Friday night, Penn State will head to Baltimore, Md. for the Hall of Fame Series. It will be a homecoming for graduate student Ace Baldwin Jr..
The Penn State point guard played his high school basketball at St. Frances Academy, just 1.5 miles away from the site of PSU’s meetup with Virginia Tech, CFG Bank Arena.
This will be the 12th matchup between these ย teams and the first since 2022. Virginia Tech squeaked out a 61-59 win after losing a 16-point lead
PENN STATE’S OUTLOOK
The Nittany Lions are coming off their third straight win after beating Saint Francis 92-62 ย Tuesday.
The Red Flash grabbed a momentary lead before conceding a 12-4 run to end the first half. Penn State’s defense (24 forced turnovers and 29 points off) eventually wore down SFU in the 30-point blowout.
PSU’s scoring margin is currently 40.3, and when adjusting for opponent quality, it has the 39th-best defense (allowing 96.2 points per 100) according to kenpom.com. However, this will be the best opponent Penn State has played so far (Virginia Tech is ranked 93rd in KenPom’s net rating), so the scoring margin should be closer in this one.
VIRGINIA TECH
HEAD COACH
Mike Young (6th season, 95-66 record)
Young joined the Hokies in 2019 and quickly made a splash in Blacksburg, Va. He became the fastest Virginia Tech coach to reach the NCAA Tournament in only his second season. In 2022, he led Virginia Tech to its first-ever ACC Championship with a win over Duke. He was the ACC Coach of the Year in 2021 and has won five such conference awards since 2010.
He has a 6-0 record in conference championship games and has a track record of taking down ranked opponents (three top-five wins over the last four seasons).
TOP SCORERS
Tobi Lawal, 6-foot-8, 14.3 points/game
Lawal is a native of London, England, and began his college career at VCU with Penn State coach Mike Rhoades. He is shooting 62 percent from the field and is averaging 8.7 rebounds (12th in the ACC). He scored his career-high earlier this year against Deleware State with 23 points on 6-of-9 shooting.
Mylyjael (muh-lie-shuh) Poteat, 6-foot-9, 12.7 points/game
Poteat has scored double figures in two out of three games so far this year. He reached a career-high 19 points against USC Upstate while going 6-of-8 from the field and 7-of-9 from the free throw line. He is shooting an efficient 54.5 percent from the field and has made 14-of-20 free throw attempts.
Jaden Schutt, 6-foot-5, 12 points/game
Schutt is a former Duke Blue Devil but transferred to Virginia Tech this season. He is a career 40 percent shooter from deep and is third in the ACC for made threes. After redshirting his sophomore season, Shutt came to Virginia Tech and has increased his point output in each of the three games this year. He registered a career-high 17 against Winthrop and made five threes.
METRICS
Penn State is ranked 43rd according to KenPom’s net ratings. Virginia Tech is 93rd.
GAMETIME
Friday night’s game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the CFG Bank Arena.
SPREAD
Per DraftKings Sportsbook, Penn State is favored by seven points. ย The over/under is set around 150 and the Moneylines are -290 (PSU) and +235 (Virginia Tech).
ย TV
You can catch this Hall of Fame Series matchup on Peacock.
