Penn State Basketball Releases 2022 Non-Conference Schedule

We now know at least part of the official 2022-23 Penn State basketball schedule. Earlier today, the program officially released their non-conference portion of the schedule through social media:

As you can see above, the Nittany Lions will open up the regular season at home on Monday, November 7th, when they play host to Winthrop, a respectable mid-major that has played in numerous NCAA Tournaments over the past couple of decades and came up short in the Big South Conference Tournament championship game last season, which would’ve sent them to yet another March Madness. Some of the other games listed on the schedule have been previously announced, such as the home game against Butler (Gavitt Games), Furman (Charleston Classic), on the road against Clemson (Big Ten-ACC Challenge), and home against Canisius.

The remaining non-conference games that had yet to be announced were also revealed, all being home games against Loyola (MD), Lafayette, Quinnipiac, and Delaware State. If the Quinnipiac and Delaware State games look like deja-vu then you’re not alone: These two games were also scheduled on December 22nd and 29th of last year, but were cancelled due to COVID outbreaks either within PSU or the opposing team. Let’s hope we don’t see such cancellations happen again.

Also, if you see a massive time gap between the Clemson and Canisius games, keep in mind that PSU will also play a pair of Big Ten games in early December before going full-bore into the conference slate in January.

At first glance, this looks like a manageable schedule, which is ideal when you have five incoming freshmen and a few transfer portal guys on the roster. It will give the veterans and newcomers a chance to gel together without facing an absolute gauntlet of non-conference foes, knowing just how much of a bloodbath the Big Ten generally can be. While most of you are surely counting down the remaining handful of days until the football season opener at Purdue, those of us PSU hoops die-hards are already telling ourselves there’s only 90 days until the Shrews Crew tips off against Winthrop!