MBB vs Michigan

[bdroc]

35-35 tie at half.

Baldwin 3 assists, 2 turnovers. He doesn't apply the pressure on D like before he hurt his back. He also doesn't take the ball into the paint much anymore. He's just not the same player.

The good news is they're rebounding better. The bad news is they give up a lot of open 3s when they double team and Mich reverses the ball.

Nzeh gave some good minutes after Konan picked up his second foul.

 

[CattyGuy51]

M up by 5 at 13.

 

[nitlion93]

PSU up 3 with under 4 minutes left.

 

[bison13]

Blew it

 

[ryoder1]

Blew it

You're right. This team is just blowing opportunity after opportunity to pick up a valuable road win. Totally don't know how to win on the road. Frustrating.

 

[Zouavelion5]

Brutal loss...up 72-67, outscored 9-0 to end game. Been following program since the 80's. Will they ever be a consistent tournament contender?
I remember when the argument was that they needed to leave Rec Hall and the A 10

 

[scrivener]

Coach Rhoades' disdain for calling timeouts late in the game is mind-boggling...he's done it throughout the Big ten season and all these close losses. he doesn't like calling a time out to set up a game winner or a game thing shot. This team is not good enough without being organized as we have seen with all of these losses coming in close fashion. It's up to him to maybe alter his style because this is becoming a waste of a season with all of these guys back from a year ago...but this is what Penn State basketball is... A total clown show program with glimpses of success.

 

[bdroc]

What a collapse. Up 5 with 1:50 remaining then UM goes on a 9-0 run. PSU didn't even get a shot off.

Baldwin had 6 assists and 5 turnovers. When he was healthy he took the ball into the paint and either kicked it out to Hicks or got fouled. Ace is a great FT shooter and was getting ~10 attempts per game. Tonight he got 2. Hicks is a very good 3 pt shooter but he can't create his own shot. Baldwin created those shots for Hicks. Tonight he made one 3 pt shot.

PSU usually won the TO battle but no more.

This team has almost everybody back from last year except Wahab. Konan is better offensively but not as good of a rebounder. Overall I think we're better off with Konan. Unfortunately we're not as good as we were last year without Puff and only 50% of Ace.

 

[Waltwam]

You're right. This team is just blowing opportunity after opportunity to pick up a valuable road win. Totally don't know how to win on the road. Frustrating.

Don't know how they had a lead in the last minute. One of the sloppiest games I've watched!

 

[PSUWrestlingFanSince2011]

Why do you guys do this to yourselves?

 

[Waltwam]

Why do you guys do this to yourselves?

Gluttons for punishment

 

[AWS1022]

We just need to go out and recruit a bunch of three point shooters and ride or die with the three….we can’t recruit well enough to try and match up players with other Big schools.

 

[bdroc]

You're right. This team is just blowing opportunity after opportunity to pick up a valuable road win. Totally don't know how to win on the road. Frustrating.

It's definitely frustrating. I blame it on not having a PG to set the offense with Baldwin injured. A healthy Baldwin would get into the paint ad get fouled.

Of course that's no excuse for the defense. UM calls TO with 12 seconds to shoot. Then they back door for an easy dunk. Ugh!

 

[bison13]

Kern was fouled on his drive. If we get that foul call, we win the game. Already had he’s going to make at least one of two which changes the whole dynamic of how Michigan plays the last 30 seconds.

 

[bdroc]

We just need to go out and recruit a bunch of three point shooters and ride or die with the three….we can’t recruit well enough to try and match up players with other Big schools.

We lived or died by the 3 tonight. The only way PSU can win in their current situation is if Dunn & Dalione hit 3s. Kern gets to the basket and makes some spectacular plays but he's also often out of control. Wild shots or TOs lead to baskets the other way.

 

[ryoder1]

I gotta believe we have a shot at Minny and Indiana. Even maybe USC and UCLA. But there is no confidence they can win a close, tough game on the road. So maybe it will be 4 losses and then a loss at Wisky is almost a certainty. That would make us 0-10 on the road. Wow, pathetic for such a promising start and really a decent team.

