NCAA Tournament March Madness

#137 Penn St

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Projection: need to automatically qualify

Penn State’s profile reads like a team that can pull off the occasional impressive result but has been repeatedly flattened in the toughest environments, so the projection that they need to earn an automatic bid makes sense. Their best moments come from tight home wins over Minnesota and Iowa and a gritty road victory at Washington, yet those highlights are offset by blowout losses in hostile settings such as Indiana and Michigan and a heavy home defeat to Ohio State that weigh down the resume. Playing a brutal conference slate has given them plenty of chances against elite opponents, but they lack signature road or neutral-site wins to counter a long list of damaging results. With a road game at Rutgers remaining as a last chance to pick up a resume-building victory, the simplest way for this group to lock a spot is to run the table in the Big Ten tournament and secure the conference’s automatic berth.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/3Fairfield259W76-68
11/8@New Haven328W87-43
11/11Navy140W80-71
11/15(N)La Salle225W83-69
11/19Harvard154W84-80
11/22(N)Providence74L77-65
11/25Boston Univ263W96-87
11/29Sacred Heart292W90-59
12/2Campbell190W87-76
12/9@Indiana41L113-72
12/13Michigan St10L76-72
12/21(N)Pittsburgh102L80-46
12/29NC Central353W90-67
1/3Illinois5L73-65
1/6Michigan2L74-72
1/10@Purdue7L93-85
1/14UCLA34L71-60
1/18@Maryland134L96-73
1/22Wisconsin25L98-71
1/26@Ohio St27L84-78
1/29@Northwestern65L94-73
2/1Minnesota72W77-75
2/5@Michigan2L110-69
2/8USC69L77-75
2/11@Washington52W63-60
2/14@Oregon100L83-72
2/18Rutgers133L85-72
2/21@Nebraska12L87-64
2/28Iowa23W71-69
3/4Ohio St27L94-62
3/8@Rutgers13338%