Following Penn State basketball losing its third consecutive game— all within the Big Ten— ESPN’s Joe Lunardi kept PSU off his bracket Tuesday.
Within a week, PSU went from being one of the “last four in” to possibly missing the tournament altogether after taking losses to No. 13 Illinois and No. 15 Oregon.
WILL ACE BALDWIN JR. BE READY FOR WEDNESDAY?
Penn State is now 12-5 overall with a 2-4 record in conference play. Wednesday will be the end of a three-game ranked stretch for Penn State as they travel to No. 12 Michigan State. On Sunday, PSU was without lead guard Ace Baldwin Jr. for the first time all season. When coach Mike Rhoades was asked about Baldwin’s status postgame, he said the reigning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year was “day-to-day.”
If Baldwin can’t go Wednesday, Penn State will have to find production up and down this roster when it takes on the 11th-best defense according to KenPom’s analytics. The four seniors — led by Nick Kern Jr. (19 points, eight rebounds, and four assists) and Freddie Dilione V (career-high 21 points) — all scored 14 or more points against Oregon, but Penn State’s bench was outplayed 28-4.
“We have to get more production from our bench,” Rhoades said postgame.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.“A couple of guys came off the bench today and they didn’t give us enough. We needed them more because we put a lot on these other guys without Ace.”
PENN STATE BASKETBALL AGAINST QUAD 1 OPPONENTS AND CONFERENCE BIDS
Michigan State will be PSU’s third Quad 1 opponent in seven days. In those matchups, Penn State is 1-3, with its only win against then-No. 8 Purdue Dec. 5.
With more conference play to reflect on, the SEC’s projected bid total (11) now mirrors the Big Ten’s (11). Here are the updated seedings for the Big Ten:
- 3rd seed Oregon
- 4th seed Michigan
- 4th seed Michigan State
- 4th seed Purdue
- 5th seed Illinois
- 6th seed Wisconsin
- 7th seed UCLA
- 8th seed Maryland
- 10th seed Nebraska
- 10th seed Ohio State
- 11th seed Iowa
Lunard’s full bracket can be viewed here. His next update will be on Friday.
