Mike Rhoades on Penn State missing Big Ten Tournament: 'It stinks but it's reality'

The Penn State Nittany Lions are now 5-14 in Big Ten play this season, which puts them in 17th place out of 18 schools. Unfortunately, as head coach Mike Rhoades knows, the difficult season means that they’re not going to be competing in the Big Ten Tournament.

This season, as the Big Ten expanded to 18 teams, it went to a format where the bottom three teams won’t make it to the conference tournament. As disappointing as it is for Rhoades, the reality is Penn State is on the outside looking in now.

“It stinks. It stinks but it’s reality,” Mike Rhoades said. “Like I said the other day, it doesn’t always go the way you want, but it keeps going. So, you’ve got to respond and keep plugging away. You’re right, it’s disappointing. I’m disappointed, our guys are without a doubt, but you’ve got to go through it.”

The loss to Maryland on Saturday ended up being the final nail in the coffin for Penn State’s season. With only one game remaining after that, the Nittany Lions won’t be able to get out of the bottom three in the Big Ten standings and fight their way back into the conference tournament.

“We have one week left as a team, as this group together. Let’s have a week where we are about the right stuff, be great teammates, and go on the road and play a really good Wisconsin team and see what happens. This is what we signed up for and you’ve got to respond the right way no matter what, but you’re right. It stinks, but you’ve got to fight and figure it out.”

Penn State has one regular season game remaining. It will be played on Saturday when the Nittany Lions take a road trip to Wisconsin.

This was the second season for Mike Rhoades at Penn State. His record in Happy Valley now sits at 31-32. Last season, the Nittany Lions finished tied for ninth in the Big Ten standings. That’s after he won the A-10 twice, finishing second two other times, in six seasons at VCU.

Mike Rhoades calls out format of Big Ten Tournament

Penn State was eliminated from the Big Ten Tournament one game after Mike Rhoades made it clear that he’s not a fan of this new format for the Big Ten Tournament.

“Yeah, I think that’s horses***, to be honest with you. You know, we, we talk about, everybody bangs their chest about student-athlete experience. And then we’re in the Big Ten and we’re keeping three teams out of it? And you’ve seen how we played today. You know, we had a tough stretch. We had a crazy schedule too. But I don’t think you take away experiences from student-athletes. I think it’s ridiculous. I think it’s unprofessional. I don’t think it’s – the leaders got to do a better job talking that through,” Rhoades said.

“So, I just – there’s a lot of hypocrites right now in college athletics when it comes to, we want to take care of the student-athletes, the student-athlete experience, and then, we’re in the Big Ten and we’re keeping people out of it. We didn’t even do that in Division III when I was at Randolph-Macon.”

Along with Penn State, Washington and USC are currently in line to miss the Big Ten Tournament.