Why Penn State Basketball won’t make NIT: It has nothing to do with performance
By Evan Smith
Tuesday night, Penn State Basketball picked up a ranked win, over No. 17 Michigan State, but the Nittany Lions’ likely won’t be making the postseason tournaments
Penn State Basketball, coming off their best win of the year, is nearing NIT consideration but likely won’t receive an invite.
The NIT, or National Invitation Tournament, is for the 32 best teams that do not make the NCAA Tournament. You could think of the NIT as a tournament for the 69th through 100th best teams in college basketball after the NCAA Tournament takes their 68 teams.
And, given Penn State Basketball’s rather steady NET and KenPom rankings (86) sitting squarely betwen 69 and 100, Penn State should be thinking about the NIT Tournament after upsetting ranked Michigan State Tuesday night.
The Nittany Lions have a favorable six-game slate left in their regular season and at least one game in the Big Ten Tournament.
Penn State Basketball has three winnable home games versus teams tied or below them in the conference standings, starting with Minnesota tomorrow and then Northwestern and Nebraska next week. Road trips remaining are at Maryland (a struggling team but a place Penn State never won at, prior to last season), at No. 12 Illinois, and at a suddenly surging Rutgers team that always has an amazing home-court advantage.