NCAA Tournament March Madness

#138 Penn St

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Projection: need to automatically qualify

Penn State’s body of work shows why they’re projected to need the automatic conference berth: their résumé is anchored by a rare resume-building road win at Washington and a couple of tight home victories over quality Big Ten opponents, but those highlights are overwhelmed by a long list of lopsided losses to top conference teams and a neutral-site rout at Pittsburgh, and most of the nonconference wins came against low-level opponents such as Fairfield, Sacred Heart and New Haven. The damage from heavy defeats at places like Michigan and Purdue and home setbacks to blue-blood programs undercuts the value of their few good results, and with little in the way of signature neutral-site success the only clean path out of this profile is to grab the league’s automatic spot in March.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/3Fairfield263W76-68
11/8@New Haven328W87-43
11/11Navy142W80-71
11/15(N)La Salle233W83-69
11/19Harvard152W84-80
11/22(N)Providence71L77-65
11/25Boston Univ261W96-87
11/29Sacred Heart296W90-59
12/2Campbell182W87-76
12/9@Indiana46L113-72
12/13Michigan St9L76-72
12/21(N)Pittsburgh94L80-46
12/29NC Central352W90-67
1/3Illinois7L73-65
1/6Michigan3L74-72
1/10@Purdue8L93-85
1/14UCLA27L71-60
1/18@Maryland120L96-73
1/22Wisconsin22L98-71
1/26@Ohio St26L84-78
1/29@Northwestern57L94-73
2/1Minnesota77W77-75
2/5@Michigan3L110-69
2/8USC80L77-75
2/11@Washington53W63-60
2/14@Oregon99L83-72
2/18Rutgers124L85-72
2/21@Nebraska14L87-64
2/28Iowa25W71-69
3/4Ohio St26L94-62
3/8@Rutgers124L74-62
3/10(N)Northwestern57L76-66