For the first time since 2011, Penn State will participate in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. The long drought officially came to an end on Sunday when the NCAA Tournament’s selection committee handed the Nittany Lions an at-large bid to this year’s Big Dance.
Penn State received the No. 10 seed in the Midwest Region of this year’s tournament. Penn State will open its tournament on Thursday against seventh-seeded Texas A&M from the SEC.
Head coach Micah Shrewsberry is taking Penn State to its 10th NCAA tournament in program history and its fourth since joining the Big Ten. He does so in his second year at the helm after guiding the Nittany Lions to an appearance in the Big Ten championship game, its second such appearance in program history and first since 2011.
Penn State finished the regular season with momentum-shifting wins against Northwestern and Maryland and continued its hot streak with three straight wins in the Big Ten tournament against Illinois, Northwestern and Indiana before falling to Purdue in the Big Ten championship game on Sunday. In the past week, Penn State went from being on the bubble to flirting with a potential single-digit seed in the NCAA Tournament. Now the Nittany Lions hope to keep rolling.
Penn State has not won a game in the NCAA Tournament since upsetting North Carolina in 2001 to advance to the Sweet 16. Its 2001 tournament run was stopped by Temple in the Sweet 16. Coincidentally, Temple eliminated Penn State from the 2011 tournament in the first round.
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