Last season’s March run was not something that Penn State fans will forget anytime soon. When it looked like the team might have played themselves out of the NCAA Tournament field, they flipped the switch entirely and won five out of their last six games to close the season.
Then, in the Big Ten Tournament, Penn State made a magical run to the title game where they lost to number one seeded Purdue by two points.
That run put them into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2011. This time around, the Nittany Lions won their first NCAA Tournament game since 2001 after they smashed Texas A&M 76-59.
Everything looked to be going smoothly with the program, until coach Micah Shrewsberry left for the Notre Dame job opening. Penn State moved quickly and hired VCU coach [autotag]Mike Rhoades[/autotag] as the next head coach of the Nittany Lions.
Since that point, it’s been a whirlwind getting new players into the program to be able to compete during the upcoming season. Because of that, it’s hard to gauge how the team will perform.
Joe Lunardi released his way too early 2024 Bracketology March Madness predictions with eight Big Ten teams in the field.
Penn State was not one of the teams included.
It looks like they’ll have to prove themselves all over again just like last season and fight their way into the tournament with a group of transfers.
Here are the teams included in Lunardi’s early March Madness field.