STATE COLLEGE – Penn State men’s basketball will spend the Thanksgiving holiday in the Sunshine State.
On Thursday, the Nittany Lions were announced as one of eight participants that will compete in the 2023 ESPN Events Invitational in Orlando, Florida. The three-day tournament begins on Nov. 23 and will be held at State Farm Field House at ESPN Wide World of Sports. Television designations and brackets for the 2023 ESPN Events Invitational are expected to be unveiled this summer.
Virginia Tech, Texas A&M, Iowa State, Virginia Commonwealth, Butler, Florida Atlantic and Boise State will also participate in the 2023 ESPN Events Invitational. Nittany Lions head coach Mike Rhoades was hired from Virginia Commonwealth University in March.
Six teams, including Penn State, earned NCAA tournament berths this past season. Florida Atlantic reached the Final Four. Penn State dispatched Texas A&M from the NCAA Tournament in the first round. Virginia Commonwealth, Boise State and Iowa State also had first-round exits.
The inaugural ESPN Events Invitation was held in 2006 with Arkansas winning the tournament that year. Oklahoma claimed the championship last year by defeating Ole Miss. In 2019, Maryland was the last Big Ten team to win the invitational.
The Nittany Lions’ out-of-state tournament slate last regular season included a trip to the Charleston Classic (Charleston, South Carolina), where they went 2-1 and finished third.
The upcoming season marks Penn State’s first trip to Florida for a Thanksgiving tournament since the Nittany Lions traveled to Niceville, Florida, during the 2021-22 season for the Emerald Coast Classic.
Elton Hayes is a veteran sports writer who covers Penn State for CNHI LLC publications. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @EHDC12.