With Selection Sunday only a few weeks away, Penn State Basketball is hoping to get back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2011.
As of today, the Nittany Lions are not projected to make the NCAA tournament by any of the 96 top bracketologists per BracketMatrix.com, so there is still some work to be done.
However the good news is that they are close, as several of those same bracketologists have them as the first four out or next four out in their brackets so they have a chance.
With all that being said, let's take a look at Penn State's current resume.
The Nittany Lions are currently sitting at 60th overall in the NET Rankings, which is arguably the top used rankings system when determining NCAA Tournament teams.
The system is defined as, "a results-oriented team-ranking metric that combines wins, scoring margin, efficiency and the location of games to churn out a daily hierarchy of the 363 basketball teams".
One of the biggest considerations in determining these NET rankings is each team's quadrant records, which is broken down by the team’s current ranking and where the game took place.
Quadrant 1: Home 1-30, Neutral 1-50, Away 1-75
Quadrant 2: Home 31-75, Neutral 51-100, Away 76-135
Quadrant 3: Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Away 135-240
Quadrant 4: Home 161-363, Neutral 201-353, Away 241-363
REMAINING GAMES: @Ohio State (58), vs. Rutgers (28), @Northwestern (43) and vs. Maryland (21).
According to Bracketologists.com, Penn State had the 40th toughest schedule in the nation per the NET Rankings and this has caused the Nittany Lions to earn some solid wins along with suffering some ugly losses.
Here's a quick look at the team's top five wins and losses this season, based on the NET rankings.
LOOKING AHEAD
Now the big questions is, has Penn State done enough this season to earn an at-large bid? At the moment it doesn't look promising, but it will really depend on how they finish out the regular season.
With that being said, let's take a look at last year's last four at large teams to make the NCAA Tournament in 2022 to compare resumes.
--------------------------------------------------------------
• Subscribe to our YouTube Channel
