By Chris Checchio

Jennifer Owsiany poses with some Nittwits at the Senior Day game vs. Northwestern, with a sign honoring Travis Parker.

A friend left a simple message, encouraging her to enter an ESPN contest to discover who possesses the most over-the-top passion for their beloved college basketball team.

The reaction from 21-year-old Penn State student Jen Owsiany was blunt. ¡°What the heck, I¡¯ve got nothing to lose.¡±

In 2006, the most passion, according to an ESPN.com vote, emanated from Owsiany.

She was required to write a 75-word essay, which concluded with two final words - reaching exactly 75 - the cheer, ¡°Go State!¡±

She then submitted a picture featuring her decorated car parked in front of the Bryce Jordan Center with a PSU basketball jersey and poster hanging on the side. Her ¡°contest uniform¡± included face paint of the blue and white variety, a blue wig, and an assortment of pom-poms serving as a skirt.

The last leg of the contest required Owsiany to make a video where most contestants sang their school¡¯s fight song.

A few contestants in the final round were not even students at the school they claimed to have their favorite basketball team. Shouldn¡¯t that be an automatic disqualification?

It didn¡¯t matter. Owsiany took over first place for good at 1 p.m. on the final day of the contest as her and her ¡°nitwitted¡± friends ran around campus telling everyone in the computer labs to vote on ESPN.

Throughout the contest, Owsiany gathered support from fellow Nittwits, family, and friends who sent out emails alerting the PSU community to vote. They placed posts on fightonstate.com, and GoPSUsports.com listed a crucial link to the contest the final weekend to catapult Owsiany ahead of the pack.

Owsiany also did interviews with Channel 10 News ¡°After Hours,¡± Hot 103¡¯s Ken and Jama, PSN News, ComRadio, and the Centre County Report.

For all her hard work, Owsiany won an ESPN cell phone with six months free activation, the title ¡°Miss Bracket 2006,¡± and a free ESPN fantasy game.

Owsiany stated her goals this past season as Nittwits president were to ¡°rush the court, camp out, and increase game attendance.¡±

S he successfully reached all goals, much to the delight of Penn State men¡¯s basketball head coach, Ed DeChellis.

¡°It¡¯s very exciting for us, she¡¯s been a loyal supporter of the program for years and has done a great job with the Nittwits,¡± DeChellis remarked. ¡°Hopefully her energy and enthusiasm [can carry over to other aspects of Penn State basketball] and we can continue to grow our student group.¡±

That energy and enthusiasm DeChellis speaks of sprang from Owsiany¡¯s father who was ¡°PSU this, PSU that¡± according to the first ever Miss Bracket.

¡°You better pass that spelling test if you want to go to Penn State,¡± her father, a ¡¯72 Penn State grad, would tell her.

She not only passed her spelling tests, she's at Penn State making the most of her time. Owsiany spoke of her favorite moments from last season that she will never forget, recalling, ¡°camping out for the Ohio State game was one of them. Milos, Joonas, and Nikola brought us hot chocolate. After the game, we got a picture with the team.¡±

She also recalled rushing the court after the Indiana game and watching the Illinois win, where ¡°13 of us watched the game at Damon¡¯s, then we met the team at the airport. We were jumping around, it was nuts.¡±

Coach Ed DeChellis remembers arriving at the airport from Illinois. ¡°They were all at the airport terminal [at 1 o¡¯clock in the morning] welcoming back the team. I think that¡¯s really special, our kids really appreciated it. I know I appreciated it as a coach. I think [the players] greatly appreciated that someone did care and made that effort at that time in the morning to come out and support the team.¡±

Owsiany and friends on-court with members of the men's basketball team.

DeChellis added, ¡°They talked about it the next day. When you get little signs like that, you are starting to come around and things are going in the right direction.¡±

Winning Miss Bracket may be one more boost in the attempt to grow the atmosphere around Penn State basketball and Owsiany believes it could a great marketing tool for next year. ¡°We¡¯ve got the number one basketball fan¡± she said. ¡°Come to the games, it¡¯s a lot of fun.¡±

A packed Bryce Jordan Center for every home game would be something special, and DeChellis explained, ¡°We need to try and make the Jordan Center a great home court for us and I think night in and night out our students will have the greatest influence on that. The Nittwits can be a catalyst for our whole student body.¡±

When thinking long-term about the men¡¯s basketball team, DeChellis is not conservative. His vocabulary includes phrases like ¡°Big Ten Championship¡± and ¡°a consistent team in the NCAA tournament.¡± He added, ¡°hopefully we can get this thing situated when we are one of the best teams in the country nationally. That¡¯s what we are striving for everyday and are working very hard towards.¡±

When Owsiany entered the Miss Bracket 2006 contest, she thought, ¡°It would be pretty cool to win a national title.¡±

Perhaps, next March, the men's basketball team will find itself in another kind of bracket.

It¡¯d be pretty cool if they won that, too.