Bracketology: Rankings and What’s Ahead for Penn State Basketball

Following the third straight loss for Penn State — and a 2-7 close to January — it was left off Joe Lunardi’s “Bracketology” on Monday.

Consistency has evaded this Nittany Lions squad and is something that Mike Rhoades knows has been an issue for his team.

“… We were playing very efficiently early on,” Rhoades said Monday, “and even the Purdue game is an example and all that and then we hit January. All seasons are up and down … We’re just not sustaining it to a level where you’re winning Big Ten games at a consistent level, and that’s what really hurt us in January.”

If Penn State can find some consistent play over the closing nine games, it could improve its resume and secure its spot in the Big Ten tournament — its most likely path to the NCAA Tournament.

WHAT LIES AHEAD FOR PENN STATE BASKETBALL

In key analytical rankings, Penn State is 52nd on KenPom, 54th in NET, and 67th in Bart Torvik’s T-Rank. When examining PSU’s resume, the Nittany Lions are 3-9 in Quad 1 and 2 games — with one Q1 victory against No. 7 Purdue — and have two wins against quality opponents. Over the final nine games, though, Rhoades’ team can boost its resume if it can find that elusive consistent play:

• versus Minnesota (Q3)
• at UCLA (Q1)
• at USC (Q1)
• versus Washington (Q3)
• versus Nebraska (Q2)
• at Minnesota (Q2)
• at Indiana (Q1)
• versus No. 18 Maryland (Q1)
• at No. 21 Wisconsin (Q1)

UPDATED CONFERENCE BIDS

The SEC’s 13 bids still lead Lunardi’s projections, but the Big Ten is back up to 10. The updated seedings are as follows:

• No. 2 seed Purdue
• No. 4 seed Michigan State
• No. 4 seed Wisconsin
• No. 5 seed Illinois
• No. 6 seed Maryland
• No. 6 seed Oregon
• No. 6 seed UCLA
• No. 7 seed Michigan
• No. 10 seed Ohio State
• No. 11 seed Nebraska

ESPN will update its projections Friday.