The Penn State men’s basketball team will likely end their season early, although honestly, not much earlier than in previous years.
The team finished last in the conference with a 3-17 record in the B1G and a 12-19 overall record. A 9-2 start to the year in non-conference play quickly turned into one of the franchise’s worst years in recent memory.
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While it’s not surprising that the Lions are having a bad year — basketball historically hasn’t been great — it’s also fairly typical for the team to make some noise. There are upsets everywhere, a scramble for a mid-tier seed in the conference tournament, maybe the NIT or a rare NCAAT bid.
Not this year. For whatever reason, this team isn’t doing well. Again, all jokes aside, men’s basketball rarely performs like this OKthey are usually at least competitive.
What remains to be seen now is whether Pat Kraft will make the decision to fire Mike Rhodes. Rhodes was one of Kraft’s first big hires in 2023, just eight months into his tenure as athletic director. Firing coaches is nothing new to AD, but firing the coach you hired is tantamount to admitting defeat. Will Kraft do the obvious thing and cut Rhodes?
The B1G tournament takes place this week, with Penn State, the No. 18 seed, facing off against No. 15 Northwestern, which also has a poor record, going just 5-15 in conference play but defeated the Lions 94-73 in their last meeting. Maybe the team can work some magic and do well in the tournament, but barring the unthinkable, their season will end when the tournament begins.
Know when to walk and when to run.