Penn State Basketball’s Bubble Watch Continues After Latest Win
By Mike Scott
Penn State Basketball may be back in the Tournament picture after a big win on Sunday.
Last week I wrote about Penn State Basketball’s chances of making the NCAA tournament for the first time in 12 years. I mentioned how we would find out a lot more about the team with the upcoming toughest three game stretch of the schedule. So far, the stretch is going as I predicted. First, Penn State Basketball lost to Rutgers in a difficult game last Tuesday.
However, the Nittany Lions followed it up with arguably their biggest home win of the season. Penn State Basketball defeated Michigan 83-61 on Sunday in a game that was never really competitive. The team started hot and never looked back. Not only will this win look impressive on the resume, but it should also hopefully give the team some confidence moving forward.
With ten games left in the season, let’s take another look at Penn State Basketball’s chances of making the elusive tournament for the program. While the team still has some work to do, I feel more confident than I did last week.
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has Penn State as a “Next Four Out” team, which is not ideal. However, it is worth mentioning that this projection was updated after the Rutgers loss, but before the Michigan win. We should hopefully see Penn State Basketball move higher when the next update is released on Friday.
CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm has Penn State as one of the first four teams out, a downgrade from last week where we were projected to make the cut.
Fox Sports’ Andy Katz has not released an updated bracket since my last article, but he did put out the below tweet on Sunday. In the tweet he mentions that Penn State Basketball is trending towards making the tournament.
Could be an upside down season out of @B1GMBBall for @MarchMadnessMBB bids. Trending toward @RutgersMBB, @NUMensBball and @PennStateMBB in while @BadgerMBB, @OhioStateHoops and @umichbball could be out in March. Still time but wouldn’t be surprised if this happened. Crazy.
— Andy Katz (@TheAndyKatz) January 29, 2023
Penn State could improve their chances a ton if they were to get an upset victory over #1 ranked Purdue on Wednesday. The team will need to build off of Sunday’s performance and continue the hot shooting to take down the powerhouse of the Big Ten.
Thankfully, after the Purdue game the schedule gets a tad easier. There aren’t any easy victories in the Big Ten, but at least there aren’t any more trips to visit top-25 teams. The end of the season should give Penn State Basketball a chance to pad their resume with some wins and improve their chances of making the big dance.