It's time for Tim Curley to face facts. The Penn State men's basketball team has hit the iceberg and is sinking fast.

We have now witnessed the seventh player to leave in two years.

More talent has walked away from the program than has been recruited to come here. That's not the way to build a strong program. In addition, you have some of the remaining players making comments like Danny Morissey's statement that, "It's tough to see us being much better next year." Given the dismal results of this season, a statement like that shows a systemic lack of confidence and indicates a program in crisis.

The Penn State men's basketball program has been in decline ever since the Parkhill era.

Jerry Dunn was an unmitigated disaster and left the program in shambles. Now, hard as it is to imagine two years later, Ed DeChellis has taken the program to a new depth.

Penn State men's basketball is rapidly approaching the point of being an embarrassment. Happy Valley has always been a tough sell to recruits, even when we were winning under Parkhill.

Now, trying to sell a talented basketball recruit on coming to central Pennsylvania to play on a really bad team in front of crowds numbering in the dozens is just not realistic.

The only way to change the direction of the program is to finally get serious about making the program a success and bring in a big-name coach.

Short of that, perhaps we should consider leaving the Big Ten and playing in the Commonwealth Campus Athletic Conference instead.

At least there, this team would have a fighting chance at a winning record.