Penn State Basketball Gets Stuck in East Lansing After Loss to Michigan State

The Nittany Lions will head directly to Philadelphia for their sold-out game vs. Michigan at the Palestra.

After Michigan State throttled Penn State 92-61 on Thursday night. the Nittany Lions were forced to stew about the loss overnight in East Lansing. Penn State men's basketball coach Mike Rhoades said Friday that the team was unable to depart due to plane issues and could not return to State College as planned after the game. Instead, Penn State rescheduled its Friday practice on Michigan State’s campus and will fly directly to Philadelphia, where it plays Michigan at noon Sunday at the Palestra.

Had the Nittany Lions returned to State College on schedule, they would have traveled to Philadelphia on Friday afternoon or Saturday depending on the weekend weather, Rhoades said. Now, Penn State faces some adverse conditions as it tries to shrug off a brutal showing in its first game of 2024.

“Pretty much like life, it doesn't always go the way you want. It's how you react to it. I told our guys to sulk over it tonight and get over it, let's get ready to go to win the next one,” Rhoades said Friday via Zoom. “It's an unforgiving conference that we're in. It's how it goes. We didn't play well enough, especially in that first half, to win a game on the road for sure.”

Penn State (7-7) had all kinds of woes that turned into Thursday’s blowout loss at Michigan State. Among the most notable were a 10.3 shooting percentage from 3-point range and 16 turnovers — 14 in the first half. Leading scorer Kanye Clary poured in 21 points on 50-percent shooting, and Nick Kern Jr. provided 10 points in his return to the lineup, but that was about it for the positives.

Michigan State had five players in double figures (two over 20 points) and shot nearly 65 percent in the first half to gain an insurmountable 51-26 lead. The Spartans capitalized on Penn State’s weaknesses, scoring 42 points in the paint and 24 off turnovers. Rhoades added that poor shot selection early in possessions unofficially contributed to the turnover margin in one of Penn State’s worst ball security games of the year.

“We did not set the tone early in the game yesterday,” Rhoades said. “That's one thing we got to make sure as we move forward is, we set the way we're going to play early in the game and set the tone so we don't put ourselves in such a big hole like we did last night.”

Penn State turns to Michigan on Sunday for the unique Palestra game, which is sold out. The Lions are playing at the Palestra for the second straight year and "hosting" their fourth Big Ten game at the Philadelphia landmark. Michigan is the only team in the Big Ten with a losing record (6-8) and is on a three-game losing streak. Among many things, Rhoades is looking for leaders like Puff Johnson and Ace Baldwin Jr. to help balance scoring amid Penn State’s attempt to right the ship.

“First of all, it sucks. Losing sucks. Period,” Rhoades said. “I want it to hurt our guys. I want it to hurt our staff. I want it to burn. I don't want to forget it. But you gotta understand how to use it to learn to get better and go from there. We get off to a better start in the game on the road, that helps us. We didn't do that. And they had a lot to do with it, but we also did, too, and those are things we got to learn so it doesn't happen again.”

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Max Ralph is a Penn State senior studying Broadcast Journalism with minors in sports studies and Japanese. He previously covered Penn State football for two years with The Daily Collegian and has reported with the Associated Press and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Follow him on Twitter (X) @maxralph_ and Instagram @mralph_59.

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