Andy Katz buries Penn State Basketball in latest Big Ten power rankings
By Evan Smith
Andy Katz released his May power rankings for the Big Ten Conference and placed Penn State Basketball12th in this iteration.
Maryland led the way as the No. 1 overall school in the power rankings, followed by Michigan and Purdue.
The “NCAA Tournament Bubble” is likely somewhere between No. 9 Iowa and No. 10 Rutgers, in the Big Ten Conference next season.
Penn State Basketball coming in at 12th is a step down from their tied for 10th place finish last year.
The Nittany Lions hired new head coach Micah Shrewsberry and he’s been nagivating the transfer portal as players have left (Myreon Jones, Izaiah Brockington, Jamari Wheeler to name a few), he’s kept a few players (John Harrar, Seth Lundy) and added a few names (Boogie Cornwall, Jalen Pickett and Jevonnie Scott).
PSU wasn’t very far away from qualifying for postseason basketball last year, despite firing their coach just weeks before the year started and having to deal with COVID-19 pauses. Falling to 12th in the conference would certainly mean no NCAA Tournament bid and quite likely no NIT bid either. A new coaching staff usually has to take a half step back but the cupboard wasn’t left nearly as bare was when Pat Chambers took over 10 years ago.
Comment on this article (or on the social media platform you read this from) whether or not you would be satisfied with a 12th place finish this year.