Ace being hurt is killing us along with Puff out. Surprised we took Michigan to the final seconds with a depleted roster.

 

[bcspsu]

Brutal loss...up 72-67, outscored 9-0 to end game. Been following program since the 80's. Will they ever be a consistent tournament contender?
I remember when the argument was that they needed to leave Rec Hall and the A 10

In answer to your question, under the current coach, no, they probably won’t make the Tournament under his tenure. PSU basketball is an absolute joke; it has absolutely no identity. The only way that this ever will change, and I’m not saying that this will happen, is for a name coach like a Calipari to take the job and attract the one and dones. What’s happening under this current coach just isn’t going to work, and I think that we all know that in our hearts.

After this season, I almost guarantee you that 3/4 of the current roster will enter the portal, so there will be another wasted season next season; aren’t almost all of them wasted seasons?

This program is just a sad sack operation year after year after year; it should be embarrassing to the AD.

 

[scrivener]

In answer to your question, under the current coach, no, they probably won’t make the Tournament under his tenure. PSU basketball is an absolute joke; it has absolutely no identity. The only way that this ever will change, and I’m not saying that this will happen, is for a name coach like a Calipari to take the job and attract the one and dones. What’s happening under this current coach just isn’t going to work, and I think that we all know that in our hearts.

After this season, I almost guarantee you that 3/4 of the current roster will enter the portal, so there will be another wasted season next season; aren’t almost all of them wasted seasons?

This program is just a sad sack operation year after year after year; it should be embarrassing to the AD.

And you can add the women's program, which has actually been more recently irrelevant and a joke than the men's program, and Pat has quite a feat on his hands to turn around not one but two laughable programs for a major sport.. there are not too many power4 Blue blood programs that have both basketball teams be totally irrelevant most years.

 

[bcspsu]

I gotta believe we have a shot at Minny and Indiana. Even maybe USC and UCLA. But there is no confidence they can win a close, tough game on the road. So maybe it will be 4 losses and then a loss at Wisky is almost a certainty. That would make us 0-10 on the road. Wow, pathetic for such a promising start and really a decent team.

Ace being hurt is killing us along with Puff out. Surprised we took Michigan to the final seconds with a depleted roster.

This team isn’t winning any Big 10 road games; they couldn’t even win at least one out of the last two when the other teams did their best to lose the games. At this point, they’ll struggle to win any of their home games, especially when a lot of these players realize that this is another lost season, which they probably already know.

I have no faith in the current coach. If there’s not significant improvement next season, he needs to go, because this has been a very bad season.

 

[bcspsu]

And you can add the women's program, which has actually been more recently irrelevant and a joke than the men's program, and Pat has quite a feat on his hands to turn around not one but two laughable programs for a major sport.. there are not too many power4 Blue blood programs that have both basketball teams be totally irrelevant most years.

I agree. The state of the basketball programs at a Big 10 school like PSU is absurdly bad, especially when you see how most of the programs in this conference, both men and women, rank.

The most disappointing thing to me with the men’s team is that, except in the rare seasons when they qualify for the Tournament, they’re so uncompetitive and fundamentally unsound and poorly coached; it’s just an unacceptable product for a school that has the overall athletic program that PSU has. The second most important sport needs to be much better than what it is at this school.

 

[AWS1022]

We lived or died by the 3 tonight. The only way PSU can win in their current situation is if Dunn & Dalione hit 3s. Kern gets to the basket and makes some spectacular plays but he's also often out of control. Wild shots or TOs lead to baskets the other way.

We don’t have what I would call true three point shooters…we need guys like Andrew Funk.

 

[AWS1022]

In answer to your question, under the current coach, no, they probably won’t make the Tournament under his tenure. PSU basketball is an absolute joke; it has absolutely no identity. The only way that this ever will change, and I’m not saying that this will happen, is for a name coach like a Calipari to take the job and attract the one and dones. What’s happening under this current coach just isn’t going to work, and I think that we all know that in our hearts.

After this season, I almost guarantee you that 3/4 of the current roster will enter the portal, so there will be another wasted season next season; aren’t almost all of them wasted seasons?

This program is just a sad sack operation year after year after year; it should be embarrassing to the AD.

