College basketball luminary Ken Pomeroy’s initial KenPom preseason rankings for the 2022-23 college basketball season have been released and it looks like he’s expecting good things from Micah Shrewsberry’s squad this year. The Penn State men’s basketball team clocks in at No. 46 in the country, well ahead of West Virginia (73rd) and Pitt (84th) and 8th in the Big Ten.
Pomeroy is high on the Big Ten in general, with seven teams in his top 33 teams in the nation. Indiana tops the list at No. 12, followed by Iowa at No. 23, Purdue at No. 25, Michigan at No. 26, Michigan St. at 31, Ohio St. at 32, and Illinois at 33. With Penn State at No. 46, Rutgers follows at No. 50, then Wisconsin at 55, Maryland at 56, Northwestern at 70, Nebraska at 108, Minnesota at 109.
The Nittany Lions are expected to be one of the better offensive teams in the nation with a 108.0 in adjusted offensive efficiency, good for 35th in the country according to Pomeroy. Penn State ranks 62nd in defensive efficiency, but are expected to be one of the slowest teams in the country tempo wise. Their 67.9 adjusted possessions per 40 minutes ranks 358th out of 363 teams in the nation.
This season will mark Shrewsberry’s second with the program. The Nittany Lions went 14-17 overall (7-13 in the Big Ten) in his first season and finished 88th in the final KenPom rankings.
Penn State added eight new players to their roster and retained five from the 2022-23 team. Transfers Andrew Funk (Bucknell), Michael Henn (Denver) and Camren Wynter (Drexel) are expected to add some firepower along with holdovers Dallion Johnson, Myles Dread, Caleb Dorsey and stars Jalen Pickett and Seth Lundy.
Shrewsberry is also adding the 38th ranked freshman class, which includes Kanye Clary, 4-star center Kebba Njie, Jameel Brown, Evan Mahaffey and Demetrius Lilley.
