After its fifth consecutive loss, Penn State continued its drop in national rankings. On KenPom, PSU is slotted at 63, while it fell to 65 in the NCAA’s NET Rankings. The Nittany Lions also weren’t listed on ESPN’s “Bracketology” for the fifth week.
On Saturday, Penn State suffered its third double-digit loss at UCLA, bringing Penn State’s overall record to 13-11 (3-10). In that game, the Bruins forced the Nittany Lions into a season-high-tying 18 turnovers. Ace Baldwin Jr. had three turnovers himself and for the first time in three years, he did not record an assist.
With the loss, Mike Rhoades’ squad remains winless on the road in the Big Ten and only has one victory away from State College all season.
PENN STATE QUAD PLAY
Following Saturday’s defeat, Penn State is now 3-10 against Quad 1 and 2 opponents. The three wins were against then-N0. 8 Purdue (Q1), Northwestern (Q2) and Rutgers (Q2). PSU had an opportunity to earn another Q1 win against now-ranked No. 20 Michigan, but after leading by five with two minutes left, the Wolverines closed on a 9-0 run to steal the game.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.With only seven games remaining in the regular season, Penn State is on the verge of missing the Big Ten postseason. Only the top 15 teams qualify for the conference tournament and PSU is 18th out of 18 teams. However, the Nittany Lions (3-10) are only one game back from No. 15 seed Northwestern (4-9) and only two back from No. 11 seed Oregon (5-8). Here are their remaining opponents and significant information:
- Feb. 11 at No. 10 seed USC (5-7, NET 70, Q1)
- Feb. 15 versus No. 17 seed Washington (3-9, NET 92, Q3)
- Feb. 19 versus No. 8 seed Nebraska (6-7, NET 48, Q2)
- Feb. 22 at No. 16 seed Minnesota (4-9, NET 98, Q2)
- Feb. 26 at No. 12 seed Indiana (5-8, NET 61, Q1)
- March 1 versus No. 6 seed Maryland (8-5, NET 16, Q1)
- March 8 at No. 4 seed Wisconsin (9-4, NET 15, Q1)
UPDATED CONFERENCE BIDS
The SEC (13) and the Big Ten (10) are projected to combine for 23 bids come March. Here are the updated seedings for the Big Ten:
- No. 2 seed Purdue
- No. 3 seed Michigan State
- No. 4 seed Wisconsin
- No. 5 seed Michigan
- No. 6 seed Illinois
- No. 6 seed Maryland
- No. 6 seed UCLA
- No. 8 seed Oregon
- No. 9 seed Ohio State
- No. 10 seed Nebraska
Joe Lunardi’s next update will be Friday.
