On Tuesday, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi released his full “Bracketology,” which breaks down where prospective teams could seed on Selection Sunday and usually doesnโt feature Penn State basketball.
“Joey Brackets” listed Penn State as a 10th seed.
This season, Penn State is off to its best start through 11 games since 2019-20 with a 9-2, 1-1 record. Before losing to Clemson in the Sunshine Slam Championship game, PSU was 6-0, its best start in 25 years.
Penn State’s best win came against Purdue Dec. 5, when it took down the No. 8 Boilermakers in a dominant 81-70 win. This was the PSU’s first win against an AP top-10 opponent since 2019. That Purdue win is projected to be a Quad 2 victory, giving Penn State a 1-1 record in Quad 2 play and a 0-1 record in Quad 1 play (Clemson loss).
Statistically, Penn State basketball has one of the best profiles in the nation, ranking in the top 10 in points per game (89.6), field goal percentage (51.6), steals per game (10.5), turnovers forced per game (17.64), scoring margin (+22.3) and assists per game (19.3). In the NCAA NET Rankings, PSU is 29th and 32nd in the KenPom standings.
The SEC is projected to hoard most of the tournament bids, with 13 of the conference’s 16 teams in ESPN’s latest field. In hot pursuit is the Big Ten, with 10 of 18 teams making the early season cut. Here are the projected Big Ten bids:
- 3rd seed Oregon
- 4th seed Purdue
- 4th seed UCLA
- 5th seed Michigan State
- 6th seed Illinois
- 6th seed Michigan
- 8th seed Maryland
- 8th seed Wisconsin
- 10th seed Penn State
- 12th seed Ohio State
Lunardi’s bracket will be updated every Tuesday before moving to twice weekly in January.