We see how Calipari is doing at Arkansas. It takes more than a coach and PSU has never had it.

 

[bcspsu]

We see how Calipari is doing at Arkansas. It takes more than a coach and PSU has never had it.

It’s just a futile situation right now. How can you have an athletic superpower like PSU that is so close to basketball hotbeds like NYC, Philly, Baltimore, DC, Harrisburg, etc., struggle so much? This program should be so much better than a lot of these Big 10 programs that are in the middle of corn country; PSU should be attracting players from these Northeast hotbeds that would walk all over a lot of these other Big 10 teams. Instead, we get a yearly dose of the garbage that we’ve seen this season.

 

[Delcolion915]

Personally I don't even bother anymore. All I need to do is watch the wrestling team.

Not only do they win, they are the best team in the nation, every single year, and basically the greatest team in any sport, ever, in NCAA history 😂.

Scoreboard, bi#@hes 😂

 

[knickslions]

I think it was the rims

 

[PSUWrestlingFanSince2011]

Personally I don't even bother anymore. All I need to do is watch the wrestling team.

Not only do they win, they are the best team in the nation, every single year, and basically the greatest team in any sport, ever, in NCAA history 😂.

Scoreboard, bi#@hes 😂

I’m by no means a fair weather fan but I agree, its very hard to watch/follow the basketball team. Wrestling helps to get out the frustration, lol.

 

[bcspsu]

I’m by no means a fair weather fan but I agree, its very hard to watch/follow the basketball team. Wrestling helps to get out the frustration, lol.

I know what you're saying about the wrestling program. However, men's basketball is the second most important sport, and it's a disgrace that the flagship athletic program of the Northeast that plays in the Big 10 only has made the NCAA Tournament 4 times since they've been in the Big 10, which goes back to the 1992-1993 season. I mean, just think about that; 4 times in what will be the last 33 seasons. And like I said, when they don't make a rare tournament appearance, they're usually stumbling and bumbling their way to only 5 or 6 six Big 10 wins a season. God, this season they're probably not even going to win a single true road game.

What's really frustrating about this season is that they've had so many chances to at least be 5-5 if not better in Big 10 games, which wouldn't be great but acceptable; they lost a neutral site game to IU that played without its best player, lost by 5 at MSU, blew a 9 point lead at home with 6 minutes to go against Oregon, lost at a bad Iowa team that gets blown out in almost every game by 1, and then blew a 5 point lead last night at Michigan with under 2 minutes to go. They lost these games because of what almost every PSU team does, which is play fundamentally unsound basketball in crunch time, which often includes going scoreless for most of the last several possessions and committing ridiculous turnovers.

PSU obviously is spending a lot of money on the football program, which it should. However, I'd like to see it spend a lot of money and lure a coach who carries some national cache and can attract future NBA players. I always mention somebody like a John Calipari or a Rick Pitino. If the direction of this program continues downward with the current coach after next season, then a change needs to be made. I'd be looking at somebody like Marquette's coach Smart or Richard Pitino, who is doing a great job at an outpost school like New Mexico.

 

[PSUWrestlingFanSince2011]

I know what you're saying about the wrestling program. However, men's basketball is the second most important sport, and it's a disgrace that the flagship athletic program of the Northeast that plays in the Big 10 only has made the NCAA Tournament 4 times since they've been in the Big 10, which goes back to the 1992-1993 season. I mean, just think about that; 4 times in what will be the last 33 seasons. And like I said, when they don't make a rare tournament appearance, they're usually stumbling and bumbling their way to only 5 or 6 six Big 10 wins a season. God, this season they're probably not even going to win a single true road game.

What's really frustrating about this season is that they've had so many chances to at least be 5-5 if not better in Big 10 games, which wouldn't be great but acceptable; they lost a neutral site game to IU that played without its best player, lost by 5 at MSU, blew a 9 point lead at home with 6 minutes to go against Oregon, lost at a bad Iowa team that gets blown out in almost every game by 1, and then blew a 5 point lead last night at Michigan with under 2 minutes to go. They lost these games because of what almost every PSU team does, which is play fundamentally unsound basketball in crunch time, which often includes going scoreless for most of the last several possessions and committing ridiculous turnovers.

