Blue White Illustrated

NEWSLETTER SCHEDULE Throughout the football off-sea- son, BWI will produce periodic newsletters focused on men's and women's basketball, wrestling, re- cruiting and spring football. What follows is a list of BWI's upcoming newsletters. The dates are approxi- mate, and additional newsletters may be added to the schedule. Pub- lication of off-season newsletters will continue through April. In-sea- son newsletters will resume in Au- gust 2014. MARCH 19 Postseason tournaments APRIL 9 Blue-White Game preview APRIL 12 Blue-White Game wrap More BWI newsletters coming in off-season For subscription information, or to update your email address in our records or learn your subscriber number, contact Blue White Illustrated from 9 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday at 1-800-282-1629, or email our office manager, Christine McLellan, at cmclellan@bluewhiteonline.com. T he 2013 football season is over, but Blue White Illustrated will continue to produce newsletters updating subcribers on the latest happenings in Penn State sports. The email notification you receive in your inbox will include a box on the upper left containing the username and password you will need in order to access the content on bluewhiteon- line.com. Your username is your sub- scription number, while your password is your last name in lowercase letters. Your username and password can also be found on the address label of your mailed publication. (When entering the username at bluewhiteillustrated.com, do not type in the "BW" prefix on the mailing label, just the numerals.) For subscribers who have provided us with their email address, a link will be delivered to your inbox. One click and you're in. For those who would rather not share their personal email address, bluewhiteonline.com will be the home of your newsletters. Simply provide your last name and subscrip- tion number to access the latest con- tent. (Depending on the browser you use, you may need to type in a differ- ent address – digital.bluewhiteon- line.com – to access the newsletters.) If you are not receiving the email newsletter notifications, please contact our office at 1-800-282- 1629 to ensure that we have your preferred email address in our data- base. The email notification is the easiest way to access the content on bluewhiteonline.com. BWI does not share subscribers' contact in- formation with advertisers or other outside parties. As Internet usage has surged, the speed and reliability of the U.S. Postal Service has declined. We have been told by the post office that BWI sub- scribers can no longer be assured of receiving our game previews in their mailbox before the game is played. That is unacceptable. BWI readers want and deserve to have the news de- livered to them in a timely fashion. Our new format allows us to do just that. N O T I C E T O S U B S C R I B E R S Accessing BWI's newsletters is easy. Have the link delivered to your email inbox... ...or type in the username and password, found on your mailing label, at bluewhiteonline.com USERNAME PASSWORD (use lowercase) The preseason narrative was that last year's team was built to win championships – the Lady Lions claimed the Big Ten reg- ular-season title outright before falling in the second round of the NCAA tournament to LSU – while this year's team was in an awkward kind of limbo – blessed with an All-America-caliber scorer in Lucas, but unproven at the other starting positions and devoid of experienced backups. But Taylor, East and Edwards embraced their roles, and all three surpassed their career scoring and rebounding averages. The 6-foot-3 East 6nished as the team's leading rebounder at 7.5 boards per game during the regular-season and won sec- ond-team All-Conference honors. Edwards posed severe matchup problems for nearly every team Penn State faced. The 6-3 guard averaged 14.9 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, ba9ing one opponent a:er another. Northwestern coach Joe McKeown called her "probably the most underrated player in the Big Ten," and while that's no longer technically true now that she's been named 6rst-team All-Conference, her transition from role-player to part-time starter to one of the league's most indispensible players has impressed those who have fol- lowed her career closely. One of those people is second-year Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico, who used to coach at St. John's, not far from Edwards' hometown of Elmont, N.Y. "She's really expanded her game from when I was watching her play in high school," Barnes Arico said a:er Edwards ripped the Wolverines for 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting in the teams' regular-season 6- nale. "I've watched her grow up, and she has really developed into an inside-outside presence. She is such a mismatch for teams because she is so much bigger than your average guard. Ariel can take you inside, but she can also knock down the 3 con- sistently, as well. She's a tough matchup for anyone." The chemistry between Penn State's seniors didn't arise out of nowhere. Lucas and East both grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs and had bonded years earlier, a:er meeting during their o8cial visit to Penn State. "I remember thinking that she was the kind of person I wanted to be around," East said. "She's so exited when she plays. I liked her attitude. I'm great and I'm not gonna let anyone punk me. That's rare. I like people who have a little attitude to them, and she de6nitely does have that." East attended the Friends' Central School, which was only about three miles from Lucas's hometown of Narberth, Pa. During their senior year, they would get together at the Friends' School to practice against a couple of guys from the boys' basketball team. They had also played on competing AAU teams, Lucas for the Philly Belles, East for Philly Triple Threat. Edwards played for the Belles, too, and so did Taylor, a Wilmington, Del., native. Taylor began her college career at Maryland, but she ended up leaving the Terrapins a:er two seasons and transferred to Penn State in 2011. Their camaraderie made the tran- sition from high school to college a bit easier. Said Lucas, "It helped having that familiarity with a few girls on the team and having each others' backs right away." Their work together reached a crescendo on March 1, when Penn State defeated Michigan, 77-62, to clinch its share of the Big Ten regular-season title. It was what Senior Day would always be in a perfect world. The team's scoring leaders were the four senior honorees, who combined to pour in 65 of those 77 points and grab 18 of Penn State's 31 rebounds. Lucas, who 6nished with 17 points and four as- sists, commandeered one of the Blue Band's drums and began pounding on it furiously, as confetti 7ew and ladders were moved into place for the ceremonial net-cutting. Later, players took turns with the scissors, and the four seniors posed for countless photos – photos with their younger teammates, with each other, with the championship trophy and with random fans who approached them on the court. Said Lucas, still beaming during the postgame presser, "I'm so proud to be a Lady Lion today." The challenge now is to keep their careers going for as long as possible. Washington has lauded her team's progress, saying that "over the course of the season, our trajectory has been upward." But Penn State has not enjoyed an abundance of postseason success in recent years, having reached the Sweet 16 only once in the current seniors' time on campus, and recent losses to Nebraska and Ohio State raise concerns. The Lady Lions simply couldn't stop either opponent. The Cornhuskers hit 16 of 22 3-point at- tempts in a 94-74 romp in Lincoln on Feb. 24, and then came the loss to the Buckeyes on March 7 at Big Tens, which was even more frustrating. Ohio State hit 10 of 18 3s and scored a tournament-record 58 points in the 6rst half to decide the game well before intermission. But hopes are always high on the eve of March Madness, and this year is no ex- ception. A:er opening at LSU both of the past two seasons, the Lady Lions are thrilled to start at the BJC this time. They've gone an impressive 12-4 there this year, with half of those losses coming against the top two teams in the country: Connecticut and Notre Dame. Soon enough, the seniors who spearheaded that performance are going to scatter. That's what senior classes do. For now, though, there's no place like home. ■

• Cover