Penn State Played Better Against Pitt, and That's a Good Step

It was a tough game for Penn State basketball against Pitt, dropping the contest by just six points. Penn State ended up losing this one at the Palestra 82-76, but honestly, it didn't look that bad on either side of the basketball. 

I do have my concerns about how this defense is going to be over the next couple of months, specifically against Power Four teams like Pitt and in the Big Ten come conference play, but the offense looks much improved, the team in general is better, and guys are playing a lot harder than they were a year ago.

It's still clear that Penn State doesn't have the most talent in the country, but when we watch these games right now, there's no debate that Penn State is much better than it was a year ago. I'm still unsure whether that's going to result in more than five or six wins in the Big Ten, but I do have some hope that this team is going to sneakily be one of the more underrated in the conference.

But what Penn State has to get better at is defending without fouling, rebounding, and hitting three-point shots. 

We all knew that this wasn't going to be some elite three-point shooting team, but the issues from beyond the arc were rather prevalent against Pitt, attempting just 15 threes and making just five of them. 

As for how some of those things are going to have to change, coach Mike Rhoades had a lot to say after the game, and while it was disappointing to get the loss, he wasn't too upset with his team's effort. He just said that they have to be more disciplined, and he's happy that his team is bigger, stronger, and older than it was a year ago.

“We're not the most athletic team,” Rhoades said. “We sure aren't going to be in the Big Ten. That's okay. We got to be the toughest and the most disciplined. We got to get better at that.”

“Last year, we weren't at all,” Rhoades said, per Will Horstman. “We were weak and soft and really young. We got bludgeoned. We're older. We're bigger. I thought we at times rebounded really well today. We have to continue to do that against teams like Pitt… “[It’s] better than it was two weeks ago. Not good enough where it needs to be right now. We got work to do on that. We know that, and we got to make sure that we use tonight and grow from it and get better, and if this happens again, we win this game.”

While the win was the bigger focus for Penn State, I'm still happy to hear that Rhoades feels a certain way about this loss and that he also understands that playing teams like Pittsburgh is going to require a different type of effort and attention than Penn State has had to give over the first two games of the season. 

Even throughout the next week or so in its out-of-conference schedule, Penn State is going to take on some of the more below-average Division I teams in the country. 

Those games can have multiple flaws in them, and Penn State is still going to come away with wins. 

When it plays teams like Pittsburgh and others in the Big Ten come conference time, the focus and energy have to be much different than they have been over the past few years. We were much closer to that on Sunday night, but it still didn't result in a win, so there are clearly some things to work on.