3 Reasons Penn State Basketball Isn’t going to play this postseason
By Evan Smith
Penn State Basketball: Not exactly ‘Road Warriors’
A common mantra in college basketball is you defend your home court then try to pick off a few road games. In a conference as tough as the Big Ten, that’s not a bad strategy.
The 2021-2022 team has done pretty well here, sporting a 5-3 conference home record with two winnable games left (vs Northwestern, vs Nebraska). Add in the non-conference games, Penn State has nine wins at the Jordan Center this year.
The huge issue is the complete inability to win games away from the Bryce Jordan Center.
This issue started right off the bat when Penn State Basketball got creamed at UMass (the ‘Trent Buttrick Revenge Game‘). But, after opening with a loss at Michigan State, Penn State won their next conference road game at Northwestern, opening up the door to potential road sucess this year.
However, that game was played on a Wednesday night, still over the holiday break, with bad weather forecasted against a team not really known for their home court advantage on a good night. It’s probably fair to view this as more of a neutral site game instead of a true road game.
Since then, Penn State Basketball has lost at Ohio State (by 6), at Iowa (17), at Indiana (17), at Wisconsin (2), at Minnesota (6), and then at Maryland (6).
Showing how far things have fallen since then, we wrote about the Nittany Lion’s NCAA TOURNAMENT chances after that win.
However, to play in the postseason, teams have to show an ability to win road games. Penn State’s ONE road win this year is simply not enough.