Penn State men’s basketball season on brink of disaster following blowout loss in Rec Hall
Mike Rhoades leaned back in his seat in the Rec Hall media room Thursday night with his arms crossed and his eyes tightening their gaze as 7-foot forward Yanic Konan Niederhauer answered questions during their postgame press conference.
Rhoades stayed in his trance until Niederhauser was asked about his rim-rattling dunk in the second half over an Ohio State defender.
“Pretty nice,” Rhoades said to Niederhauser, now leaning forward with a slight smile.
The Penn State head coach found a piece of levity in what was a difficult night for his program. In the Nittany Lions’ best home atmosphere of the season at Rec Hall, they were blown out by Ohio State, 83-64, casting doubt over the program and where it goes from here.
And that comes in a season where the Nittany Lions were supposed to take off under Rhoades. Sure, the program very rarely makes the NCAA Tournament, but it’s armed with a talented roster and a lead guard in Ace Baldwin Jr. who proved last year he can be an elite defender and playmaker in the Big Ten.
Yet there they were Thursday night, lacking energy and effort as the Buckeyes continued to build a lead with no push back from Penn State. And it ended with a departure from the court before the alma mater was played, a sure sign of the mounting frustration as the team is mired in a stretch of seven losses in eight games.
Even Rhoades noted what the team lacked.
“No, it’s got to be better,” Rhoades said about the team’s effort. “Your best response to adversity is to fight more and fight harder and be more aggressive and run harder. There’s no excuses. It’s not good enough. It’s not good enough. It’s not good enough for me and our coaching staff, it’s not good enough for our players — Penn State deserves better.
“But this is part of building a program. This is a part of going through tough times. You’ve got to find out who’s with you and who’s going to compete. That’s No. 1 on the list. When you have a lot of adversity, you find out who’s all in.”
Every time the group seemed to put together a stretch in the first half when a comeback could be possible, Ohio State answered, and Penn State slumped its collective shoulders.
This is a team that is supposed to be filled with energy and operate at a frenetic pace, but it now looks listless, as if it’s waiting for the tide to turn without knowing how to give it any assistance.
Rhoades has insisted that the team is close to turning the corner, but Thursday did not make that apparent. The Nittany Lions looked like a team that was searching for a way out rather than one that intended on pushing forward. That’s not to say this season is over. There is an upcoming stretch of seven games that are winnable and each one will be crucial — because any loss at this point could be the one that finally puts to bed any chance of this team making the NCAA Tournament.
But that conversation feels so far removed from where the team currently is that it’s not worth having. This is a team that is on the precipice of not qualifying for the Big Ten Tournament, let alone any postseason that could come after it.
And winning one game has proven difficult enough of late that stringing two together seems nearly impossible. But as Rhoades said, getting those two can be just what a team needs, even if his group isn’t doing what it takes to get there.
“In this league, you go win two games in a row, you’re hot,” Rhoades said. “Thing about it for us, is before that — before going to beat somebody else — you can’t beat yourself. And that’s disappointing. That’s been disappointing for me and I take full responsibility in it. ... When you get beat up a few times, you get punched out a couple times, the one thing you can’t lose is your fight. You’ve gotta keep going.”
And maybe they will fight and recover, and this will all seem like a distant memory in March. But right now that’s not where the program is heading. After a resurgence in interest in the program with former head coach Micah Shrewsberry that Rhoades carried to an even greater level, the team is at a breaking point. The fans at Rec Hall filed out early, leaving in disgust after shouting their frustrations about rebounding, free throws and the general effort from the Nittany Lions.
Despite all of Rhoades’ effort to get them in the building — and his pleas for fans to “sweat with” his team through the ups and downs — they may have reached a point of no return.
And before long, he may find himself starting over again in front of an empty arena, pleading for people to come and watch.
