Penn State basketball may not be a basketball power but it has shown it can hang with most teams. Last year’s performance in the Big Ten tournament showed some progress. Now with the team adding some depth from the transfer portal and bringing a lot of players back some people think they can roll that momentum into this year.
One way to test yourself as a team is early non-conference tournaments. Penn State has gotten into one themselves.
Sources: The bracket for the 2022 Charleston Classic is set.
Virginia Tech/Old Dominion
Penn State/Furman
Davidson/Charleston
Colorado State/South Carolina— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) July 26, 2022
The field, outside of Penn State, includes ACC’s Virginia Tech, Sun Belt’s Old Dominion, Atlantic 10’s Davidson, Colonial’s Charleston, Mountain West’s Colorado State, and the SEC’s South Carolina. Winning this tournament could give Penn State some decent non-conference wins when the March Madness committee meets in 2023.
When Penn State was invited to this tournament in 2020 they were knocked out by Virginia Tech. If both teams were to win their matchups we could see a rematch of that game. A win over Virginia Tech could prove valuable down the road while also setting the tone for the season.
Other notable non-conference games Penn State basketball has lined up includes Clemson of the ACC and Butler of the Big East.
Head coach [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag] returns for his second season as Penn State head coach. He went 14-17 in the regular season including a 7-10 conference record. Hopes are still high for Shrewsberry after a coaching career that included successful stops at Purdue as an assistant coach as well as in the NBA with the Boston Celtics with Brad Stevens.
It was with Brad Stevens at Butler where Shrewsberry came so close to winning a national championship when he helped coach the Bulldogs to back-to-back national championship appearances. Nittany Lion fans hope some of that magic can get the team to the postseason for a start. Bringing back eight players may help bring a veteran presence and establish some winning finally for the program.
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