The end-of-season conference tournaments offer hope for every team in college basketball to play their way into the NCAA Tournament, well at least they used to. Now, the bloated 18-team Big Ten Conference will only allow 15 teams into its tournament in Indianapolis this March, and Penn State head men’s basketball coach Mike Rhoades does not love this new arrangement.
“I think that’s horsesh*t, to be honest with you,” Rhoades told reporters after Penn State’s Wednesday night loss to Indiana dropped the Nittany Lions to 5-13 in conference play. Penn State is in 17th place and two games back in the loss column with just two games remaining in the regular season. “Everybody bangs their chest about the student-athlete experience, and we’re in the Big Ten, and we’re keeping three teams out of it.”
Frankly, what’s horsesh*t is how bad Rhoades’s team has been all year with nearly its entire starting group back from last year’s promising team that gave Indiana a scare in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament after finishing 11th in the regular season. Taking a significant step backward while getting another year from reigning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year Ace Baldwin Jr. and losing 11 of 12 games after a 12-2 start shouldn’t earn you a whole lot.
Yes, by the old standard, Penn State deserves a chance to play for a spot in the NCAA Tournament, but this team would have no chance in Indy, and I’m fine with those opportunities needing to be earned. However, Rhoades believes that no opportunities should ever be taken away from his “student-athletes.”
“There’s a lot of hypocrites right now in college athletics when it comes to ‘we want to take care of the student-athletes and student-athlete experience,’” the second-year head coach of the Nittany Lions continued. “We’re in the Big Ten, and we’re keeping people out of it.”
In its rabid quest to expand, the Big Ten hasn’t been very interested in keeping people out of the league, but as the conference grows, a larger conference tournament will become untenable. There are only so many days in the conference championship week and only so many times slots for games to be played.
Rhoades thinks, “you never take away experiences and opportunities from young people.” Except, that’s the entire purpose of sports. There is a winner, who gets to have a much better experience than the loser, and that’s the way it has always been.
Rhoades’s complaints fall on deaf ears for me and I imagine for many frustrated Penn State basketball fans. Stop whining, and win games.
After landing the highest-rated recruit in program history in the 2025 class, Rhoades appears to have Penn State basketball heading in the right direction for the future, but in the present, its best for the head coach and his team to take their medicine and look towards the 2025-26 season when, hopefully, qualifying for the Big Ten Tournament won't be a concern.