Penn State to Face Illinois in Second Round of Big Ten Tournament

Though the Massive Ten Match bracket has not formally been revealed but (Northwestern-Rutgers and Wisconsin-Minnesota are below method as of this writing) with Indiana beating Michigan in extra time earlier, Penn State’s first opponent within the convention match is about. The Tenth-seeded Nittany Lions will face the No. 7 seed Illinois on within the second spherical. PSU was capable of earn a most vital first spherical bye on account of their dramatic last-second win over Maryland.

PSU swept the Illini within the common season, having pulled off a 74-59 win in Champaign again in December, after which profitable 93-81 in State Faculty, in a sport the place Jalen Pickett scored a career-high 41 factors. Little doubt Brad Underwood’s squad needs to be licking their chops on the prospect of revenge and given how it is extremely troublesome to beat the identical group 3 times in a season, it would have to be all palms on deck for the Shrews Crew in the event that they need to make it 3-0 towards Illinois on the season.

With Penn State at present on the correct facet of the NCAA Match bubble, a 3rd win over the Illini would just about lock up the Nittany Lions’ first bid to the Massive Dance since 2011. Some faculty hoops pundits have even steered PSU punched their ticket to March Insanity when Cam Wynter’s layup went down towards Maryland, however it could be finest to only proceed profitable as a lot as attainable from now till Choice Sunday to be able to keep away from having to sweat issues out.

The sport will tip off on Thursday at 6:30 PM EST on B1G Community.