The Penn State Basketball Program couldn't possibly be in a worse position than where it is right now.
The Penn State Nittany Lions men's basketball program is in complete shambles as the 2025-26 sesaon comes to an end.
Wednesday night was yet another low point in their season as the desperate Ohio State Buckeyes came to Happy Valley and throttled the Nittany Lions nearly from the opening tip.
Penn State showed about four-and-a-half minutes of fight until they completely gave up on the game. They actually held an 8-7 lead over Ohio State before the Buckeyes ripped off a 26-5 run that gave them a 33-13 lead, and the game never got close.
At halftime, the Nittany Lions trailed 45-21, and the beatdown continued until the final tally was 94-62 in favor of the Buckeyes.
The loss is another in what has been a year to forget in State College. The Nittany Lions are currently 12-18 overall with a 3-16 record in the Big Ten. The season recap gets worse for Penn State.
Since starting the season 8-2 over the first 10 games, they proceeded to go 4-16 the rest of the way. That was basically their entire Big Ten Schedule with a random win slotted in against the North Carolina Central Eagles.
© Matthew O'Haren | 2026 Mar 4 Their three conference victories came against the Iowa Hawkeyes just the other night, along with the Washington Huskies, and the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Their largest margin of victory in those games was a staggering three points against the Washington Huskies.
Their final game action before the Big Ten Tournament is an afternoon tip against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Saturday afternoon. With a win and a Maryland loss, they will jump to the 17th seed in the Big Ten, and with a loss, they will stay as the 18th seed in next week's tournament.
The prediction is that their stay in Chicago will be a quick one, and if they get out of the first round "play-in," they will likely be ousted in round 2.
Whatever the case is, they have not been able to find the magic that they had in 2023-24, where they finished 23-14, and they made it into the Tournament as a 10-seed.
Before that, they had been on a 13-year tournament drought as the last time they were in it was 2010-11 when they made it in as a 10-seed, again.
The program has never been higher than a five seed in the NCAA Tournament.
No one will ever mistake Penn State as being a basketball powerhouse, but this program is in shambles. It must be corrected soon.