Following brutal loss at Michigan State, Penn State basketball enters crucial stretch of the season

Penn State basketball had a huge opportunity in East Lansing on Wednesday night, but they let it slip away after they blew a 12 point second half lead to the number five ranked Michigan State Spartans. Michigan State wound up topping Penn State 74-68.

A win would have not only pushed the Nittany Lions to 6-5 in Big Ten play, but also would have been a very high quality win for the NCAA tournament committee to look at come Selection Sunday.

Penn State’s path to the NCAA Tournament would likely require a miraculous end of the season run. In order to qualify, the committee needs to see impressive wins, in which the Nittany Lions only have one: away vs. Ohio State (huge missed opportunity vs. Michigan State).

A potential late season run will begin with three very winnable games: home versus Iowa and Maryland, and at Illinois. A loss in one of these games will eliminate any hope at an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

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The Iowa Hawkeyes will come into State College on Saturday with a 3-8 Big Ten record. Fran McCaffrey’s team has been nothing short of disappointing this year, and Penn State beat them in the first conference game of the year in Iowa City 77-73.

This game will be followed up by a meeting with Maryland Wednesday night at the Bryce Jordan Center. Maryland has been playing without one of their best players, Justin Jackson, for the majority of the year due to a torn labrum. As a result they are only 4-7 in conference play, but one of those wins did come against the Nittany Lions on January 2 — 75-69.

A few days later, on Sunday February 11, Penn State will face off against Illinois in Champaign. Brad Underwood’s team is only 2-8 in conference after going 8-10 last season.

If Penn State manages to win these next three games, that would move them to 8-6 in conference play, likely guaranteeing themselves at least an NIT bid. They have 4 games remaining after these next three, and all of them are against teams ahead of them in the conference standings; home against Ohio State, away at Purdue, home versus Michigan and away against. Nebraska.

If they win 3 out of those 4 following wins over Iowa, Maryland and Illinois, they could be looking at an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament as long as they win a game in the Big Ten Tournament.

So how likely is a 6-1 finish to the regular season? It’s probably unlikely, as Penn State’s strength of schedule is among the toughest in the nation from here on out.

However, the Nittany Lions have looked like a new team since Josh Reaves has returned from his academic absence. It is not time to give up hope yet. Anything is possible.

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