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Penn State falls to Rutgers, season on the brink: Hoops show Live

Headshot 5x7 reduced qualityby:Thomas Frank Carr•02/28/23•

ThomasFrankCarr

Jalen Pickett Penn State basketball On3
Rutgers shut down Penn State guard Jalen Pickett in the second half of the Nittany Lion's loss on Sunday night. Without his presence in the post, the team didn't hit a field goal for the final nine minutes of the game. (Photo: Dan Althouse/BWI)

Penn State basketball raced out to a 19-point lead against Rutgers on Sunday night in a pivotal game to keep its NCAA tournament hopes alive. Despite that, the team suffered an epic collapse, failing to register a field goal in the game’s final nine minutes. That epic power outage led to a 59-56 loss at home in front of a White Out crowd at the Bryce Jordan Center.

Now, with two games left on the schedule, the season is on the brink for the Nittany Lions, who face must-win games for the rest of the regular season and beyond. Today on the BWI Penn State Hoops show, basketball insider Nate Bauer and host Thomas Frank Carr discuss the game and how Penn State can quickly pick up the pieces after the loss. They’ll be live at noon on YouTube to take your thoughts and feelings about the team’s latest loss and the road ahead.

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While T-Frank will focus on the game’s final nine minutes, Bauer wants to point to the seeds sewn in the first half that ultimately became the issue late. They’ll discuss the undercurrent of Penn State’s big lead, a strong performance by Cam Wynter, and the shooting struggles for the Nittany Lions…at home?

Penn State let off the gas

For his part, Penn State head coach Micah Shrewsberry thinks that his team stopped doing the little things with such a large lead, and it became a ball game thanks to a lack of focus.

“We came out and started the half great. But then we let our foot off the gas; we let go of the rope, and we didn’t do the things that got us that lead. Little plays that don’t seem that they were big, but we give them a bucket, and then they get a free throw rebound. We gave them more chances,” he said after the game.

“Maybe you foul, and they shoot a free throw and miss it, and that helps close the door. We left the door open too many times. Even when we weren’t scoring the basketball, we couldn’t come up with timely stops; they would get long offensive rebounds. They hit every timely basket that they needed to make, and we missed a lot of them. But it was because of the things that we did early in the game.”

Check out the show at noon to hear more from the head coach who blamed himself for the loss in the postgame press conference. You’ll hear comments from Sunday night, and his availability on Monday to help narrate the show.

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