This was not your ordinary sleepy Penn State basketball season opener, given that former star point guard and assistant coach Danny Earl was making his head coaching debut on the visitors' bench for VMI. The game started off with a bang as highly-touted freshman Josh Reaves, making not only his debut in collegiate basketball but also making his debut as a starter, stole a pass on VMI's opening possession and slammed it home to open up the scoring.
Unfortunately, this did not spark a hot shooting start for PSU, while VMI started out hot, nailing 7 of their first 15 shots from the field and found themselves leading by as many as eight points (12-4) early on.