Penn State men’s basketball has slowly but surely crept into the national spotlight with a resurgent second season under Mike Rhoades. And if Joe Lunardi is any indication, the Nittany Lions are playing their way into a national tournament berth.
In the latest edition of ESPN’s Bracketology, where Lunardi projects which teams will make the upcoming NCAA Tournament, Penn State (8-2, 1-1 Big Ten) is projected as one of the last four byes for an at-large bid in the big dance along with being a 10-seed against 7-seed Cincinnati.
Reaching the postseason isn’t foreign to Penn State hoops – the program qualified for it in 2023, also as a 10-seed, when it defeated Texas A&M before losing a close game in the Round of 32. However, the program needed a remarkable 10-2 run between the end of the regular season and the conference tournament to qualify.
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It’s too early to dive deeply into bracketology, but Penn State being projected in the field now is a good sign of the program’s early success and the overall upward trend under Rhoades. Don’t forget that the Nittany Lions are also just outside the Top 25 and upset conference rival Purdue which, even after losing starting center Daniel Jacobsen to a season-ending injury, is a quality program.
Nov 15, 2024; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Penn State Nittany Lions head coach Mike Rhoades talks to the team during a timeout in the first half in a game against the Virginia Tech Hokies at CFG Bank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Reggie Hildred-Imagn Images
A close loss to Rutgers may have taken some of the wind out of the sails, but the Nittany Lions went down to the wire against a Scarlet Knight squad with two potential top-5 NBA Draft picks in Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey. Besides, they’ll have a chance to avenge that loss in January.
The best thing for the program to do is to finish strong with its final three games in 2024: home games against Coppin State and Penn, with a road game against Drexel in between. After that, there is a Big Ten matchup against Northwestern to start the New Year, followed by a trip to the Palestra to face Indiana. At that point, Bracketology will be updated more frequently.
March is still far away, but as things stand, Penn State men’s basketball is trending toward the big dance without needing a miracle run.
This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: December 10 Bracketology predicts Penn State hoops in the NCAA tournament
