Penn State basketball aims to keep postseason momentum alive vs. Northwestern

Penn State basketball is fresh off a comeback 79-73 win over Michigan Sunday at the Palestra in Philadelphia. The Nittany Lions trailed by as many as 14 in the first half before catching fire in the second half in front of a sold-out crowd. Penn State now returns to the Bryce Jordan Center to take on Northwestern Wednesday night. What can we expect to see between the Nittany Lions and Wildcats?

Previewing Northwestern

Northwestern is currently 11-3 (2-1) and projected for the 11-seed in the most recent NCAA Tournament bracketology by Joe Lunardi of ESPN. The Wildcats are currently No. 71 in the NET rankings. It has been an up-and-down season so far for head coach Chris Collins. Northwestern has pulled off impressive Quad 1 victories over No. 20 Dayton, No. 2 Purdue, and No. 28 Michigan State. At the same time, the Wildcats also lost shockingly to No. 300 Chicago State at home.

Northwestern is led by star guard Boo Buie, who is averaging 18.1 PPG, 3.5 RPG, and 4.9 APG so far this season. Buie is the younger brother to Penn State basketball legend Talor Battle, an assistant coach for the Wildcats. Battle was previously an assistant coach at Penn State from 2020-2021 before heading to Evanston.

Penn State basketball must win to keep postseason hopes alive

While Northwestern has proven to be a solid team in the Big Ten this season, this game is a must-win for Penn State basketball if it hopes to make any postseason in March.

The NCAA Tournament is most likely out of reach this season unless something significantly changes with this team. However, the NIT tournament is still a possibility and would be a good momentum boost to build on for the next few years under Mike Rhoades.

The new NIT format takes the top 2 teams in the NET rankings that didn’t make the NCAA Tournament. Joe Lunardi currently projects 6 Big Ten teams to make the NCAA Tournament. The next highest two teams are Nebraska (58) and Iowa (68), who would get the Big Ten NIT auto bids. Most NIT bracketology sites have Minnesota (88) and Indiana (98) picking up at-large bids to the tournament, as well.

That means for Penn State basketball to make the postseason this season, the Nittany Lions will have to finish inside the top 10 in the conference NET rankings. Currently, Penn State sits last in the conference with a NET ranking of 128. Beating Northwestern would give the Nittany Lions another Quad 2 win and help pull them back toward the cluster of teams contending for the NIT field.

Penn State basketball is starting a stretch with 4 consecutive games against NCAA Tournament teams. The Nittany Lions play versus Northwestern, at Purdue, versus Wisconsin, and at Ohio State in the coming weeks.

Out of those games, Wednesday night against the Wildcats is certainly the most winnable game. The schedule lightens up a bit after that stretch, but if Penn State can continue the momentum from the weekend and beat Northwestern, it should keep the Nittany Lions afloat until that happens.

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