After Humbling Loss to Indiana, Penn State Basketball Faces Early Crossroads

The Nittany Lions, who lost by 51 to the uranked Hoosiers, host No. 9 Michigan State in their Big Ten home opener.

Penn State Nittany Lions guard Kayden Mingo goes up for a shot against the Indiana Hoosiers at Assembly Hall. | Robert Goddin-Imagn Images

STATE COLLEGE | The Penn State men’s basketball team walked into Assembly Hall on Tuesday to face a hungry Indiana that had lost its previous two games. It was the first Big Ten game for more than half of Penn State’s roster, and it showed. The Nittany Lions lost 113-72, a game head coach Mike Rhoades called “embarrassing” afterward.  

“We were running into a buzzsaw,” Rhoades said Thursday, two days after the loss. “I don’t think they realized, as much as you as a coach can get on your soapbox and go crazy about it, they’ve got to feel it. They’ve got to get hit, they’ve got to see it and that it can happen. And it did happen. We had to endure it the whole time, and that’s hard, disappointing.”

Penn State entered its Big Ten opener with an 8-1 record, buffered by non-conference wins over eight teams ranked 200th or lower in the Ken Pomeroy college basketball ratings. The Nittany Lions had lost their only game against a top-100 team, to Providence (77-65).

Indiana’s veteran guard Lamar Wilkerson dropped a career-high 44 points, hitting 10 of 15 shots from 3-point range. The Hoosiers made 17 3-pointers, the most the Nittany Lions have allowed all season. 

“We had a lot of defensive breakdowns, and that gave guys open shots,” Rhoades said. “When teams go on scoring runs on you, you think you can get it back on offense the next possession, and it’s the complete opposite. I really thought it snowballed because of some of our decisions on offense.”

More challenges to come

Indiana Hoosiers guard Lamar Wilkerson makes a 3-pointer against the Penn State Nittany Lions at Assembly Hall. | Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Freshman Kayden Mingo led Penn State with 19 points, but the Nittany Lions never came close to challenging Indiana’s lead. With such a young team, Rhoades believes the loss was something Penn State had to experience. The Nittany Lions could experience more, as they begin a grueling stretch of conference games.

On Saturday, Penn State welcomes No. 9 Michigan State to the Bryce Jordan Center for its first home conference game. The Spartans are coming off a six-point home loss to No. 3 Duke. Penn State resumes Big Ten play in January with consecutive games against No. 13 Illinois, No. 2 Michigan, No. 6 Purdue and No. 25 UCLA.   

“We don’t point fingers. We own it all, good and bad,” Rhoades said. “You don’t get a 10-day vacation. You’ve got to get back up on the horse and go, and we’re not going to make excuses today and tomorrow preparing for Michigan State.”

Penn State had Thursday off, but most players were still in the weight room and gym getting extra work, Rhoades said. 

“We have a good group of guys; we’ve got guys that care about the right stuff,” Rhoades said. “We just have to continue to improve and get better and sort of just completely understand what it’s going to take all the time to find a way to win these games.”

Finding a silver lining

Pennsylvania, USA; Penn State Nittany Lions head coach Mike Rhoades looks on from the bench during the first half against the Navy Midshipmen at Bryce Jordan Center. | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

There can be a benefit to losing like that early in the season, Rhoades said. It quickly forces players to understand how tough the conference is and how critical it is to adjust game-to-game. Not every win that Penn State had this season was dominant. Rhoades called some of them “ugly wins,” but learning more through a loss is pivotal. 

“Obviously, of course, we don’t want to lose,” freshman forward Mason Blackwood said. “We want to win every game, but with a loss comes lessons, so as a team we’re just going to learn from that.”

Blackwood added that players aren’t putting their heads down because of the loss to Indiana.  

“I feel like that’s what we do best as a team, as a collective, as a whole. You know, it’s nothing new,” Blackwood said. “We’re just going to move forward as a team.”

This is Penn State’s first major test of adversity. After Saturday, the team will have a week to reset before playing Pitt on Dec. 21 at the Giant Center in Hershey, but compounding losses would make rebounding harder. 

“You would like to learn how to get it right through wins, we all do, but that’s not how life goes,” Rhoades said. “[Tuesday] was a rough night for our guys, that humbled the heck out of everybody, But now it’s can we use that experience to understand what we need to do and what it’s going to take for us to be successful.”

Rhoades wants his team to have a “not on us” mindset. It’s the competitive idea that, if an opponent is strong shooting from 3-point range, it won’t be successful against Penn State because of how the Nittany Lions attack defensively.  

“You’re going to have guys that have career days against you,” Rhoades said regarding Wilkerson’s performance. “You want to take the approach ‘not on us,’ [but] sometimes it does happen to you.”

Penn State hosts Michigan State at noon ET Saturday at the Bryce Jordan Center. Big Ten Network will televise. 

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