Penn State Cancels Out Its Illinois Win

The NCAA bubble is a fickle mistress. One day -- literally, for one day -- Penn State appeared to be an NCAA Tournament lock after Thursday night's shocking come-from-behind win over Illinois. Less than 48 hours after that miracle, Penn State's profile looks shaky again following a 75-67, double-overtime loss at Iowa.

Penn State nearly pulled off another Houdini job against the Hawkeyes. Iowa led 51-42 with two minutes left when Nittany Lions point guard Talor Battle decided to take over. Battle scored the next 11 Penn State points, while Iowa got sloppy with the ball, and the Lions actually surged ahead 56-54 just 34 seconds from the final buzzer. Iowa tied it, Battle missed a last-ditch three-pointer and on to extra sessions the two teams went.

Iowa 75, Penn State 67 (2 OT): Recap | Box Score | RPI | Scores

A back-and-forth first overtime ended knotted at 72, but Iowa slowly pulled away in the second overtime, despite a short bench. The dagger came when Jake Kelly banked him a deep three with 55 seconds left -- his second bank-job in the overtimes. Penn State scored just three points in the second OT, on a Battle trifecta 37 seconds in.

So the Big Ten's bubble keeps on bobbling. Michigan State, Illinois and Purdue are locks, with Wisconsin and Ohio State almost certainly in as well.

Beyond that, the pecking order looked to be Penn State-Minnesota-Michigan, in that order, heading into Saturday. Then Michigan won in Minneapolis, Penn State imploded at Iowa, and you'd have to think things now sit Michigan-Penn State-Minnesota. The Wolverines lost at Iowa just a couple weeks back, but this defeat hurts Penn State worse than that one hurt Michigan, given the Nittany Lions' shaky computer numbers.

Penn State finished 10-8 in a solid Big Ten, and has 21 wins overall. But if the Nittany Lions, who have a bye out of the Big Ten conference tournament's first round, lose in the quarterfinals, there's a better-than-good chance that they'll be sitting the NCAA Tournament out.