Mike Rhoades Remains Confident Penn State Basketball Is on the Right Path

The Nittany Lions still have not won a Big Ten game. Their coach believes a breakthrough is coming.

Penn State Nittany Lions basketball coach Mike Rhoades talks to his players during a full timeout against the Pitt Panthers at the Giant Center in Hershey, Pa. | Taj Falconer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

STATE COLLEGE | It’s no secret that Penn State’s basketball tradition runs thin compared to football, but Mike Rhoades took the head coaching job to change that. Building the program hasn’t been simple, and this season there have been more lows than highs. To an extent, that’s expected. 

And football isn’t the only team in which Athletic Director Pat Kraft wants to win championships. Basketball is high on the list, and Rhoades said he’s had several “open conversations” with Kraft about where the Nittany Lions are headed.

“I can walk into Pat’s office anytime and sit down and have a candid conversation with him, because we all want the same thing,” Rhoades said. “We want to build this program to make it a winner, and sometimes the speed of that is different for all of us, but the reality is that I have an AD that wants to do that.” 

Rhoades is coaching the youngest team in the Big Ten and one of the youngest teams in college basketball overall, yet Penn State is nearing February without a conference win. The Nittany Lions (9-11, 0-9 Big Ten) are the only winless team in the conference and also have yet to beat a Power 4 opponent this season. Five Big Ten teams are ranked in the AP Top 25, and this hasn’t been an easy road for the Nittany Lions. 

College basketball, like football, has changed drastically with the transfer portal and NIL. The approach to building a team to make a championship run and win conference games has changed rapidly, which Rhoades understands. 

“The culture of college basketball is now to get older quicker, and they get bigger and stronger and older quicker,” Rhoades said. “And our league is doing that in a specific way. That’s something we have to address as we move forward, but that’s what’s great about Pat. It’s not a ‘No.’ It’s a, let’s see what we can do and we have great conversations about it.”

Ohio State Buckeyes students cheer behind Penn State Nittany Lions head coach Mike Rhoades during the first half of the NCAA men's basketball game at the Schottenstein Center. | Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Despite its nine-game Big Ten losing streak, Penn State is trying to develop through it. That hasn’t translated to the win column yet, but Rhoades has always maintained that it will. At this point, he said, it’s just a matter of when.

“We’ve had some good moments where we played good basketball against some really good teams, you know, brutal schedule we had to start the Big Ten,” Rhoades said. “... But I’m not making an excuse.”

The Nittany Lions have the pieces — a star freshman point guard in Kayden Mingo, international talent and a couple of veterans — but they just haven’t fallen into place yet. The key, in this ever-changing landscape of collegiate athletics, will be getting them to stay. 

“It all goes back to relationships,” Rhoades said. “It’s all relationships and having truthful conversations and open dialog and conversations. But, you know, if guys want to be here with me and try to build this, great. If they don’t, they’re gonna move on.”

Is Penn State an “easy target” to lose players in the transfer portal? Well, it’s certainly not what Rhoades wants to happen under his leadership.

“We’re gonna go get guys that want to be here,” Rhoades said. “And that’s what's hard about taking over a program that doesn’t have great basketball tradition in a world where it’s complete chaos and no rules, and you could be an easy target. But you know what? I’m not going for that easy target.”

Penn State Nittany Lions guard Kayden Mingo looks to pass the ball as Ohio State Buckeyes guard Taison Chatman (3) defends during the first half at Value City Arena. | Joseph Maiorana-Imagn Images

Inside the locker room, negativity isn’t lingering with this group. Rhoades has said he “doesn’t have bad dudes,” a credit to how the team communicates on and off the court. 

“I think they call out each other’s BS if they need to, and it doesn’t linger,” Rhoades said. “Some guys get frustrated, like not playing enough or shots not falling or something like that, but that’s human nature. … But we have guys that care about the right stuff, now we have to get over the hump, and I think we will.”

Up next

Penn State visits Northwestern on Thursday still looking for its first Big Ten win. The game is scheduled for an 8 p.m. ET tip-off on Peacock.

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