Mike Rhoades calls out Penn State for being soft vs. Indiana

The Penn State Nittany Lions opened Big Ten play on Tuesday against the Indiana Hoosiers. Things went sideways pretty quickly, though, for the Nittany Lions in that game, and head coach Mike Rhoades watched his team suffer its first conference loss of the season.

After the game, Rhoades was frustrated when discussing the game. In particular, he was unhappy with his team’s effort and would call out the young group of Nittany Lions for playing soft against Indiana.

“We’ve gotten better every week since we started,” Rhoades said. “You know, that part, I’m proud of our guys that way. Just disappointed today to our response to adversity. Disappointed. I thought we were soft today. My teams aren’t soft, but we were soft today.”

On the road at Assembly Hall, Penn State lost 113-72. Indiana had jumped out to a quick lead and never looked back. By halftime alone, it was 58-26. Unsurprisingly, the Hoosiers dominated the game statistically, too. Indiana shot 68.9% from the field compared to 46.4% from the field. They also made 17 three-point shots compared to just five made by Penn State. Indiana also had 10 additional rebounds when compared to Penn State. The Nittany Lions even had four more turnovers than the Hoosiers.

Leading the way for Penn State was Kayden Mingo with 19 points in 32 minutes. Along with Melih Tunca, he was one of two Nittany Lions in double digits for scoring. He was also the only player for Rhoades to play more than 30 minutes on the game.

“From guarding the ball, to fighting through screens, to taking away guys that could shoot the ball,” Rhoades said. “We didn’t have the mindset. And that’s disappointing. Some of it’s understandable. Some of it, they don’t know what they don’t know yet, and you’ve got to go through it, but it’s unacceptable. And I don’t want these guys — told them — I said, ‘I don’t want them to ever forget that this happened to us.'”

Coming into the game, Penn State was 8-1 on the season and had won three games in a row. Penn State’s only other loss on the season came against Providence, in what had been a much closer battle. However, all of the Nittany Lions’ wins would be considered Q4 wins for the time being.

“This is where we’re at right now,” Rhoades said. “Alright? Where are we going from here?”

Penn State will be back in action on Saturday. There, Rhoades will need his team ready for a major test at home against Michigan State.