If you looked at Seton Hall’s record coming into this game, you may have thought this would, or should, be an easy out. But the Seton Hall Pirates had already played Kenpom Nos. 23 Louisville, and 24 Oregon, by the time this game was played. They’d also played a decent Kenpom No. 73 Rhode Island, making the game against the Nittany Lions the fourth against a Kenpom top-100 team in five games. For a team as young as the Pirates, that’s a lot of top-100 opponents to start the season.
Penn State, on the other hand, had only played two games due to covid protocols postponing their opener against Drexel.