Mike Rhoades offers blunt assessment of Penn State basketball program after Northwestern collapse

Penn State basketball came into the week surging off an electric come-from-behind win versus Michigan at the Palestra Sunday evening. The Nittany Lions hoped to keep the momentum going against Northwestern, a game that figured to be pivotal for Penn State to have a chance at any sort of postseason run in year one under Mike Rhoades.

But as we have often seen this season, the Nittany Lions fell flat Wednesday night. After taking a double-digit lead early in the second half, Penn State slowly let the game slip away, ultimately suffering a 76-72 defeat to the Wildcats at home.

Now looking up at a daunting portion of its schedule, Nittany Lions head coach Mike Rhoades broke down what went wrong Wednesday night and offered a blunt assessment of the current state of his Penn State basketball program.

Penn State lets another win slip away

Penn State basketball came into Wednesday night seemingly heading in the right direction. The Nittany Lions were fresh off a 14-point come-from-behind victory over Michigan Sunday night at the Palestra in Philadelphia.

With a pivotal stretch of games ahead, it felt like the Nittany Lions needed to steal a win at home against Northwestern to keep any semblance of postseason hopes alive heading into mid-January. And for the most part, Mike Rhoades’s team played like it early Wednesday night. Penn State led the entire first half and took a commanding 53-43 lead with 15 minutes to play in the second.

But then, as we have seen several times this season, it all fell apart. Northwestern went on a 15-0 run midway through the second half en route to a 76-72 victory. The Nittany Lions went cold in the second half, shooting 37% from the field. It was a particularly poor shooting night from deep. The Nittany Lions finished an abysmal 18% from three-point range, an issue that Rhoades chalked up to mentality and lack of “swag” after the game.

Mike Rhoades takes stock in Nittany Lions basketball program

Sitting at 8-8, Penn State basketball faces a difficult stretch of games to close out January. The Nittany Lions travel to top-ranked Purdue on Saturday before returning home to play No. 15 Wisconsin Tuesday night. Games at Ohio State and against Minnesota, both of whom are in the top 100 of the NET rankings, then await to end the month.

If Penn State wants to finish the season strong, something must give. The Nittany Lions have been close in many of the toughest games on their schedule, but have been unable to get across the finish line. This is a reality that Mike Rhoades reflected following the loss to Northwestern.

“Not good enough,” Rhoades said of his team’s play Wednesday night. “Not good enough to win a Big Ten game. Close. Lot of good things to cheer about. Everyone was excited at times with our level of play. Man, we did it in the first half; let’s do it in the second half. We didn’t. We’re close in a lot of areas; we’re not in some others.

“When you get a lead in the second half, the other team is probably going to make a run. Alright, withstand the run, and figure it out. I think the run was 15 [points]. You got to stop it at eight; stop it at nine. Some of it was self-induced. They made a couple of really nice plays. And I think in that run, we had two steals, and we didn’t convert. And that’s how they extended the run.”

We will find out much about the mentality of this Penn State basketball team in the coming weeks. The competition doesn’t get any easier, either. But for Mike Rhoades, the key to unlocking success is just as much an internal struggle as it is a battle against the Nittany Lions’ opponents on the court.

“[We were] just not good enough,” he expressed. “There are no consolation prizes. There are times we’re close. You’re playing good teams; you just can’t beat yourself.”

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