It was just announced today that Joonas Suotamo will forgo his senior season to return home to Finland.

Suotamo will graduate in December with a degree in Film and Video, and must serve a compulsory tour in the Finnish military.

"I think this is the best thing for me to do right now looking ahead to my future," Suotamo said in a press release. "It certainly is not an emotional choice at all, but a calculation on how best to pursue my future interests. I'll never forget how great of a place Penn State is and I had a great experience playing for Coach DeChellis. I'm looking forward to be able to come back someday and make a presentation to young, up and coming Penn State film students."

I didn't speak with Joonas very much last year and don't know him very well, but he was a pretty friendly guy. I will always remember him most for dressing up as Ivan Drago from Rocky at last year's Dinner and Dunks event. Joonas really enjoyed the fans, and clearly had a good time with the costume.

While Suotamo's scholarship was going to be open next year anyway, his departure reminds me of how interesting this recruiting season will be for coach Ed DeChellis. Suotamo, Jamelle Cornley, Danny Morrissey and Stanley Pringle will all have scholarships come off the books at the end of the season, and that's in addition to Nikola Obradovic leaving after last year.

My math may be wrong, but that would leave Penn State with five open scholarships next year. If DeChellis and his staff can recruit well this season (and its undeniable that they have made progress recruiting-wise) the program would be pretty well stocked with a wide-range of talent that could ensure the type of long-term success Lions' fans have been hoping for.

-Steve

Apparently the Penn State-William and Mary tussle on Nov. 14 won't do for ESPN, but it will be the first basketball game of the year televised by the Big Ten Network.

The Dec. 10 home game against Army and the Dec. 21 home game against Lafayette, however will both be on ESPNU. The Dec. 3 ACC/Big Ten Challenge matchup at Georgia Tech will also be on ESPN2, but those three games are the only non-conference games ESPN has picked up. Hopefully every Nittany Lion die-hard has gotten the Big Ten Network by now, because the Lions are going to frequent the network again, with at least 20 games currently scheduled to be carried by the BTN.

I have to say, I don't understand why ESPN would ignore the William and Mary matchup, but televise a game against Army. While PSU and Bill and Mary certainly aren't big names nationally, they are two teams that could surprise this year.

As has been mentioned in this blog, the Tribe made a Cinderella run to the CAA finals last year, and I don't think I need to mention the progress the young Lions made toward the end of last season. Both teams return the bulk of their squads from a year ago, and both will have high hopes on Nov. 14.

So at the risk of sounding like a homer, label me excited for Penn State's opener against the Tribe. While it doesn't surprise me that ESPN could be so cruel as to ignore this game, (sorry for the Steely Dan references, I can't help myself) this matchup will be worth watching.

-Steve

Well, the TV schedules have been released along with the conference schedule, and Penn State will again be hard to find unless you have the Big Ten Network.

ESPN2 -- per its usual routine -- will televise the Penn State - Northwesterm game on Dec. 31. While it may seem puzzling that the worldwide leader televises a game between two perennial conference whipping boys every year, it's actually a double-whammy for the network because every Big Ten team must televised at least twice during the season. This way ESPN knocks out one game for both teams in one night.

As far as the rest of the schedule goes, all other games will be on the Big Ten Network except for the Feb. 24 game at Ohio State.

The home finale March 3 against Illinois could still get picked up by ESPN, the way the Indiana game was last year.

The NIttany Lions got a bad break scheduling-wise in the sense that they will only play Northwestern once, but with the weakness of the non-conference slate, Penn State could probably use the added schedule strength that will come with playing Wisconsin, Purdue and Michigan State twice.

- Steve

It may be Labor Day weekend, but this year's version of the Penn State basketball team is already playing together, albeit in ... Canada.

That's right, the Nittany Lions headed north this past weekend for an exhibition tour in Ontario. The Lions swept the weekend, winning the first three games they played.

In a double-header Saturday, Penn State defeated Waterloo 83-52 in the first game and beat Sheridan College 83-65 in the nightcap. Jamelle Cornley led the scoring in both games, putting up 13 and 17 points, respectively.

Yesterday, the Lions beat Ryerson 102-68 behind 17 points from Talor Battle.

The most intriguing part of this Canadian foray is that the freshmen, Chris Babb, Cammeron Woodyard and Billy Oliver saw their first action in the blue and white this weekend. Simply put, coach Ed DeChellis isn't relying on those guys too much yet.

In yesterday's game, Woodyard led the freshmen with 11 minutes played, while Oliver and Babb played eight and five minutes, respectively.

Obviously I didn't witness the game, but Oliver's stat line looks impressive on paper at least. Oliver was 2-for-2 from the field, including a 3-pointer for five total point, and he grabbed three rebounds. Pretty efficient for eight minutes of action.

Babb was 2-for-3 from the field and Woodyard was 1-for-3.

This obviously wasn't a pressure packed situation for the new guys, but it seems like they held their own. I don't think winning these games proves anything, but this trip could prove to be a solid learning experience for the young guys.

The Lions play again Monday against York University before heading back to Happy Valley.

-Steve