The most fitting part of Penn State men’s basketball’s 90-89 win over No. 12 Illinois on Wednesday night at Rec Hall was that lots of people watching from home probably turned it off. It was one of those games. Penn State wasn’t playing poorly, but Illinois was just a bit better. Rec Hall was excited, but for most of the second half lacked the juice which had made it a formidable place to play prior to the turn of the century.
It was fun and a cool exercise in nostalgia — the program’s first game in Rec Hall since 2015 and first Big Ten contest there since permanently moving to the BJC in 1996 — but Penn State was down 11 with 3:30 to go in a game that realistically wasn’t going to change the course of the Nittany Lions’ already plodding season. If you were watching on a casual basis you likely moved on with your evening, saving yourself from an onslaught of free throws and a never ending barrage of stoppages.
So if you’ve logged back on, you’ll be surprised to see that Penn State won, now with its second home win over a top 12 team this season.
What you missed?
Turnovers (Illinois had six in the final five minutes); free throws (Zach Hicks made three in the final seconds to take the lead after being down two); rebounds (Penn State was on the right end of the four of the final six available boards); made shots (Penn State went 7-for-10 in the final 5:09) and Illinois making just four baskets from the field in the final 12:08 of regulation all contributed to an inconceivable comeback.
Boiled down to its most insane, Penn State was down seven and didn’t have the ball with less than 45 seconds to go.
Fast forward and the story was different, the rafters shaking, and if you squinted it may as well have been 1993.
Of course, it wasn’t without drama.
Illinois was on the favorable end of a travel-or-foul call in the final moments that harkened back to more than a few “what if?” officiating moments in Rec Hall.
Penn State was also without leading scorer Kanye Clary who was dismissed from the team earlier this week by Mike Rhoades for what Rhoades described as a “coach’s decision.” There’s no indication that Clary’s dismissal was anything nefarious beyond interpersonal issues, but it still checks a pretty impressive box on the program’s history books that it was able to willingly play without its leading scorer the rest of the season only to turn around a beat a top 12 team a few days later.
Alternatively, there were plenty of warts in this game for Penn State. By all reasonable measures, the Nittany Lions were not the better team on Wednesday night they were dominated on the glass 49-25, the two teams entering the game ranked over 300 places apart in the national standings in that area. The Illini also had the seemingly unstoppable Terrence Shannon Jr., who poured in a career-high 35 points. Illinois had 19 second-chance points to Penn State’s three, made more free throws and generally played a more well-rounded game offensively. The Nittany Lions put forth a respectable effort, but didn’t look the winner.
But then they did. Because 18 points by Nick Kern in the second half, 12 assists by Ace Baldwin and 10 first half points by Qudus Wahab all contributed to the erasure of those warts. Add in 22 combined second half points by Jameel Brown and Zach Hicks and there’s your recipe to a backdoor upset.
After the game, head coach Mike Rhoades spoke of the hope that these are the sorts of wins that propel Penn State forward. What actually comes to pass remains to be seen. Penn State has had plenty of upset victories that have lasted as long as the space between games. At the same time, the Nittany Lions have now won six of their last eight games against ranked opponents not named Purdue. In the face of roster turnover, coaching changes and general unrest (Penn State has had four head coaches and two athletic directors in five years) the program has slowly raised the floor and slowly raised the ceiling.
In the bigger picture, this brings us to a question of how Penn State might sustain this kind of success, no matter the somewhat confusing and occasionally disjointed season the Nittany Lions are having on paper.
Some of it is related to fans; there’s no question that in this day and age NIL plays a part in any athletic program’s ability to succeed. Some of it is related to coaching. There’s no question that Mike Rhoades can’t win every upset in a race to 90 on the defensive end —Penn State is one of the best teams in the nation at forcing turnovers but one of the worst at stopping scoring.
A lot of it will come down to player acquisition. At the end of the day the Nittany Lions have done well for themselves because Micah Shrewsberry aced a hunt into the portal and Mike Rhoades wasn’t that far behind. “Just go find good players” is easier said than done, but so far it’s working for Penn State in a transfer portal world.
There is some irony in this, that the thing which is turning Penn State football on its head as college football deals with the transfer portal, is the thing that might end up being the savior of Penn State basketball.
But for now, Wednesday night was another moment on a growing list of good ones that have happened to the Penn State men’s basketball program over the past few years. Rhoades has his work cut out for him, but not long removed from eulogies for the program following the departure of Shrewsberry, things are still climbing upwards. Much like Wednesday night, it appears it ain’t over, til it’s over.
