With an NCAA tournament berth out of the question and other postseason bids unlikely, there’s a good chance today tips off the last game of the season for Penn State basketball in year two of the Mike Rhoades era. The 15-15 Nittany Lions hit the road to play the 12th-ranked Wisconsin Badgers, who are coming off a road win over Minnesota.

A win for the Nittany Lions ensures avoiding a last-place finish in conference play and, depending on the Iowa's result against Nebraska today, finishing as high as tied for 16th place with Iowa. With a loss and a potential Washington upset win over Oregon, Penn State will tie with the Huskies for last place and finish last overall after tiebreakers thanks to a 75-73 loss to the Huskies back in February.

Despite being eliminated from conference tournament play, the Nittany Lions can play spoiler. For Wisconsin, a win today can result in them as high as outright 3rd place in the conference. However, with a loss and wins from Maryland, Purdue, and UCLA, the Badgers can fall out of the top four and lose their double-bye advantage in the Big Ten tournament.

The Penn State matchup is also quite important for Wisconsin’s March Madness seeding, as Wisconsin currently sits as the final two seed in the bracket matrix, combining the seed projections of many of the sport’s top bracketologists. A home loss to Penn State could very well drop the Badgers down to a three seed for the NCAA tournament.

The Nittany Lions have been playing much better in their last few outings than much of conference play, picking up road wins over Nebraska and Minnesota and dropping two-possession games to tournament-likely Indiana and a Maryland team that currently ranks 13th in the country.

Today’s road test at Wisconsin will be the most challenging trial of late, though. According to ESPN's matchup predictor, the Badgers are 11.5-point favorites and have an 84.8% chance to win. Wisconsin is KenPom’s 10th-ranked team, with the 11th-ranked offense and 29th-ranked defense. The Badgers are a well-coached team led by veteran guard John Tonje, who’s averaging 19.1 points per game on 47.1% shooting.

WHEN: 1:00 pm
WHERE: Kohl Center
TELEVISION: Peacock

Since 2010, Penn State is just 4-21 against the Badgers, including 0-10 when playing away from home. However, the Nittany Lions are 1-0 against the Badgers with Coach Rhoades at the helm after last season saw an 87-83 home victory that resulted in a court storming in Bryce Jordan Center. Prior to that, Wisconsin had won the previous five matchups.