Nov. 1, 2007
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA., Nov. 1, 2007 - It was a night of fun, food and dunks in the Bryce Jordan Center Thursday as the Nittany Lion basketball team hosted "Dinner & Dunks" with an enthusiastic crowd of students and season ticket holders.
After a warm-up with the Penn State cheerleaders, Blue Band and Nittany Lion and plenty of free pizza, hot dogs and drinks, the 2007-08 Nittany Lions were introduced at 6:30 p.m. True to the Halloween season, the Nittany Lions took the floor in costume starting with the guards dressed in their Ocean's Eleven best. The forwards then took the floor dressed as NBA legends, including senior forward Geary Claxton dressed as Philadelphia's own Dr. J and throwing down a dunk under the spotlights to the delight of the crowd. Then came the centers dressed as their favorite characters from the movie "Rocky." First was freshman Andrew Jones as Clubber Lang. Then came senior Brandon Hassell wheeled onto the floor in a cart as the infamous Apollo Creed. Then junior Joonas Suotamo descended the Jordan Center steps as the one and only Ivan Drago. The capper came when head coach Ed DeChellis appeared at the top of the arena dressed as Rocky himself and ran down to the floor to the cheers of the fans.
The Nittany Lions then performed their best Soulja Boy dance at midcourt to the delight of the student section before changing out of their costumes for a slam dunk and three-point contest.
The highly anticipated dunk contest lived up to its billing as 5-11 freshman Talor Battle got things started bouncing the ball of the floor and throwing down a one handed dunk. Senior Stanley Pringle, a 6-1 guard, followed also bouncing the ball off the floor before throwing down a reverse dunk. Claxton's reverse from under the rim and freshman Jeff Brooks' off the glass one-handed tomahawk also impressed, but Battle and Pringle stole the show. Pringle drew awes with a bounce off the floor followed by a windmill and Batttle's reverse one-handed dunk off the bounce moved him into the finals. Pringle eventually prevailed claiming the slam dunk title with an off the floor, off the glass, reverse one-handed jam.
Junior Danny Morrissey teamed with student Zach Oyler to win the three-point contest and former Nittany Lion Nate Althouse gave a rousing address to the crowd capping a fun filled evening in the Jordan Center.