PSU obviously is spending a lot of money on the football program, which it should. However, I'd like to see it spend a lot of money and lure a coach who carries some national cache and can attract future NBA players. I always mention somebody like a John Calipari or a Rick Pitino. If the direction of this program continues downward with the current coach after next season, then a change needs to be made. I'd be looking at somebody like Marquette's coach Smart or Richard Pitino, who is doing a great job at an outpost school like New Mexico.

I don’t think a big name coach would be interested in the PSU job. I think you need a coach like Rhoades to just grind it out and try to get the transfers and recruits that we need to get to the next level.

I actually think Rhoades has put together a decent team but we’ve had injuries and we’re losing close games.

He got a big recruit for next year, one this year and I actually kind of like what I’m seeing from Rhoades. He’s been doing well in the transfer portal. Remember we lost almost the entire team before last season.

Just gotta keep grinding.

 

[bcspsu]

I don’t think a big name coach would be interested in the PSU job. I think you need a coach like Rhoades to just grind it out and try to get the transfers and recruits that we need to get to the next level.

I actually think Rhoades has put together a decent team but we’ve had injuries and we’re losing close games.

He got a big recruit for next year, one this year and I actually kind of like what I’m seeing from Rhoades. He’s been doing well in the transfer portal. Remember we lost almost the entire team before last season.

Just gotta keep grinding.

I'm willing to see what happens next season, but it shouldn't take 5 or 6 seasons to build a program now like it did for Coach K back in the early 80s.

Also, regarding big name coaches, a school like St. John's, which had drifted into oblivion, was able to lure and take a chance on Pitino, who had been disgraced because of personal matters, and now they're a top 20 team. The fact that PSU plays in the Big 10 and is close to the Notheast basketball hotbeds should be reason enough to interest a big name, especially if PSU would be willing to pay a big salary.

 

[Waltwam]

We just need to go out and recruit a bunch of three point shooters and ride or die with the three….we can’t recruit well enough to try and match up players with other Big schools.

Does Joe Crispin have any eligibility left???? I think he was one of the best shooters we've ever had!!!

 

[joeaubie21]

Penn State is not a basset ball school and never will be.

 

[bcspsu]

Penn State is not a basset ball school and never will be.

Tell that to schools like Auburn, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, etc. Before Billy Donovan, most people probably didn't think that Florida was a basketball school and never would be.

Where there's a will, there's a way. PSU definitely can be, and should be, a good basketball school simply because its in the Big 10 and close to fertile basketball recruiting areas.

 

[87 Penn St8]

I don’t think a big name coach would be interested in the PSU job. I think you need a coach like Rhoades to just grind it out and try to get the transfers and recruits that we need to get to the next level.

I actually think Rhoades has put together a decent team but we’ve had injuries and we’re losing close games.

He got a big recruit for next year, one this year and I actually kind of like what I’m seeing from Rhoades. He’s been doing well in the transfer portal. Remember we lost almost the entire team before last season.

Just gotta keep grinding.

Feels a bit like mid Chambers era....close but no cigar over and over and over....

#Rise With Us????

 

[ryoder1]

This team isn’t winning any Big 10 road games; they couldn’t even win at least one out of the last two when the other teams did their best to lose the games. At this point, they’ll struggle to win any of their home games, especially when a lot of these players realize that this is another lost season, which they probably already know.

I have no faith in the current coach. If there’s not significant improvement next season, he needs to go, because this has been a very bad season.

Well Calipari, Brad Stevens, Rick Pitino you name the elite coach is not walking through the door. That's like saying Kirby Smart is going to go to Northwrstern. This is Penn State basketball so we gotta understand the type of coach we can get. Real tough.

So what suggestions do you have except for predicting we lose every single game from here on out which is laughable. Are you putting money on that because I would bet you a lot of money we don't go 0-10.

I still believe in Rhoades. The Ace injury and now Puff have obviously hurt us. This is not footbal where we have much better depth, we just don't. If we finish poorly the 2nd half of the season and miss the BTT or bow out of it meekly then repeat next year or no NCAA next year then yeah that gets tough to give him a vote of confidence at that point.

