Penn State Basketball Beginning to Gain Confidence
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. | Penn State is 2-2 to start Big Ten play in coach Mike Rhoades first season, overcoming double-digit deficits in both wins. After losing by 31 at Michigan State last week, Penn State fell behind Michigan (the Big Ten team with the worst record) by 10 points at halftime before roaring back for a 79-73 victory at the Palestra. The Lions erased an 18-point deficit against Ohio State much in the same way.
The comeback wins are exciting, but Rhoades is wary that his team keeps digging holes. Rhoades’ roster, loaded with transfers and young players, was bound to face growing pains, so he has made a point of teaching the kind of resiliency the Lions showed in those two wins.
“I always say this, as an athlete, you have this thinking of how it's gonna go. And it's gonna always go your way. And then you find out right away as you jump in that it doesn't go the way you want it to go,” Rhoades said in his weekly media availability. “So that's where you deal with a lot of adversity, and you gotta have resilience.”
“I talk about it with our guys all the time, about how we handle just one thing or a bunch of things or an event or a bad decision or a good decision and how do you respond to it all,” he added. “No matter what, I always hope you can grow from it and learn from it. But sometimes you just gotta go through it and find a way to come out of it all better.”
Penn State (8-7) has shown a propensity to let losses trickle into another. That was evident at Penn State’s early season invitational trip to Florida, where the Lions played toe-to-toe with Texas A&M before falling flat against weaker Butler and VCU teams to go 0-3. That tournament performance then turned into a home loss to Bucknell that Rhoades called embarrassing. The losing streak then hit five games, despite a strong overall effort, in an overtime loss at Maryland before the Ohio State turnaround.
Whatever magic Rhoades found to key the comebacks against Ohio State and Michigan is going to need to be sustained through a full 40 minutes as Penn State moves through the Big Ten. Rhoades mentioned again Tuesday the concern of letting losses carry over.
“I always feel that athletes and coaches, they suffer in defeat more than they celebrate wins,” Rhoades said. “I think we hold on to losses. We gotta play more consistently to [build a win streak]. We gotta play more consistent no matter whether we're on the road or at home. The consistency that we had in the second half of Michigan, if we can bottle that up and bring that to the next game, that's sure gonna help us. Without a doubt.”
In Penn State’s loss at Michigan State, Rhoades had his entire roster available for the first time this season and repeated it against Michigan. The Lions are the healthiest they’ve been and have at least had some time to gel even if results haven’t shown it. As a result, guards Kanye Clary and Nick Kern Jr. explained their confidence levels are “through the roof.”
“We all know what we’re capable of doing. We've been around each other long enough to know,” Clary said.
“The confidence, you can kinda feel it. Everybody’s starting to believe in our abilities as a team and just not listen to the naysayers or the predictions or where people think we’re gonna finish,” Kern said. “Just grind game in and game out.”
Rhoades is in his fourth first year as a head coach after stops at Randolph-Macon College, Rice and VCU. He's familiar with up-and-down seasons and makes sure of having intentional reactions to all “the good and the bad that we go through” as it sets up for the future.
“Everything is intentional. Everything. I want our guys to have freedom and be themselves, the best version of themselves, but also through trial and error throughout the year, you want to establish your culture,” Rhoades said. “One thing for sure in your first year is teaching guys when you lose a game, you gotta respond the right way from it. This past weekend, we did that. Those are the things you build your culture on, your program on going into the future.”
Penn State returns home Wednesday to host Northwestern in a Big Ten matchup. The game tips off at 6:30 p.m. ET on BTN.
More on Penn State Basketball
Penn State Basketball on SI.com
Penn State scores key win over Michigan at the Palestra
Penn State gets stuck in East Lansing after loss to Michigan State
Nittany Lions flop in Big Ten visit to Michigan State
Penn State falls to Georgia Tech after an "inexcusable" foul call in overtime
Penn State rallies from big deficit to stun Ohio State
Penn State drops fifth straight game in overtime loss at Maryland
"We're in a rut," Mike Rhoades says after loss to Bucknell
Nittany Lions predictions for the 2023-24 season
Former Bucknell coach Pat Flannery joins NIL collective as general manager
Max Ralph is a Penn State senior studying Broadcast Journalism with minors in sports studies and Japanese. He previously covered Penn State football for two years with The Daily Collegian and has reported with the Associated Press and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Follow him on Twitter (X) @maxralph_ and Instagram @mralph_59.
AllPennState is the place for Penn State news, opinion and perspective on the SI.com network.
