The final game of Penn State’s season, an 86-75 upset win at No. 12 Wisconsin, put a unique seal on what was an overall wacky campaign. The Nittany Lions weren’t in position to qualify for the Big Ten Tournament. But with two wins over top-15 teams and a No. 66 placing in the NCAA NET Ranking, Mike Rhoades’ program theoretically could’ve elected a postseason route.
The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) began on Tuesday, and Penn State is not a part of it. Nor will the Nittany Lions compete in the College Basketball Crown, which is set to tip off on March 31. After a regular season that began glowingly and concluded with a 16-15 record, Rhoades had set his sights on the future. It was time to turn the page.
“When the Wisconsin game was over, there were some initial conversations about postseason play,” Rhoades said Wednesday. “But as the head coach of the program, I felt it was most important for us to start moving and building for the future and developing our program the way I see fit. After some conversations with administration and all that stuff, we wanted to move full speed ahead of offseason plans and building our program and our roster and going from there.”
This is arguably the most crucial offseason of Rhoades’ 11-year coaching tenure. With a combined 32-32 record over his first two seasons at Penn State, at stake is the job he has worked to obtain over the course of his entire career. There could be conversations regarding Rhoades’ future if his program doesn’t take a step forward next season.
But, for now, athletic director Pat Kraft has high hopes for what Rhoades can accomplish with the Nittany Lions, a program that has historically struggled to find consistent success, especially since joining the Big Ten prior to the 1992-93 season. Penn State has qualified for the NCAA Tournament just twice in the past 24 years. There’s significant ground to gain.
“We got to get better, but I’m not looking for a quick fix. I’m looking to do this the right way. … I’m more than ever confident in what he can do here, but we’re not looking short term. We’ve got to, I want to build this so that it is a consistent term,” Kraft said on Feb. 24. “And make no bones about it, the NCAA Tournament is the objective.”
The year began about as promising as it could’ve for the Nittany Lions, and the NCAA Tournament appeared not only a possibility, but a likelihood. Penn State won eight of its first nine games, including a win over No. 8 Purdue. But just after January began and Big Ten play kicked into full gear, “too many times, the wheels fell off,” Rhoades said.
The Nittany Lions lost 11 of their next 12 games that followed an 84-80 win over Northwestern on Jan. 5. Change is coming over the next few months. Rhoades will be tasked with evaluating not only players in the transfer portal, but also those on his roster and on his staff. All of it, being done to turn the page on what was a disappointing year for Nittany Lions basketball.
“I came here to build a program that wins Big Ten games. And last year and this year, we’ve had moments that you can say, ‘OK, some good things.’ But this year, too much faltering when we needed to prosper.
“And that didn’t happen, and that’s on me, and the reevaluation of everything we do in our program, to build this culture and to build our style of play, and to build our roster and team is going to be, really it already has, but it’s going to be evaluated to the highest level, led by me.”
