Why Penn State Basketball won’t make NIT: It has nothing to do with performance
By Evan Smith
Penn State Basketball’s unfortunate NIT reality …
Imagine, for a minute, a world where Penn State Basketball doesn’t need to win four of their remaining six games to get to the .500 record.
What if, hypothetically, they had won another non-conference game or two. They would have more wiggle room to lose one of the remaining home games, perhaps. Or they could just protect home court and lose all three on the road and still achieve a .500 record.
Pull yourself out of this imaginary world into the world of the 2021-2022 Penn State Men’s Basketball season.
Does ‘Quinnipiac‘ or ‘Delaware State‘ ring any bells?
How about ‘VCU‘?
Because Penn State Basketball had games scheduled with all three of these teams in the non-conference portion of the schedule. Due to Nittany Lions’ COVID-19 issues and the same issues within the Hornet program, all three of these games were canceled.
Three weeks ago, Head Coach Micah Shrewsberry announced these games would not be made up. Shrewsberry stated the team ‘looked into’ rescheduling non-conference games that were canceled earlier in the season but they ‘weren’t able to do it.’
Winning at VCU would be difficult, sure, but PSU would have been heavy favorites at home vs both Quinnipiac and Delware State.
For the sake of this discussion, let’s give this team a 2-1 result in those three games.
Now, instead of being 10-12, they’d be 12-13. Now, that 4-2 scenario above guarantees a .500 record, even with a first-round loss in the Big Ten Tournament. If Penn State could win at VCU, the 3-3 scenario above guarantees a .500 record.
The inability to reschedule these three games, or at least the two home games, will likely end up being the reason Penn State does not achieve a .500 record and miss out on the NIT for a second straight year.