Penn State men’s basketball on Tuesday released its tentatively completed conference and non-conference schedule for the 2023-24 season, a slate which includes a Big Ten matchup against Michigan at the Palestra in Philadelphia.
The 2023-24 season marks Penn State’s first under new head coach Mike Rhoades and will tip off on Monday, Nov. 6 with the season opener against Delaware State.
The Nittany Lions will then host in-state foes Lehigh (Friday, Nov. 10) and St. Francis (Tuesday, Nov. 14) before welcoming defending Ohio Valley Conference regular-season champion Morehead State to the Bryce Jordan Center on Friday, Nov. 17.
Penn State will then travel for its first road contests of the year as part of the previously announced ESPN Events Invitational from Nov. 23-26 in Orlando, Florida. The Nittany Lions will start off the event with a rematch against Texas A&M on Thanksgiving airing on ESPN. Penn State defeated Texas A&M 76-59 in Des Moines in the first round of last season’s NCAA Tournament before eventually falling to Texas in the second round.
Following that game, the Nittany Lions will face either Butler or Florida Atlantic on Friday, Nov. 24, at either 11 a.m. or 1:30 p.m. on ESPN2 or ESPN+. Penn State then faces a team on the other side of the bracket in Boise State, Iowa State, VCU or Virginia Tech on Sunday, Nov. 26. The full bracket is available here.
The Nittany Lions then return home to host local foe Bucknell on Saturday, Dec. 2, followed by a pair of early-season Big Ten games, traveling to Maryland on Wednesday, Dec. 6 before hosting Ohio State on Saturday, Dec. 9. Penn State will remain in State College for two non-conference games, hosting Le Moyne on Thursday, Dec. 21 and Rider on Friday, Dec. 29.
Penn State will get back into Big Ten action on Thursday, Jan. 4 with a trip to Michigan State.
As mentioned above, Penn State will then travel to the Palestra in Philadelphia on Sunday, Jan. 7 for a matchup with Michigan.
Penn State has hosted three Big Ten games at the Palestra in recent years, defeating Michigan State in 2017 and Iowa in 2020 before falling to top-ranked Purdue in 2023. Penn State has played 61 total games in The Palestra dating back to 1927.
This season’s Nittany Lion roster features several players with ties to the Philadelphia area, including Jameel Brown (Philadelphia; Westtown School), Demetrius Lilley (Philadelphia; Lower Merion) and Zach Hicks (Camden, N.J.; Camden Catholic).
The game will also include a father-son matchup, with Penn State assistant coach Jimmy Martelli facing off against his father, Michigan associate head coach and former longtime Saint Joseph’s head coach Phil Martelli.
While Penn State season tickets are available now and single-game tickets will be available in the coming weeks, tickets for the Palestra game will go on sale at a later date.
Returning to the Bryce Jordan Center on Wednesday, Jan. 10, Penn State will host Northwestern before traveling to face Purdue on Saturday, Jan. 13. Back again in State College, Penn State will also host Wisconsin (Tuesday, Jan. 16) and Minnesota (Saturday, Jan. 27) during January, while traveling on the road for clashes against Ohio State (Saturday, Jan. 20) and Rutgers (Wednesday, Jan. 31).
Penn State will head back out west on Saturday, Feb. 3, to take on Indiana in the first of two regular-season meetings with the Hoosiers. The Nittany Lions will play host to Iowa (Thursday, Feb. 8), Michigan State (Wednesday, Feb. 14), Illinois (Wednesday, Feb. 21) and Indiana (Saturday, Feb. 24) in February, with away games during the month slated for Northwestern (Sunday, Feb. 11), Nebraska (Saturday, Feb. 17) and Iowa (Tuesday, Feb. 27).
A Saturday, March 2 visit to Minnesota will be Penn State’s final regular-season road trip. The Nittany Lions will return home to close the regular season against Maryland on Sunday, March 10.
The 2024 Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament is scheduled for Wednesday, March 13 through Sunday, March 17 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.
Previous reporting indicated that Penn State was slated to face Georgia Tech in Atlanta for an out of conference game. Penn State did not include that contest in its Tuesday press release but a program spokesperson noted that the schedule “has room for one more out of conference game.”
