Penn State basketball coach Mike Rhoades grapples with mounting losses, demanding relentless effort and self-reliance as Nittany Lions seek redemption against top competition.
Penn State is set to play No. 9 Nebraska after losing two games it needed to win for pride.
With an 11-16 overall record, PSU wouldn't have been in postseason contention even if they had beaten Oregon on Saturday and Rutgers on Wednesday.
But the defeats to two of the Big Ten's more disappointing teams were eye-opening about how far away the Nittany Lions are from being a contender.
Mike Rhoades is in his third season as the head coach of Penn State. He's set to have his second losing season with the Nittany Lions.
In his entire head coaching career since 1999, Rhoades has only had two losing seasons. They came in back-to-back years at Rice when he went 12-20 for the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons.
During his postgame news conference after the loss to Rutgers, Rhoades was asked by a reporter how he was handling the losing season at PSU.
Rhoades said it's been a challenge.
'You wake up tomorrow and you work harder, and you go back and you lean on the things that got you here," Rhoades said. "Your belief and work ethic. Surrounding yourself with the right people.
"Just keep hammering away on the rock. It's hard, it's frustrating, it hurts, but nobody's coming to save us, and you just got to keep plugging away."
Rhoades took responsibility for the disappointing campaign. He thinks Penn State's players are still giving their best effort.
"So it's not good enough, and it's on me, man. I'm the coach. I'm the leader of this program," Rhoades said. "We got to find a way to keep getting better. We got to find a way to not have these first halves.
But I can't, I honestly, like, on my three kids, I can't say that, 'Like, will this be a Back Breaker?' Because every day (the players), they're showing up and acting the right way. And, you know, we have some really good souls in there too."
Rhoades said the locker room hasn't been disjointed despite the losing record.
It'll be interesting to see if the players continue to give maximum effort for the rest of the season.
The contests against Oregon and Rutgers were the best chance for the Nittany Lions to earn wins before playing tougher Big Ten foes like Nebraska, Iowa, and Ohio State.