Dec 29, 2024; University Park, Pennsylvania, USA; Penn State Nittany Lions guard Ace Baldwin Jr (1) shakes hands with guard Nick Kern Jr (3) during the second half against the Penn Quakers at Bryce Jordan Center. Penn State defeated Penn 86-66. Mandatory Credit: Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images
Penn State Basketball has received votes in five AP polls this season, and there’s a decent chance the Nittany Lions will make it six at 1:00 pm Monday when this week’s poll is released.
And much of that is due to one AP Voter, Mitch Northam.
Northam joined Steve Travis and myself on The Shots Gotta Fall Podcast to talk about why he is so high on the Nittany Lions, compared to the rest of his fellow AP voters.
Mitchell has his own women’s college basketball podcast, a vote in Women’s AP Poll and is both a writer for the USBWA and a digital content producer (give him a follow on twitter: @primetimeMitch)
“They really caught my eye,” Northam said during this week’s episode. “I noticed they were off to a hot start, they caught my attention after they beat Virginia Tech…I started looking at the numbers and their offense is really great. They (were) 6th in offense nationally).”
He went on to elaborate saying even Penn State‘s loss to Clemson is a good loss as they are a top 4 ACC team. He also pointed to a three-game stretch that he thinks could define the season in early January, with road games at Illinois and Michigan State sandwiching a home game vs Oregon.
Mitch went onto talk about how Penn State defeated their opponents, stating “If you look at their schedule…their closest win was 11 points at Drexel, a true road game…it’s not a great non-conference slate but you beat the teams in front of you, no bad losses.”
You can listen to the Full Episode and conversation with Northam below:
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