Penn State basketball’s 2020-21 season is over following the announcement of the NCAA Tournament and NIT Tournament fields on Sunday afternoon and evening.
The Nittany Lions [finishing 11-13 on the year] were generally not considered to be in the running for an NCAA Tournament invitation, although Penn State’s resume – which gives it claim to the toughest schedule in the nation – and a handful of quality wins at least opened the door for the possibility in the final third of the season.
Nevertheless, Sunday night’s news regarding the NIT was a bit of a surprise given the Nittany Lions’ relative success against an unforgiving schedule even as the NIT changed its field size to just 16. Additionally Penn State finishes its season ranked No. 35 in the KenPom ratings system, the second-highest rated team to not make the postseason behind No. 33 Duke.
“If our team is defined by one word, we were competitors, and we wanted to keep playing basketball,” interim head coach Jim Ferry said in a statement. “Our guys worked incredibly hard, played in the nation’s best conference and against the toughest schedule in the country. I couldn’t be prouder of this team and am disappointed for our guys to not be selected for an NIT berth.”
Following the Nittany Lions’ last-second loss to Wisconsin in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament, interim head coach Jim Ferry was open and supportive of playing in the NIT.
“We will absolutely play in the NIT, and we are all on the same page,” Ferry said. “The school, the players, we all want to play, we want to keep this thing going. So if we get invited we’d be more than happy — we’d be excited to play the NIT.”
It’s unclear if Penn State’s administration shared those views with Ferry as AD Sandy Barbour looks to wrap-up the program’s months-long coaching search in the coming weeks if not days. At least two program sources had indicated optimism about the prospects of being selected for the NIT earlier in the day and seemed poised for preparations.
A department spokesperson said that Penn State’s absence from the NIT field was a product of the Nittany Lions not being selected and not the result of turning down a bid from the tournament.
On the coaching search front, the Penn State Board of Trustees’ Subcommittee on Compensation is set to meet this week at some point on Monday through Friday for a virtual meeting to discuss “Consideration of a personnel matter.” The committee has long been the final stage in the hiring process as it deals with contracts and salaries among university and athletic department personnel.
While interim coach Jim Ferry is considered a legitimate candidate for the opening, multiple sources are anticipating the Penn State and Barbour will move for an outside hire. It is unknown which direction Barbour will lean at this time, although Purdue assistant Micah Shrewsberry and Cleveland State coach Denis Gates, in addition to other candidates, have interviewed for the job, according to sources. Additionally, at least some portion of Penn State’s coaching search committee traveled to Indianapolis this past week during the Big Ten Tournament.
