Marisa's father, Rudy, played for the 1954 team that made it to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament.
"We're a team that many people believed had achieved something that was well over our heads," he said. "What we had was a bunch of guys who played hard and stuck to the fundamentals that our coaches taught us. Outside of Jessie Arnelle, who in those days could be compared to a Greek God, we just worked hard and loved playing the game of basketball."
For the last 47 years Penn State basketball could be classified as mediocre.
Back in 1954, the Lions were lead by captains Jack Sherry and the All-American Arnelle. Penn State was considered to be an average team in the NIT, but with wins against Toledo and upsets against Louisiana State and Notre Dame in the course of two evenings, it turned State College into a basketball town for the first time in its history.
"It was probably our finest hour," Arnelle recalled. "We were a basketball team in a football town and for the first time, people were excited about us. There were parades and people cheering. It was something that when you look back on, you'll never forget."
Much like Penn State football is viewed today, this season's basketball team has experienced the similarities of the 1954 squad.
"Football has always drawn people up there and it was the same way back then," Arnelle said. "When people saw us beat Louisiana State and then upset Notre Dame the following day, people then became interested in us and wanted to know what we were all about."
Arnelle, who was elected vice president of his junior class shortly after the team's win against Notre Dame, has stayed a part of the university for sometime now and has been on the Board of Trustees for a number of years.
Unlike Arnelle, who has left the basketball spectrum, Marisa has stayed very much involved with the sport. He has been the head basketball coach for Waynesburg College for several years now, and has always stayed in touch with the game both as a coach and as a father.
Some of the ways he approaches certain things were based on what he learned here as a player under former Nittany Lion head coach Elmer Gross and assistant coach John Egli.
"What Elmer Gross and John Elgi taught us was fundamentals," Marisa said. "They taught us the basic essentials of playing the game. They both paid close attention to detail."
Despite having four sons, his daughter Autumn is the only one to follow in her dad's footsteps back to Penn State.
"Every time my dad comes up he always wants to go to Rec Hall and see the pictures of him and his teammates," Autumn said. "Rec Hall is a very special place for him."
The similarities between these two teams run dangerously close together. Both teams were not expected to get as far as they did. Neither team had received as much attention as they had prior to their success.
"The only time it gets this exciting is during football season," fifth-year senior guard Titus Ivory said.
Although the game has changed over the course of 47 years, Arnelle and Marisa both agree that the love for basketball has not.
"The game has gotten better over time," Arnelle said. "But you expect that. The kids today are bigger, faster and more agile than they were when Rudy and I played. But at the same time the emotion of the game that we all share is still there."
When asked how the 1954 team would match up against this year's team, both gave the nod to this year's squad.
"They are a lot faster than we were," Marisa said. "Like I said, we were a fundamentally sound team and with not too many stars. These guys have great players like Joe Crispin and Gyasi Cline-Heard who have terrific work ethics that comes from good coaching. I think they would win."
The debate over which team would win a fictional game is not important, but these two storied teams now share a common place in Penn State history.
