Penn State completes sweep of Indiana, continues shaping identity under Mike Rhoades
Mike Rhoades wanted to turn the page quickly after his team knocked off No. 12 Illinois Wednesday night. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy Penn State’s victory or want to celebrate. It was more about the need to prepare for what came next. Because time after time this season, his team has earned a big victory and then washed it away with a crushing defeat — and usually more than one.
Still, he considered the thought that the game could mean more than just a notch in the win column.
“Maybe today is the moment that gives us a kick-start,” Rhoades said Wednesday night. “... Or pushes us or propels us. That’d be cool.”
That would mean not falling off right after the game. When the time came Saturday for the Nittany Lions to prove it can build off the Illinois win, they didn’t disappoint.
Penn State defeated Indiana 83-74, sweeping the Hoosiers for the season and setting up the rest of the Mike Rhoades era of Nittany Lion basketball.
Rhoades’ team took heed of his hopes, playing much like it did against Illinois and carrying over its success from that win into this one.
“I thought Wednesday got their attention, like what they’re capable of doing,” Rhoades said after the win over Indiana Saturday afternoon. “It wasn’t perfect today, but I just think we were more attentive, today, to the details.”
The Nittany Lions have been facing a critical stretch of the season for the last two weeks. There was plenty of reason for a downfall, with losses beginning to stack up and the dismissal of leading scorer Kanye Clary looming over the program since it was announced Monday afternoon.
This is, after all, a team that has every reason to be disjointed. It’s a band of ill-fitted puzzle pieces coming together for the first time and trying to form a complete picture. Only three players on the team at the beginning of this year were at Penn State last season and Clary was one of them, leaving now just Jameel Brown and Demetrius Lilley. Only two players had played under Rhoades before in Ace Baldwin Jr. and Nick Kern Jr., who both joined from VCU where Rhoades last coached.
It’s a group of players who would be within reason to be looking out for the individual rather than the whole, and for stretches of this season that seemed to be the case.
Yet over the last two games, that hasn’t been the outcome. Baldwin is leading as the team’s primary ball handler, recording 21 assists in the games since Clary’s dismissal was announced. And that’s allowed him to get into a rhythm on both ends of the court.
“I feel like I’m more comfortable with the ball,” Baldwin said. “I like to get (the ball to) my teammates, like Zach Hicks.”
Baldwin has been able to hold everything together as the focal point on both ends of the court and his trust in his teammates has elevated their game, too.
Hicks has been a shooter his entire career and has had the green light from deep since he arrived on campus, according to Rhoades. That didn’t translate to makes early on in the season, but he’s been on fire of late. Some of that is the natural ebb and flow of 3-point shooting, and some is the cohesion of the offense.
“When you have a guy like Ace playing off a ball screen, he’s not just gonna shoot it and drive it, he’s gonna find guys,” Rhoades said. “You saw that today and I really think everyone starts doing that. Sharing the basketball and then being really aggressive, it’s hard to guard.”
Baldwin’s belief in his teammates comes from the top. Rhoades was asked if there was a lack of belief at times during the season. He didn’t hesitate in his response.
“By who? Not me,” Rhoades said. “No. Look, if you talk about a lack of belief, then people will think about it. ... You’re talking to the wrong person when it comes to that. Just strap ‘em up, double knot ‘em, go to work and play. ... I’ve been frustrated, I’ve been mad, I’ve been disappointed, especially in myself. But losing belief? No way.”
But belief can only take a team so far. Better play can take one much further. And right now the Nittany LIons have both. While the NCAA Tournament is likely out of reach, there’s still an opportunity to reach the NIT.
Just one week ago, even that seemed like it was slipping away. But the Nittany Lions have reconfigured and regrouped. They’re playing like a unit rather than a group of individuals. Maybe the first year of Rhoades’ tenure won’t end with a postseason berth — but it could be setting the stage for much more in the second one.
