Every Penn State basketball season there are people who think that this is the year that Penn State will be in the NCAA tournament. The last time they appeared in the tournament was 2011 when they lost in the round of 64 to Temple. This year they are off to a great start, being 21st place in the ESPN power rankings and thirteenth in resume. The team is 5-0 with some great ways to prove themselves as a top 25 team before Big 10 play even starts. They have many players with promise and some who have already established themselves with starting roles. In non-conference games PSU will play Oklahoma State or Syracuse as well as Georgetown who they already beat. Penn State received 10 votes to be ranked in the AP top 25 poll after their close game against Yale on Saturday.
According to Penn State’s radio announcer (Steve Jones was in Columbus for the Penn State football game earlier on Saturday), Penn State was playing horribly until the last part of the game when they went on a huge 16-2 scoring run to take their first lead of the game on a Myles Dread three pointer with 56 seconds left in the game. Yale lead by 16 points with nine minutes to go in the second half. PSU won every game other than Yale by at least 15 points. Andy Katz has them as an eight seed in his preseason March Madness bracket. They have a tough schedule playing five games against top 10 opponents but many people think that they can get it done and live up to the hype that they are getting.
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