Report: Penn State to host Butler in 2022 Gavitt Games
Penn State basketball head coach Micah Shrewsberry will face another familiar foe this season. According to national college basketball reporter Jon Rothstein, Penn State will host another of his former coaching stops, Butler University, in the 2022 edition of the Gavitt Tipoff Games.
No date or television arrangements have yet been reported or announced for the game. However, the series has traditionally taken place in the middle of November. That would likely line up the Bulldogs as Penn State’s second or third game of the nonconference schedule.
Other matchups this year are as follows, according to the report:
Villanova at Michigan State
Indiana at Xavier
Iowa at Seton Hall
Marquette at Purdue
Butler at Penn State
Northwestern at Georgetown
Nebraska at St. John’s
DePaul at Minnesota
The matchup marks the third confirmed date for Penn State’s non conference slate. The Nittany Lions are also set to participate in the 2022 Charleston Classic the weekend before Thanksgiving.
Additionally, the ACC/Big Ten Challenge will pit Shrewsberry’s crew against Clemson. That game is set for Tuesday, Nov. 29 and will be played at Clemson. No specific television arrangements or tip-off time has been set, though the ESPN family of networks will carry the game.
The Big Ten opponents, and home and away matchups, are also set for the upcoming season. No dates or tip times have been set, yet.
Penn State basketball’s Gavitt Games history
The annual series pits Big Ten programs against Big East programs over eight games. The inaugural Gavitt Games took place in 2015. In the time since, Penn State has compiled a 2-1 record against its Big East opponents.
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First topping DePaul in that initial matchup, 68-62, a rematch between the two programs in 2018 yielded a 72-70 overtime win for the Blue Demons.
The Nittany Lions’ last Gavitt Games appearance took place in 2019. A season in which the Nittany Lions were in line for a long-awaited NCAA bid before COVID cancelled the postseason tournament, their 81-66 destruction of Georgetown in Washington D.C. marked a breakout of sorts.
Next steps
The Nittany Lions are in the midst of an eight-week stretch of summer workouts for the team. Having welcomed three graduate transfers and five true freshmen into the program over the past three weeks, Penn State is hoping to quickly acclimate its newcomers through the guidance of its veteran presences.
“Having those three old guys as kind of your rocks. They’re so much more comfortable,” Shrewsberry told BWI earlier this month. “Hopefully they learned from John Harrar in terms of how you have to approach everything on a daily basis. Now, they get to take the leaders’ role.”
Penn State’s five Class of 2022 additions include Jameel Brown, Kebba Njie, Evan Mahaffey, Kanye Clary, and Demetrius Lilley.
