Penn State ripe for intrigue at 2023 ESPN Events Invitational
Made official on Thursday afternoon, Penn State will participate as one of eight programs in the 2023 ESPN Events Invitational. The annual showcase college basketball tournament is held over Thanksgiving each year, set for Nov. 23, 24, and 26 in Orlando, Fla., during the upcoming campaign.
And the Nittany Lions will have story lines with nearly every potential opponent on the docket.
Those seven potential opponents to face at the Field House at ESPN Wide World of Sports include Boise State, Butler, Florida Atlantic, Iowa State, Texas A&M, VCU and Virginia Tech. Six of the programs, including Penn State, reached the NCAA Tournament last season.
But, nothing will outdo the subplots littered throughout the tournament with a Penn State-specific bent to them. Here’s why:
- Most notably, the Nittany Lions’ new head coach, Mike Rhoades, came from VCU. The veteran leader spent two stints in Richmond with the Rams. The six most recent were as their head coach. Five before that were as an assistant to Shaka Smart from 2009-14. A home-and-home between Penn State and VCU is in the works, but that’s not coming until the 2024-25 season. The result leaves the potential for the two programs to square off in the ESPN tournament right out of the gates.
- Among the seven other participating programs, Penn State faced three last season. The Nittany Lions beat Texas A&M in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in a 76-59 blowout. Much earlier in the nonconference slate, Penn State also notched a 68-62 win over Butler at the Bryce Jordan Center. Less successfully, the Nittany Lions came up on the losing end of a 61-59 decision to Virginia Tech in the Charleston Classic.
- Two other programs set to participate in the tournament have tangential relationships to Penn State’s head coaching vacancy in March. Florida Atlantic head coach Dusty May guided the Owls to the Final Four with a remarkable run in the NCAA Tournament this past season. And while he was doing it, the Nittany Lions’ athletic administration was working on what it might mean to lure May out of Boca Raton, Fla., to Happy Valley. Similarly, Penn State also looked heavily into Iowa State’s T.J. Otzelberger as a candidate for the job during its search. Ultimately, May signed a 10-year contract extension with the Owls in April and Otzelberger inked an extension running through the 2029 season.
