Penn State men’s basketball returns to the AP Top 25 poll. Here’s where it landed
Penn State men’s basketball is back in the The Associated Press Top 25 poll after a two week hiatus.
The Nittany Lions are No. 24 in the poll with 114 voting points. They were unranked in the last two polls after they were ranked No. 20 three weeks ago. They received 24 voting points in last week’s poll and had the eighth-most voting points among unranked teams.
Head coach Pat Chambers has led Penn State to a 14-5 record on the season and a 4-4 record in the Big Ten. The Nittany Lions won their only game in the last week, defeating the Michigan Wolverines 72-63.
The win over the Wolverines in Ann Arbor was a big one for Penn State. It was the team’s first Big Ten road win of the season and put the Nittany Lions back on track to finish at .500 in the conference. They were led by senior forward Lamar Stevens, redshirt senior guard Curtis Jones and sophomore guard Myreon Jones in the game. The trio combined for 53 points in the game and were the only three players to reach double figures in the game for Penn State.
The Nittany Lions are among six Big Ten teams that are ranked in Monday’s poll, alongside Michigan State (No. 14), Maryland (No. 15), Iowa (No. 18), Illinois (No. 19) and Rutgers (No. 25). The Big Ten has the most ranked teams in the country of any conference. The conference also has four teams receiving voting points outside the top 25. Ohio State has the fourth-most points among the group with 16 while Indiana has the fifth most points with 15. Purdue and Wisconsin also received six points and one point, respectively.
The Nittany Lions will be back in action Wednesday for the first time in a week. They’ll take on the Indiana Hoosiers in the first of two games this week. The Hoosiers are the No. 38 team in the country according to Ken Pomeroy’s KenPom rankings.
They’ll head on the road after the game with the Hoosiers to take on the Nebraska Cornhuskers Saturday evening. The Cornhuskers are the No. 131 team in the country in the KenPom rankings.
The next AP Poll will be released at noon Feb. 3.
AP Top 25 men’s basketball poll
(Monday, Jan. 27, 2020)
1. Baylor 1,578
2. Gonzaga 1,552
3. Kansas 1,434
4. San Diego State 1,408
5. Florida State 1,318
6. Louisville 1,277
7. Dayton 1,163
8. Villanova 1,110
9. Duke 1,084
10. Seton Hall 1,055
11. Oregon 926
12. West Virginia 874
13. Kentucky 839
14. Michigan State 751
15. Maryland 650
16. Butler 631
17. Auburn 619
18. Iowa 545
19. Illinois 483
20. Colorado 314
21. Houston 296
22. LSU 260
23. Wichita State 161
24. Penn State 114
25. Rutgers 102
Others receiving votes: Creighton 59, Arizona 55, Texas Tech 33, Ohio State 16, Indiana 15, East Tennessee State 14, Northern Iowa 13, Memphis 11, USC 9, Rhode Island 6, Purdue 6, Florida 4, Arkansas 3, Saint Mary’s 3, Tulsa 3, SMU 3, Wisconsin 1, Akron 1, Harvard 1
This story was originally published January 27, 2020 at 12:24 PM.
