March Madness is officially here!
For the first time since 2011, Penn State is a part of the Big Dance.
After their impressive run in the Big Ten Tournament, the Nittany Lions are the 10 seed in the Midwest Region. They drew the 7th-seeded Texas A&M Aggies in their first-round matchup.
Since Texas A&M is an SEC team, these two teams rarely have played each other. They’ve actually only competed three times on the hard court, with A&M winning all three prior matchups. The most recent game was played in Brooklyn, NY in 2017.
Similarly to Penn State, the Aggies were in their conference tournament championship game where they lost to Alabama 63-82.
Many bracket analysts and pundits feel that Texas A&M is coming into this tournament under seeded after finishing both the SEC regular season and postseason in second place. On the surface, that presents a challenge for Penn State, who is playing a team in the first round they probably shouldn’t be facing.
Let’s take a look at both teams and see they compare.