Carolyn Kieger and Penn State women’s basketball ‘searching for winners’ after fourth straight loss
The halftime buzzer sounded at the Bryce Jordan Center and Penn State jogged off the court, heads held high.
The Lady Lions, who lost three straight games, only trailed No. 17 Indiana by one point, in a second quarter where Penn State held a lead for a majority of the time.
It appeared as if a possible upset was brewing.
But this was far from the case, as the Hoosiers opened the third quarter on a 10-0 run and out competed the Lady Lions en route to a 76-60 victory on Thursday night.
Four points into this run, Penn State coach Carolyn Kieger called a timeout, hoping to gather her team’s composure and “kill the run,” but this was far from what happened.
“At the end of the day that whole third quarter was effort,” Kieger said. “We were giving up wide open layups and offensive rebounds and that was heart.”
“Indiana wanted it more than us in the third quarter and that was evident and I think that is hard to shallow as a coach when your team looks like a team that doesn’t want to win more.”
Kieger was evidently frustrated following Thursday’s defeat and it was because of her team’s effort.
In the first half, Penn State looked like a Kieger-coached team.
The Lady Lions were out-hustling the Hoosiers, moving the ball on offense, shooting 48 percent from the field and not allowing any easy buckets at the other end of the court.
But this all changed in the second half.
Penn State shot just 26 percent from the field in the second half to Indiana’s 53. The Hoosiers had 24 rebounds to Penn State’s 12. Indiana had nine assisted buckets, the Lady Lions had just one.
And this drastic change in performance from one half to the next, just doesn’t sit well with Kieger. ‘
“We have to be mentally tougher. We’re taking bad shots, we’re not running the offense, we’re running around with our heads cut off acting like we don’t know the offense and it just becomes a rattle down,” Kieger said. “Every game in the Big Ten so far, we’ve at least played with a team for a half, which proves we can play and it’s more of an intangible thing or a consistency thing.”
Kieger has delivered her message to the team and it’s not changing. Kieger wants to win and is now left with the long process of waiting for this message to sink in and show up on the court.
“It is a complete program thing but at the end of the day, we have to change,” Kieger said. “We’re saying the same things everyday in practice and as a coach you are going to keep doing it, you are going to keep watching film, you are going to keep buying into them, you are going to hope that someday the light bulb goes off.”
And now Kieger and the coaching staff are left searching for answers, answers that are not easy to find.
“We’re searching for consistency and obviously we are going to keep watching tape, we’re going to keep watching film and at the end of the day, we need winners,” Kieger said. “We need people that want to step up and win a ball game and right now I look in the locker room and I see a lot of defeated people, who look down and that’s not the way you are going to win ball games.
“I want to know who my Lions are, I want to know who my winners are, the killers and right now, we’re going to try to find it.”
For Kieger, this search isn’t something new, it’s one that she has done already in her coaching career and she was able to find answers.
Prior to taking over at Penn State this season, Kieger coached at her alma mater, Marquette, for the past five seasons.
In her first year with the Golden Eagles, the program won just nine games. The year after that, Marquette won 14, then in the next three years, it made three straight NCAA Tournaments, winning an average of 25 games each season.
And now Kieger is back at square one with the Nittany Lions, turning around a program that has only had one winning season since 2014.
“I remind myself everyday that it is a process, to be patient,” Kieger said. “The same thing happened when we were at Marquette. We’ll get there. I have zero doubts in my head, we’ll get there, but I’m a competitor, I’m a winner and I’m not very patient so for me I want it to happen now.
“I know that it’s baby steps. I know that every moment in the locker room that is tough now will pay dividends next year and the lessons that we are teaching now are bigger than just a win or a loss.”
Kieger also realizes that her job is about more than wins and losses. Kieger is trying to teach the women in this program life lessons, she is trying to be a mentor on and off the court.
And at the end of the day, her team isn’t matching her energy and that is leading to frustration.
“We’re trying to make them strong young women,” Kieger said. “We’re trying to make them competitors in life, not just when we are playing Indiana and I think that is where as a staff we’re pouring into these young women that you have to give your max effort every day.”
“There is no other way,” Kieger continued. “Why wouldn’t you dive on the floor for a loose ball, why wouldn’t you try to get an ‘A’ and not settle for a ‘B’ why wouldn’t you try to be the best woman you can be, the best daughter, the best teammate, the best friend. That’s what we are striving for every day.”
