Skip to main content

Black Shoe Diaries

DOMINATE THE STATE

Latest Entries

2026 Wrestling Big Ten Tourney: Session I Recap & Session II Preview

Session I Recap Rankings/Seed Note: For the wrestler headings below, I’m showing Intermat Rankings denoted with the “#”, and then for the individual bouts, I show the tournament seeds in parentheses. 125 lbs – #1 Luke Lilledahl Quarterfinals (1) Luke Lilledahl, Penn State vs (8) Dean Peterson, Iowa Luke stepped laterally to start, peppering quick […]

2026 Wrestling Big Ten Tourney: Session I Preview & Open Thread

Schedule Upcoming Penn State Bouts Helpful Resources Bubbaland.net aka the “BubbaPage” BSDWrestle’s play-by-play maestro Bubba graciously provide timely and play-by-play updates. There’s a ton of great stuff on his site; some features: Penn State Wrestling Club Running Team Score Homepage BSDWrestle’s Big Ten Tourney Hub Housekeeping Here’s the rough BSDWrestle posting schedule we’ve mapped out […]

2026 Wrestling Big Ten Tourney Brackets Released

The 2026 Big Ten Wrestling Tournament is scheduled for this weekend in State College, Pennsylvania. This past Monday, the Big Ten released a laugher of a data set, rolled out as “pre-seeds.” As BSDWrestle’s JiC put it to us afterward: The B1G threw us a twist this year and parted with the old “coaches vote” […]

No. 11 Wisconsin 5, No. 6 Penn State 2: A Sinking Ship

Penn State lost its third straight game, an embarrassing 5-2 loss to Wisconsin at Pegula Ice Arena. Charlie Cerrato finally returned to the lineup, but his presence was not enough to wake up the team. The Nittany Lions fell behind 4-0 under siege from the Badgers’ attack early in the second period, and outside of […]

NHL

Winter/Spring Sports Update: Women’s Hockey Advances to AHA Title Game

Women’s Hockey (31-5) The women’s hockey team swept Syracuse with 7-0 and 2-1 wins to advance to their fourth straight AHA title game. Tessa Janecke recorded a hat trick in Game 1 to pace the Lions to an easy 7-0 win. Katie DeSa held the line with 15 saves in Game 2 to gain the […]

NHL

No. 12 Wisconsin 7, No. 5 Penn State 3: Mailing It In

Wisconsin turned in a dominant effort in the third period to cruise to a 7-3 win over Penn State on Thursday night. The Nittany Lions have suddenly gone cold with the postseason approaching. The game was tied entering the third period, but an ugly meltdown by Penn State allowed the game to spiral out of […]

NHL

Penn State Fires Women’s Basketball Coach Carolyn Kieger

At least one of the basketball programs will be searching for a new head coach this offseason, as Penn State announced a “change in leadership” regarding its women’s team. The announcement comes on the heels of the Lady Lions finishing 16th out of 18 Big Ten teams at 11-18 overall, and 4-14 in conference play, […]

Penn State Hockey Series Preview: No. 12 Wisconsin

No. 5 Penn State closes out its regular season with a home series against No. 12 Wisconsin. The Nittany Lions are locked into the three seed in the Big Ten Tournament and are a lock to make the NCAA Tournament. The Badgers are looking to secure their spot in the dance with at least a […]

NHL

NCAA Hockey Bracketology: March 5

As of this morning, the NCAA Tournament picture looks like this, based on NPI and conference standings. Please note that projected conference tournament winners are in italics and are based on current in-conference point percentage: Locks (11): Michigan, Michigan State, North Dakota, Western Michigan, Penn State, Providence, Quinnipiac, Denver, Cornell, Minnesota-Duluth, DartmouthBubble In (3): Wisconsin, Boston College, […]

Ohio State 94, Penn State 62: Is It Over Yet?

