What PSU head coach Mike Rhoades and his players said after upsetting No. 11 Wisconsin
Penn State men’s basketball earned its first ranked win of the Mike Rhoades era on Tuesday night, knocking off the No. 11 Wisconsin Badgers 87-83 in the Bryce Jordan Center.
Here’s what Rhoades and his players said after the win over the Badgers.
Penn State head coach Mike Rhoades
On putting together the team’s best game of the year:
“I’ll be honest with you, I don’t know if those guys said it, I went at the guys last night in our scouting-report meeting. I just felt that we showed signs of doing some cool things but not enough. And some of it is just self-induced and just not responding the right way to things. And I don’t mean just the game or something that happens in the game or practice. To win at this level and to become really good and have respect of others, you’ve gotta do all the things when nobody is watching, on and off the court; it all adds up. And allows you to grow so you can have games like this. It doesn’t mean we’re gonna play like this the rest of the way out. But today was a full game, our guys played with clear minds, we did not respond to bad stretches or bad calls or a turnover or something that didn’t go our way and let it prolong for three, four, five, six minutes and we lose the game. I just thought our resolve today was what it needs to be at this level and to build on success. I was really proud of them. I was really proud of how they responded. Late in the game, they were handling it. Not the coaches telling them, but the way they were handling it. So it was a big step.”
On the impact of the win:
“It’s a step to do what we can do. Let’s go after this. You’ve heard me say we’re playing with house money this year. But that’s not an excuse. ... Let’s go beat people. And let’s not beat ourselves, so we can have a chance to beat people and let’s build on this. The first couple months on the job was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my career, putting a team together. And then you get the team and you want it to work perfectly because you worked so hard, and it doesn’t go that way. It was difficult. It’s still difficult. But I know I’m not gonna quit. I know our guys aren’t gonna quit. We’re not gonna make excuses. There’s been a lot of nights just not good enough to win games. Tonight was good enough, and we gotta build on it now.”
On not reacting negatively to situations:
“I just think today we were above it all. We weren’t perfect, but our mentality was just above it. Nobody came to the bench bummed out. Couple interesting calls, we just kept playing. Next play mentality is what we talk about all the time, and I thought we just played with clear minds. ... I think we grew today, and we put a 40-minute game together.”
On getting fans to come back to games:
“Honestly, the students showed up today. I’m sure it’s icy out right now. It’s late as can be. And lots of fans showed up today. That was a great crowd for a 9 o’clock Wednesday night on a snow day. That’s getting more people involved in what we’re trying to do. Keep selling our program. Keep playing an exciting style. When you’re out in the community, shake hands, take pictures, ask people how they’re doing. Make them feel a part of it. The next step is to continue to have success. Have more success. And have this fun and exciting style. We gotta get better defensively and more people are gonna keep showing up. That’s how it’s got to be. That’s the fun of it. And let’s not just do this for ourselves, let’s do it for everybody.”
Penn State guards Ace Baldwin Jr. and Kanye Clary
On if this is what they envisioned when they came to Penn State:
Baldwin: “Yes, for sure. This is exactly what I came here for, just for that experience. It was a great experience.”
Clary: “Same thing he said. We expect to win. Coach Rhoades preaches every day we can beat any team if we’re being our best self and today we did it.”
On Baldwin’s confidence when shooting after making four of five 3-point attempts:
Baldwin: “When I hit the first one it gave me a different feel. But I also want to thank my players and coaches for just giving me that confidence to keep telling me to shoot. So I’d like to thank them.”
On playing their best game all season:
Clary: “It’s definitely one of the best games we’ve played all year. But I would just say we came out, we attacked them early, got a lead, I think we took care of the ball very well. We controlled the pace throughout the game, and we just executed the game plan that Coach Rhoades had for us.”
On the scouting report on Wisconsin:
Baldwin: “That was exactly the scouting report — make them uncomfortable.. Because they like everything easy, slow. That’s why me and ‘Ye, we heated the ball up full court and just kept disrupting them.”
On the fans storming the court:
Clary: “It was just a lot of happy fans, alumni, just everybody who’s proud to be a Penn Stater was down there ... [they] came, congratulated us, all the players. Showed us love, and we thank them as well for being here to support us winning the game tonight.”
Baldwin: “I ain’t gonna lie, I’ve never been in a situation like that. It was a great feeling. I loved that feeling.”
On spinning the win forward:
Clary: “As you know, Penn State has been historically a football [school]. Coach Rhoades, he always says we’re gonna be bold, different and aggressive. He preaches that a lot. ... Social media, he tries to do things to get the fans going. You can see him in the game, waving his hands to get the building louder. I think going forward this is gonna help us because we’ve shown a lot of people what we’re capable of.”
On when they felt like they were in control with their ball pressure:
Baldwin: “I felt like as soon as we started the game, it was 12-2 correct? I felt like the whole game we controlled the game with that. And like you said we just kept heating the ball up.”
