Penn State Basketball Season Over as NIT Ignores Metrics

Penn State Basketball’s season is officially over as the NIT decline to extend an invitation to the Nittany Lions.

The NIT Selection Show was not kind to Penn State Basketball as the Lions did not receive an invitation to continue their season in Texas.

Tracking all week had Penn State Basketball anywhere from a 2 seed to a 13 seed from by both major NIT prognosticators after interim Head Coach Jim Ferry stated Penn State would accept a bid if invited after their Big Ten Tournament heartbreaking loss to Wisconsin.

Most stunning is that (at least) five teams opted-out of the NIT (Duke, Xavier, St. John’s, Louisville, Seton Hall), meaning that Penn State Basketball wasn’t even among the next five teams to make the NIT.

The NIT Committee may as well have kept the “must be .500” rule for the NIT that was removed in 2017; if this metric darling Penn State team didn’t earn an invite, no sub .500 team will ever make the NIT.

This wraps the 2020-2021 Penn State Nittany Lion Basketball season.

Penn State Basketball finished tied for 10th in the conference with a 7-12 record and went 1-1 in the Big Ten Tournament to finish 11-14 overall.  Penn State finished the 35th ranked team in KenPom and 42 in the NET Rankings.  Both are the metrics usually reserved for NCAA Tournament teams but the 11-14 record doomed the Nittany Lions.

PSU had three quad one wins and only one quad two and one quad three loss against the hardest schedule in the entire nation.  The stat that may have doomed the Lions more than any other…they finished 288th in the nation in “luck” out of the 357 division one men’s basketball programs.

This likely ends the greatest four year era in Penn State Basketball history.

Consistently high metrics throughout the end of the Pat Chambers era and through the Jim Ferry year will be remembered by fans who enjoyed finally watching that “Philly Pipeline” in recruiting come to fruition.

We turn the page to an offseason likely featuring a new Head Coach, seniors the ability to stay an additional year and any player able to transfer penalty free.  It’s quite likely when the 2021-2022 season tips in October, this will be an entirely different looking Nittany Lions team.  But it sure was a fun ride.  Now and forever, #trusttheclimb,