Ohio State beat Penn State 94-62 on Wednesday night in a pitiful effort on Josh Reed’s Senior Night. The Nittany Lions fell to 3-16 in conference play and are all but locked into the bottom spot in the Big Ten standings. Penn State shot just 4 for 22 from the floor in the first half, […]

Penn State Basketball Preview: Ohio State

Penn State will host Ohio State tonight in the final home game of the regular season. It has been a nightmare of a season for the Nittany Lions, but they will have a chance to ruin the Buckeyes’ NCAA Tournament aspirations with an upset win tonight. How to Watch Who: Ohio State BuckeyesNET Ranking (PSU): […]

This Week In Happy Valley: Hockey Postseason Underway

Women’s hockey advanced to the AHA championship game with an easy sweep of Syracuse. Friday’s men’s hockey game against Wisconsin will be a White Out. Student tickets are on sale for hockey’s Big Ten quarterfinal game on March 11. Tony Rojas on rehabbing his knee and his decision to return to Penn State in 2026. […]

NHL

Wrestling Media Availability with Cael Sanderson and Mitchell Mesenbrink

Head Coach Cael Sanderson and 165 lb starter Mitchell Mesenbrink met with the media ahead of the Big Ten Tournament, which gets underway at 10 am on Saturday, March 7 at the Bryce Jordan Center Cael Sanderson – Head Coach Thoughts on the New Big Ten Pre-seeding System I can’t explain it. I was there […]

2026 Wrestling Big Ten Tourney Hub

BSDWrestle should have a preseeds post up shortly, and will post more content to this hub throughout the week. Helpful Resources Bubbaland.net aka the “BubbaPage” BSDWrestle’s play-by-play maestro Bubba has a ton of great stuff on his site; some features:

B1G Wrestling Pre-seeds Released

Happy B1G Wrestling week! We start off the festivities with the highly anticipated tournament pre-seeds today. As expected, hands will be wrung, pearls will be clutched, and we will all reach the conclusion that the guys and gals in charge have no idea what they’re doing. Fortunately for us, Cael’s approach is that you wrestle […]

MMQB – Way Too Early Football Record Prediction

We’re still 5 months away from Penn State football returning to Beaver Stadium, but I thought it would be a good idea to take a way too early look at the schedule and see if we can sort out what record the Nittany Lions may have in 2026. Here’s the sched: The first 3 weeks […]

Notre Dame 4, No. 5 Penn State 3 (OT): Playing With Fire

Notre Dame upset No. 5 Penn State 4-3 in overtime on Saturday night. The Nittany Lions struggled all weekend defensively and finally got burned on a horrible turnover that easily set up the game-winning goal for Notre Dame. Penn State will return home next weekend for one final regular season series before the postseason run […]

Men’s Basketball: Penn State 71, Iowa 69

Let’s celebrate! Penn State’s season of futility had a moment of happiness on Saturday as the Nittany Lions upset 20-win and probable NCAA tourney team Iowa at the Bryce Jordan Center. The win snapped a three-game losing streak for the Lions and gives them a chance at staying out of the Big Ten basement as […]

YAY HOOPS(?) Penn State vs. Iowa Open Thread

Apologies for dropping the ball on the preview of this game, life got in the way. Not that you were itching for one to begin with, since you’re probably also checked out on the season at this point. The Hawkeyes sit at 20-8 overall and 10-7 in the Big Ten and are currently projected as […]

No. 5 Penn State 3, Notre Dame 3 (SO): Survive and Advance

No. 5 Penn State fell behind 3-0 in the first period, but two goals by Aiden Fink and a heroic goaltending performance by Josh Fleming secured a 3-3 tie. The Nittany Lions earned the extra point in the shootout to secure no worse than third place in the Big Ten. First Period Notre Dame controlled […]

Penn State Hockey Series Preview: Notre Dame

No. 5 Penn State plays its penultimate regular season series in South Bend against a struggling Notre Dame team looking for anything positive to end the first season under Brock Sheahan. The Nittany Lions are safely in third place in the conference standings but enter tonight’s game looking for more. Penn State will likely be […]

Winter Sports Update: Women’s Hockey Begins Postseason Run

Women’s Hockey (29-5) The women’s hockey team is set to host Syracuse in the AHA semifinals tonight (6pm on Big Ten Plus) and tomorrow (3pm on Big Ten Plus). A third game will be played if necessary. Penn State is looking for its fourth straight sweep of the conference regular season and tournament titles. The […]

Zane Durant, Dani Dennis-Sutton Have Strong Performances At NFL Combine

Day 1 of on-the-field workouts at the 2026 NFL Combine saw Zane Durant and Dani Dennis-Sutton go through their auditions, and it’s safe to say it was a strong one for both players. Durant was up first with the interior defensive linemen, and he showed off with an impressive 33.5-inch vertical (tied for third best […]