Penn State Officially Releases 2016 Non-Conference Basketball Schedule

After numerous leaks on either via Penn State or their future opponents’ Twitter accounts and with merely a couple more unfilled slots to fill, PSU officially released its entire 2016 non-conference schedule for the upcoming basketball season. The schedule now currently reads as follows:

As we’ve stated in our prior posts regarding schedule announcements, this is an applause-worthy effort by the scheduling department within the hoops program. While it is admittedly on the more difficult side with games against Duke, Rhode Island/Cincinnati, and Pitt, it also features its share of winnable contests that won’t sacrifice the team’s strength of schedule and RPI, which could make all the difference if PSU finds itself on the NIT/NCAA bubble come March.

You may also notice that there is only one official road game for Pat Chambers’ crew and that’s at George Washington on Thanksgiving weekend. However, the St. John’s game, while technically a ‘neutral site’ game because of its being part of the Hoops Holiday Festival being held at Madison Square Garden, is really a de-facto road game for PSU given that St. John’s plays a good chunk of its home games at MSG.

Typically, there is a few weeks’ gap in between the official announcements of the non-conference and the Big Ten slates, so keep an eye out for the dates of the Big Ten opponents sometime in mid-late August. Don’t blink too much, because November will be here before you know it!