In ESPN’s Joe Lunardi’s most recent bracket update, Penn State remained on the Bubble but would have to play its way into the tournament. PSU is a projected 11th seed and is listed as one of the last four teams to make it in by way of the “First Four”.
Lunardi’s change follows the Nittany Lions’ third loss of the season to Indiana on Sunday.
Penn State Basketball Takeaways: Sputtering Nittany Lions Seem to be Consistently Inconsistent
Penn State is now 2-2 in the Big Ten, with a difficult stretch of games coming up against No. 13 Illinois, No. 15 Oregon and No. 16 Michigan State. Two of those games will be on the road, where PSU is 1-1.
Penn State has one Quad 1 win (1-1 Q1 record) against then No. 8 Purdue, the Nittany Lions’ signature win of the season so far. That victory was PSU’s first win against an AP top 10 opponent since 2019 and the third win against a top 15 opponent in the Mike Rhoades era.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Statistically, the Nittany Lions still rank in the top 10 in points per game, but against Big Ten opponents, that number drops from 86.8 to 78. One of the reasons for this dropoff has been the team’s struggles from 3, as its season average of 34 percent plummets to 29 percent in conference play, the fifth-worst mark in the league.
The SEC (13) and the Big Ten (11) are still projected to earn the most bids, combining for 24. Here are the updated seedings for the Big Ten:
- 3rd seed Illinois
- 3rd seed Oregon
- 5th seed Michigan State
- 5th seed Purdue
- 5th seed UCLA
- 6th seed Michigan
- 6th seed Wisconsin
- 8th seed Maryland
- 8th seed Nebraska
- 9th seed Ohio State
- 11th seed Penn State
Lunardi’s next update will be on Friday on espn.com.
