Penn State basketball looking for a reset after latest meltdown

Penn State basketball is fresh off one of its worst losses of the season on Saturday, a 75-70 defeat to Minnesota suffered after leading by 23 points in the first half. The game was symbolic of the entire year for the Nittany Lions; plenty of positives to build off of, but often overshadowed by head-scratchingly poor play in critical momentums. After the loss, head coach Mike Rhoades analyzed what caused the “disappointing second-half meltdown” and eyed a reset with the regular season finale and Big Ten Tournament on the horizon.

Mike Rhoades: Penn State basketball faltered in second-half meltdown

Saturday’s loss was a disheartening one for Penn State basketball. Unfortunately, it’s been a common trend during the 2023-24 season. The 23-point collapse was the fourth time the Nittany Lions have blown at least a 10-point lead this year.

It certainly was a tale of two halves for Penn State in Minneapolis. The Nittany Lions shot the lights out in the first half, particularly from deep, going 9-13. But the three-point shot went ice-cold in the second, only making two more from beyond the arc after halftime.

“When we got that lead and all that stuff, they [Minnesota] didn’t falter. We faltered,” Mike Rhoades said after the game. “And we just had a second-half meltdown. Even though we made a bunch of threes in the first half, [it created] a little bit of a false sense of security there. They took some momentum into halftime, then got going.”

The Nittany Lions were also uncharacteristically sloppy in the second half, turning the ball over 10 times to Minnesota’s four. Penn State lost the turnover battle 17-12 on the afternoon. Mike Rhoades’s squad led the Big Ten in turnovers forced coming into the game and had the 11th-best turnover margin in the nation at +4.1.

“We just stood around in that whole second half. Just made it really hard,” Rhoades added. “We’ve done a great job all year of not turning the ball over, and we just gave them the ball. And they got themselves back into it, and then late, we didn’t give ourselves a chance to win the game or cut it to a one-possession game because we turned the ball over. I liked how we were ready to play today, but [it was] a disappointing second-half meltdown.”

Nittany Lions looking for a reset ahead of Big Ten Tournament

Now sitting at 14-16, it’s been a quintessential mixed bag of a year for Penn State basketball. The Nittany Lions head into the regular season finale Sunday against Maryland at 8-11 in Big Ten play. The program has only won more than nine conference games four times since joining the Big Ten. Still, defeats like Saturday leave you to wonder what could have been.

Looking ahead, likely the only chance Mike Rhoades has of making the postseason in year one at Penn State is by stringing together a solid run in the Big Ten Tournament. It’s a feat that is certainly possible given how we’ve seen the Nittany Lions play at times, with two top-15 upsets since January. But for a team that’s struggled with consistency all season, such a run seems like a long shot.

Still, Rhoades is not counting his team out just yet. With eight days off before tipoff against the Terrapins, the Nittany Lions coach says this week is about a reset.

“[We’ll] take a couple days off this week and get our bodies right, our minds right, and work on our game at home and then go play in the tournament and see what happens,” he said.

“The one thing is, everybody thought they’d be beating us up and down the street this year with a new staff, new team, and all that. But that’s not the case. We got to play better down the stretch here in whatever we got left. But I know people don’t want to play us either. “

Penn State basketball takes on Maryland in the Bryce Jordan Center on Sunday evening at 7:30. The game will be shown on the Big Ten Network.

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