yesterday, and as a result McConnell has made her last appearance in a Penn State uniform. Auburn (29-2) played the role of The Terminator powerfully and effectively, as the Tigers crushed Penn State, 94-66, in a second-round NCAA tournament game in the Mideast Regional. Auburn will meet Southeastern Conference rival Georgia on Thursday in Athens, Ga., in a regional semifinal.

The conference has changed, the team has changed, the style has changed, but the results stay the same for Penn State, which beat Notre Dame, 87-66, last night at Rec Hall. "They're deeper and more balanced," Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said last night of the seventh-ranked Lions (11-1). "They don't have a go-to player as they did last year, but now they have five go-to players. " Missy Masley scored a career-high 19 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for Penn State, which has moved to the Big Ten Conference this season and has replaced four graduated starters.

If you are a Penn State fan today, you might wonder just exactly what happened to your team. Wonder why the offense hasn't been able to recognize and react to a blitz all season. Wonder why coach Joe Paterno still seems to be playing not to lose even when the major goal was lost weeks ago. Wonder why so many little things that turn into big things keep happening. Not to wonder. It's just that kind of season. And don't wonder about Northwestern either. There are a million ways to rationalize the Epiphany of Evanston and even a few to explain it. But if you love college football and hated its ultimate predictability, just enjoy Northwestern.

Once upon a time, Penn State's football team was 5-0, ranked No. 5 in the country and a three-point favorite heading into an Oct. 10 home game against unbeaten Miami, the defending national champion. That seems like eons ago. Ever since the Nittany Lions lost that very winnable game by three points, they have looked like anything but a national title contender. Yesterday, a listless pride of Lions went belly-up against No. 13 Stanford, 24-3, in the third annual Blockbuster Bowl at Joe Robbie Stadium to close out an embarrassing 7-5 season that would have seemed unthinkable some three months back.