Penn State men’s basketball moved up three spots in the latest AP Poll to No. 20, with meetings against Cornell and No. 25 Iowa on the horizon.
At 10-2 on the season the Nittany Lions are set to face Cornell at noon on Sunday in the Bryce Jordan Center to close out the non-conference schedule before heading back into Big Ten play. Penn State joins a 12 teams currently 1-1 in the conference with Michigan State leading the way at 2-0.
Across the Big Ten only three teams are ranked higher with Michigan State sitting at No. 14, Michigan at No. 11 and Ohio State at No. 2 just behind top-ranked Gonzaga.
With the out-of-conference slate just days from completion, Penn State will turn its eyes toward a potential top 25 matchup with No. 25 Iowa on Jan. 4 at the Palestra in Philadelphia. The Hawkeyes face Kennesaw State this Sunday, the only game prior to their meeting with the Nittany Lions.
From there Penn State will face a reasonably favorable opening portion of Big Ten games traveling to Rutgers on Jan. 7 and hosting Wisconsin on Jan. 11 before a trip to Minnesota on Jan. 15. The Nittany Lions then will host Ohio State on Jan. 18 and travel to Ann Arbor on Jan. 22 to take on a rising Michigan team, before heading back to the Jordan Center to take on Indiana to close out the month on Jan. 29.
Penn State held steady at No. 18 in the latest NET Rankings, a system the NCAA Tournament committee uses to replace RPI in the selection process and a signifier of not only quality but schedule strength.
All told the Nittany Lions may come and go from the Top 25 but Penn State appears to be well positioned in late December for the kinds of things it would like to do in early March.
