The Big Ten is a tough basketball conference on a yearly basis, and just might be the toughest conference in the country this year. Five Big Ten teams are currently in the AP Top 25, with four of them in the top 10 and three in the top five. Joe Lunardi, who does this for a living, has nine of the league’s teams as 95% locks for the NCAA Tournament field.

Penn State, and stop me if you’ve heard this before, is not among those nine. Yes, the Nittany Lions should have and assuredly would have played in the tourney last year had one actually been played, but the last time they actually played in one, Talor Battle was a 22-year-old lead guard, not a 32-year-old assistant coach. The Nittany Lions have never, since joining the Big Ten in 1992, made the NCAA field in consecutive seasons, despite (or because of) playing in a conference that regularly sends at least seven teams to the tournament each year. 

As a long-suffering hoops program prepares to turn another page, it’s as good a time as any to ask: What should realistic and reasonable annual expectations be for Penn State men’s basketball?

Contending for conference championships?

Finishing in the top half of the league?

 Making the NCAA tournament in most years?

Making it every two or three years?

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