It’s not just about football this Thanksgiving, folks. Penn State Basketball has a giant match-up to kick off your holiday today.
Televised on the mothership ESPN, the undefeated Nittany Lions battle the No. 12 Texas A&M Aggies at 12:00 pm. While Penn State‘s schedule this far hasn’t been full (or existent) of any challenges, we’re about to learn a lot more about Mike Rhoades‘ roster at the ESPN Events Invitational (in the Walt Disney World ESPN Wide World of Sports). The Nittany Lions kick off the challenge in probably the best first-round (quarterfinal) match-up. This team should look familiar, as ironically, it’s a rematch of the 2023 NCAA Tournament first round game, where the No. 10 seed Nittany Lions routed the No. 7 Aggies 76-59. Of course, this Penn State team returns virtually no one from that team, thanks to the departure of head coach Micah Shrewsberry, his stealing of half the roster and his insistence on not playing and developing the young talent still on this roster (see: Kanye Clary, Jameel Brown, etc.)
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Texas A&M returns their star guard Wade Taylor, who’s averaging 17 points per game and almost 5 assists. He’s started the season ice cold from beyond the arc (19.2%), so hopefully that doesn’t change today. The Aggies also feature Henry Coleman III, who’s averaging 11.0 rebounds per game.
Everything You Need to Know About Penn State Basketball vs. No. 12 Texas A&M
Who: Penn State Basketball vs. No. 12 Texas A&MWhat: ESPN Events InvitationalWhere: Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports, Orlando, Fla.Time: NoonTV: ESPNLive Stream: FuboTV (FREE Trial)Betting Line: (-7) Texas A&MOver/Under: 135PSU MoneyLine: +274
Keys to the game will come down to three-point shooting and turnovers. Penn State’s defense has been stifling all year, ranking 2nd in forced turnovers according to KenPom. Unfortunately, the Aggies barely turn the ball over, so this may be hard for Penn State to take advantage off. However, Texas A&M has not started the season strong from beyond the arc (perhaps still scarred from Andrew Funk’s shooting last March), so we can hope Penn State’s strong defense beyond the arc can continue through this game. It won’t be an easy match-up, as Texas A&M is clearly the best team in the bracket. And if Penn State wins, they’ll likely face No. 19 Florida Atlantic, the second-best team in the bracket. Credit Penn State and Mike Rhoades for playing in an extremely difficult pre-conference tournament like this, but that won’t matter much if they can’t get a win or two. Vegas has Penn State has 7 point underdogs but given the early start and the fact that defense travels, perhaps the Nittany Lions can give us all a great start to our holiday with a top 25 win!
MORE: Insight into Mike Rhoades’ NIL Philosophy
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NittanyCentral is his second reporting job following the Men's Basketball program. He co-founded and co-hosts the Shots Gotta Fall - The Penn State Basketball Podcast (the premiere, the best, the only) with Steve Travis.
Smith's most proud moment covering the team was seeing the national No. 9 ranking during Pat Chambers' last year. His most embarrassing moment was spending almost a thousand dollars to travel 2,000 miles in 46 hours to watch the Nittany Lions lose to Temple in the 2011 NCAA Tournament (screw you Juan Fernandez).
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