Penn State Basketball: 2018-19 season preview for the Nittany Lions

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PITTSBURGH, PA – MARCH 15: Justin Robinson #5 of the Virginia Tech Hokies reacts after fouling out against the Alabama Crimson Tide late in the second half of the game in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at PPG PAINTS Arena on March 15, 2018 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images) /

Non-conference schedule

Nov. 9: North Florida
Nov. 12: Jacksonville State
Nov. 15: at DePaul
Nov. 20: vs. Wright State (Cancun Challenge in Cancun, Mexico)
Nov. 21: vs. Bradley/SMU (Cancun Challenge in Cancun, Mexico)
Nov. 27: Virginia Tech
Dec. 8: Colgate
Dec. 15: vs. NC State (Basketball Hall of Fame Boardwalk Classic in Atlantic City, NJ)
Dec. 19: at Duquesne
Dec. 21: at Alabama
Dec. 29: UMBC

Penn State’s non-conference schedule gets off to a relatively ho-hum start until they host Virginia Tech on Nov. 27 as part of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. The Hokies enter the season ranked No. 15 in the country and have high expectations. This will be Penn State’s first real test of the season and will tell us just how close they are to taking that step forward.

They’ll then take that one-week break in early December to play their first two conference games before finishing off their non-conference schedule with a trio of tests.

NC State was one step ahead of Penn State last year as they found themselves on the right side of the NCAA bubble. The Wolfpack expect to find themselves in a similar position this year, making this yet another measuring stick games for the Nittany Lions.

PSU wraps up their non-conference schedule against Alabama and UMBC, and while the Nittany Lions may be favored in both games, they’ll need to bring their A-game for both. No one knows what to make of Alabama without Collin Sexton, but they return several key players from last year’s team and have two wing players in John Petty and Herb Jones that are likely NBA Draft picks, which makes them dangerous. And we all know what UMBC did to Virginia last year.

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