2012 Puerto Rico Tip-Off Field Set

Chambers hinted a few months ago on his radio show that Penn State would be participating in the 2012 Puerto Rico Tip-Off in November. The ESPN sponsored event usually has one of the strongest fields of all the preseason exempt tournaments. Through Jeff Goodman at CBS and ESPN's event twitter, it appears the 8-team field has been set.

(Edited June 6th) NC State, Providence, Tennessee, Oklahoma State, Massachusetts, Southern Mississippi UNC-Asheville, and Akron will join the Lions in Puerto Rico on November 15th, 16th, and 18th. Since NCAA rules allow teams to play a maximum of four games in these exempt events, PSU will likely play one of those 7 teams in the 14 days leading up to the tournament. This year Purdue hosted Western Michigan before heading to Puerto Rico. The times and matchups for the event have yet to be announced.

It might not seem like an intimidating field at first glance, but this could again go down as one of the toughest this season. Providence and NC State don't lose too much in addition to bringing in Top-10 classes, while Oklahoma State returns LeBryan Nash and adds a Top-20 class. Even Tennessee, UMass, and Akron return significant parts from their NIT squads. While it might not a feature a Kentucky, make no mistake. This is a quality field across the board.

*Just a few games to pass along, Chambers said at a booster event in Allenberry that PSU was also scheduled to play Duquesne and Bucknell at home, while taking a trip to Philly to play La Salle at the Palestra next season. Throw in the Big Ten/ACC challenge game and that's a great start to a 13-game non-conference schedule.

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