Just before noon Saturday, I rolled out of bed, made my way to the television in hopes of watching the Penn State men's basketball team take on Minnesota.

I surfed through the entire Comcast lineup and couldn't find the Lions or the Golden Gophers.

Unsure whether my mind was tricking me, I checked www.gopsusports.com, which informed me the game was to air on either Fox or Fox Sports Pittsburgh. I returned to the couch and discovered the game was being preempted.

Fox Sports decided to air the "classic" Big 12 battle between the Texas A&M Lady Aggies and the Oklahoma women's team instead.

Fox, meanwhile, delivered the secrets to healthy, younger-looking skin. But Rupert Murdoch couldn't deliver a score from Minneapolis.

And the last resort for Penn State athletics, WPSU, aired Julia Child baking Norwegian crackers washed down with a nice white wine rather than the blue and white.

Station managers around State College decided that the basketball game was not important and that infomercials and cooking were better ratings-grabbers.

The basketball program couldn't even receive coverage in its home market, the ultimate face slap.

This is just another addition to the ever-growing pile of embarrassments for a team that's had its share of troubles since Big Ten play started.

The Lions' 65-60 loss to Minnesota marked a new low for Penn State.

The Gophers' season, up to that point, was worse than the Lions'. Their former head coach, Dan Monson, resigned in late November just seven games into the season.

Interim head coach Jim Molinari inherited a 2-5 team and amassed five wins over the next two months, limping to a 1-5 start to the conference season.

The Gophers couldn't score and had trouble defending. Never a good combination.

But on Saturday, Minnesota found a team even more desperate and in more trouble than itself.

Penn State jumped out to an early lead. But, predictably, the Lions lost their advantage along with their composure when the Gophers began hitting their shots.

Minnesota guard Lawrence McKenzie hit four threes.

"I have not seen a lot of open looks lately," he said after the game, according to Minnesota athletics.

And as McKenzie's shots fell, Penn State's confidence spiraled to new lows.

The team's defense was atrocious.

Penn State started the game guarding man-to-man and Minnesota scored.

They switched to a 1-3-1 zone, and Minnesota scored some more.

Finally, the Lions changed to their normal 2-3 zone, and the Gophers still found the bottom of the net.

All of this scoring, mind you, came from a team which had averaged less than 50 points per Big Ten game.

Nothing Penn State could throw at Minnesota, or any other Big Ten team besides Northwestern for that matter, has worked.

The Lions couldn't score either. After lighting up the net for 25 points during the first 10 minutes, Penn State managed just eight points the remaining 10 minutes of the half, and only 35 points over the final 30 minutes of play.

The Lions' stats were more difficult to swallow. They shot 35 percent from the field, 10 points below their season average and 37.5 percent from three.

Getting blown out by Michigan State, a legit team, is one thing. But losing to Minnesota, a bad team with a losing record, is a punch in the stomach.

The Gophers entered the game 7-13, including a 15-point home loss to lowly Northwestern, a team the Lions blew out by 26.

The Penn State team we once believed had NCAA tournament aspirations has quickly fallen apart before our eyes.

Maybe we were duped. Perhaps they were never as good as hyped and victims of theirm own publicity.

But this team can't be this bad. The team that lost to Minnesota isn't the same team that had chances to beat Georgia Tech and Seton Hall on the road.

That team was fun to watch. This new Penn State team that has gone 0-for-the past two weeks has been difficult and, at times, painful on the eyes, which may be the reason for the lack of television exposure around campus.

The game was essentially off television for 30 minutes, but Fox Sports Pittsburgh did finally pick up the game midway through the second half.

But after watching the destruction unfold, I think I would have rather have stayed with the infomercial. At least I could've learned how to look five years younger, because watching Penn State lose to Minnesota made me feel about 20 years older.