On New Year’s Eve, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi updated his bracket and has Penn State as one of the last four byes for the NCAA Tournament.
If this were to stand, PSU would be in the Midwest region (Indianapolis) and face Cincinnati in the first round.
The Nittany Lions recently finished their regular season nonconference play on Sunday with an 86-66 win over Penn. Its 10-1 record against out-of-conference opponents is only the fifth time since 1992 the team has had one loss on its nonconference schedule.
Penn State Basketball Takeaways: Mike Rhoades Earns 400th Win Despite Team’s Shooting Struggles
Overall, Penn State (11-2, 1-1) is off to its best start through 13 games since the 2019-20 season. Before losing to Clemson in the Sunshine Slam Championship, Penn State was undefeated through the first six games of the season for the first time in 25 years.
Against Quad 1 and Quad 2 opponents, PSU is 1-2, with its sole win coming against then No. 8 Purdue. This was PSUโs first win against an AP top-10 opponent since 2019. Mike Rhoades’ squad can earn two more Quad 2 wins on Thursday and Sunday with games against Northwestern (NET 47, home game) and Indiana (NET 65, neutral site).
Heading into the full Big Ten schedule, the Nittany Lions rank within the top ten in multiple statistical categories such as scoring offense (88.2), assists per game (18.8), scoring margin (21.2), and turnovers forced per game (17.23). The backbone of this team has been its defense, as it ranks 47th in defensive efficiency and turns its opponents over on 21 percent of their possessions.
The SEC is still projected to get a majority of the bids come Selection Sunday, but Lunardi now predicts 11 Big Ten teams will be seeded on March 16.
- 2nd seed Oregon
- 4th seed UCLA
- 5th seed Michigan State
- 5th seed Purdue
- 6th seed Illinois
- 6th seed Michigan
- 7th seed Maryland
- 8th seed Wisconsin
- 9th seed Ohio State
- 10th seed Penn State
- 11th seed Nebraska
Lunardi’s next bracket will be on Friday, as he moves to twice-weekly updates.