I want to see the team play better defense. That seems to be lacking. Good defense can make up for a lot.

 

[bcspsu]

Well Calipari, Brad Stevens, Rick Pitino you name the elite coach is not walking through the door. That's like saying Kirby Smart is going to go to Northwrstern. This is Penn State basketball so we gotta understand the type of coach we can get. Real tough.

So what suggestions do you have except for predicting we lose every single game from here on out which is laughable. Are you putting money on that because I would bet you a lot of money we don't go 0-10.

I still believe in Rhoades. The Ace injury and now Puff have obviously hurt us. This is not footbal where we have much better depth, we just don't. If we finish poorly the 2nd half of the season and miss the BTT or bow out of it meekly then repeat next year or no NCAA next year then yeah that gets tough to give him a vote of confidence at that point.

I want to see the team play better defense. That seems to be lacking. Good defense can make up for a lot.

I agree with you about the defense, and that's what I meant when I said that this program has no identity. When you're an overmatched team like PSU is against a lot of Big 10 opponents, then the easiest way to be competitive is to develop a lockdown defensive identity. This is what Ben Howland did when he first went to Pitt; Pitt was bad when he got there, but he turned that program into a meat and potatoes, some would say boring, defensive juggernaut, and Jamie Dixon continued it. The problem with Pitt is that they never became a better offensive team under those coaches, and that's why they always came up short in the Tournament.

I would love to see PSU become the college version of the Bad Boy Pistons, such that they could intimidate more skilled teams with hard defense and come close to crossing the line between hard and dirty, and then become a better offensive team while doing that. I just want this program to be about something, and carry some aura when they go into these opposing Big 10 arenas. Right now, this program isn't about anything other than being a perennial Big 10 bottom feeder with the exception of a season or two every decade; it's a non-entity in the college basketball world.

 

[bison13]

I agree with you about the defense, and that's what I meant when I said that this program has no identity. When you're an overmatched team like PSU is against a lot of Big 10 opponents, then the easiest way to be competitive is to develop a lockdown defensive identity. This is what Ben Howland did when he first went to Pitt; Pitt was bad when he got there, but he turned that program into a meat and potatoes, some would say boring, defensive juggernaut, and Jamie Dixon continued it. The problem with Pitt is that they never became a better offensive team under those coaches, and that's why they always came up short in the Tournament.

I would love to see PSU become the college version of the Bad Boy Pistons, such that they could intimidate more skilled teams with hard defense and come close to crossing the line between hard and dirty, and then become a better offensive team while doing that. I just want this program to be about something, and carry some aura when they go into these opposing Big 10 arenas. Right now, this program isn't about anything other than being a perennial Big 10 bottom feeder with the exception of a season or two every decade; it's a non-entity in the college basketball world.

While I don’t know if that’s the identity they should choose, I do agree with you that Penn State needs to be doing something different than the rest of the teams. That’s got to be their catch, they’re not going to get the same type of players to come here compared to other schools in this conference. I would think that they either need to become the full court trapping in your face defense or be a very deliberate slow down zone type defensive team like shrew had. To do that you need a lot of shooters though or at least a guy like pickett who could get you a bucket with two seconds on the shot clock.

 

[PurposePitch]

The winter at PSU is pretty boring ... you know the hoopers will find a way to win, and you know the rasslers will mop the floor with everyone.

Yawn.

I know he was injured and got off to a very late start, but our latest big recruit - Miles Goodman - looks overmatched and lost whenever he goes out there.

And the fact that we look completely lost whenever Ace isn't out there isn't a good sign. Carter looks lost.

Don't we lose most of our contributors next year? Baldwin, Dunn, Hicks, Johnson, Kern - do any of them have eligibility left?

Not to mention, the potential returnee contributors (Dilione and Niederhauser) could portal out if they see the cupboard being bare and opportunities elsewhere.

It's just kind of the hamster wheel of mediocrity at PSU, hoopswise. We're going to need Mingo to come in, be the truth, and attract top guys quickly and often.