Penn State Basketball Turning Heads To Start This Season | TRAVIS

Psst … Hey. Yeah, you. I can see why you’re distracted by a ton of Penn State Athletics Excellence these days.

Penn State Football is looking likely to host a College Football Playoff game! Exciting!

Penn State Wrestling just kicked off another season, and is coming off another National Championship!

Penn State Women’s Volleyball is anticipating a long-awaited return to the National Semifinals. But if you’ll allow me a moment of your time, I believe there’s another group of athletes deserving of your focus.

Across the street from Beaver Stadium, there’s an oft cavernous (and admittedly unwelcoming) arena home to, I posit, a sleeping giant in the national college basketball scene.

No, wait! Come back! I have proof!

Phew, nearly lost ya.

Anyway, yes, Penn State Basketball is off to a 4-0 start. Yes, this is the third consecutive year in which that can be said but I don’t believe much attention is being paid to just how dominant the Nits have looked in these 4 games.

All 4 games were pretty definitive blowouts. Every margin of victory was greater than 20 points. Do you know how many seasons in which Penn State won 4 consecutive games by 20+ points in any point? One. This one.

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Why It’s Time to Start Paying Attention to Penn State Basketball

They have played 160 minutes of basketball and have only trailed for a grand total of TWENTY SECONDS. That’s less time than one possession in a game.

“Sure” say you, the college basketball superfan “But look at who they played. This is one of the worst non-conference schedules in the country.” Well, number one, rude. Secondly, none of the most successful Penn State teams in program history have consistently beaten up on bad competition this convincingly. You won’t find a Micah Shrewsberry or a Pat Chambers or a Jerry Dunn or a Bruce Parkhill team that followed up a 42-point win with a 49-point win.

Go ahead, look it up.

I’ll wait.

Welcome back.

See what I mean? This team has depth. And GOOD depth at that.

There aren’t many Penn State Basketball teams in memory that can sit an all-big ten guard because of foul trouble and EXTEND their lead while doing it. In PSU’s 30-point win over St Francis last Tuesday, 10 Penn State players logged 10+ minutes in the game. In a 22-point win over Virginia Tech last Friday on a neutral floor in Baltimore, 8 players did the same.

PSU is 57th in the country in bench minutes while also 37th in Minutes Continuity. There are only 3 power conference teams nationally who can boast a similar or better ratio of depth and experience: Auburn, (Ranked No. 4 this week), Houston (NO. 7), and Texas A&M (No. 23).

Nationally, respect is slowly starting to pour in. Emphasis on slowly. Basketball metrics really like PSU. KenPom, one of the most frequently referenced and utilized sources to gauge talent and predict future success in college basketball says that PSU is the No. 32 team in the country as of publication and they even received 4 votes in this week’s AP Top 25 poll!

Now is the time to buy in.

Come on out to the BJC Wednesday night to watch PSU battle (also sneakily talented) Purdue Fort Wayne . Prepare to be impressed and boast to your friends and family that you knew about these guys before them. Thank me later.

Climb aboard the bandwagon and give these guys some of your attention. There’s plenty of room. You won’t regret it.

MORE: Penn State Hoops Lands Highest-Rated Recruit in Program History

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