Penn State hasn’t been to the NCAA Tournament in ten years. They’ve finished better than .500 in the Big Ten just twice in the last 18 seasons. After Tuesday’s loss at Illinois, the Nittany Lions are 5-5 in conference play this year, and 12-9 overall. They’ve been playing better than anyone expected, recently knocking off three ranked opponents (including home wins against Illinois and Wisconsin), and losing road games at Ohio State and Purdue by a total of three points. With eight games remaining and opportunities for further signature wins coming up on the schedule, PSU has even popped up in recent NCAA Tournament talk as an outside contender for an at-large bid. Certainly, the last thing head coach Ed DeChellis and his team need right now is a big distraction or inconvenience to come along and screw up their mojo, right?

Sorry, gentlemen. Bon Jovi needs to practice.

Good Luck With the Rest of the Season, Guys. Now Get Out.

While that won’t necessarily come as news to you, they specifically need practice time to prepare for their upcoming tour, innovatively titled “Live 2011.” It kicks off a week from today at the Bryce Jordan Center — the Nittany Lions’ home arena.

So, with Michigan coming to town on Sunday, as Mark Brennan of FightOnState.com explains, if the Lions want a little practice time on their home floor before that game…they can’t have it. Bon Jovi took over the BJC on Tuesday for a week of rehearsal and will not relinquish their hold on the place until after the concert next Wednesday.

The Lions normally practice both in the BJC and at a nearby practice gym, but like to get in a workout in the arena the day before a game to get reaccustomed to shooting with the deeper background that the BJC entails and to feel even more at home on their own floor. Too bad. For the next week, the only picks the Bryce Jordan Center will see are the kind that pluck guitar strings. It’s drum rolls, not screen-and-rolls. Power chords will take precedence over power forwards. The Nittany Lions will be relegated to the gym where students play pick-up games. And while the players don’t seem too fazed, DeChellis isn’t pleased at all.

“I don’t care if it’s my granddaughter coming in to see Disney On Ice,” he told Brennan in the linked article. “It’s a problem for us in mid-February, not to be able to use your home facility for that many days in a row when you’re trying to make your run.”