STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (WHTM) – The Penn State Men’s basketball team will take on Texas A&M on Thanksgiving to open action for the 2023 ESPN Events Invitational as announced on Tuesday.

The three-game tournament will run from Nov. 23-26 near Orlando, Florida at State Farm Field House at ESPN Wide World of Sports.

The game will be a rematch of the first round of the 2022-23 NCAA Tournament. In that matchup, the Nittany Lions took the game over the Aggies 76-59. It was the first time in five all-time meetings that Penn State was victorious over Texas A&M.

The Aggies were the No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament last season, earning their first appearance since 2018. They completed the season 25-10 overall and 15-3 in the SEC where they reached the SEC Tournament Championship game. There, they were defeated 65-50 by Tennessee.

Penn State will be entering its first season with Head Coach Mike Rhodes at the helm. Rhodes spent six years as the head coach at VCU where he took his team to three NCAA Tournaments. Rhodes’s overall record is 129-60 and 72-32 in the Atlantic 10 Conference.

Last season, Penn State finished 23-14 overall and 10-10 in the Big Ten and made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament where they lost 66-71 to Texas.

To continue their ESPN Events Invitational stint, the Nittany Lions will face either Butler or Florida Atlantic on Friday. Penn State last played Butler at the 2022 Gavitt Tipoff Games where the Lions took the win. Penn State has never played Florida Atlantic.

On Sunday, Penn State will play someone from the opposite side of the bracket which consists of Boise State, Iowa State, VCU, and Virginia Tech.