The Penn State Nittany Lions' basketball season has come to a merciless end in a loss to the Northwestern Wildcats
The Penn State Nittany Lions 2025-26 season came to a close on Tuesday night at the hands of the Northwestern Wildcats.
This marks the end of a 12-20 season that leaves a massive question mark on the Penn State program as they head to the offseason.
The Nittany Lions' final record is not indicative of just how bad they were in conference. They finished 3-17 in the Big Ten, which was good for dead last in the conference. Penn State's only wins came over Minnesota, Washington, and Iowa.
Luckily, the program won those three games, but by a combined score of seven points. Their win over the Hawkeyes was the biggest upset of the season in the conference without question.
What's worse about the Nittany Lions' year is that in their games against just the three teams directly ahead of them in the standings, they got blown out. Maryland beat them by 23, Oregon won by 11, and Northwestern beat them by 21 in the regular season.
© Kamil Krzaczynski | 2026 Mar 10 So, where does this leave the Nittany Lions program?
Under head coach Mike Rhoades, the Nittany Lions are south of .500 in three seasons. They have simply not been able to get over the hump. As year one, they were 16-15, year two they were 15-16, and this year they finished 12-20.
This is not the trend that you want to have, and it begs the question: What does Penn State do as the program looks towards the future?
Penn State has obviously never been a national powerhouse in basketball, but it should have the resources to be one of the best programs in the country.
It's been three seasons since they made it to the tournament, and they have only finished above .500 four times in the past decade. Their best record since 2015 was a 26-13 campaign in the 2017-18 season.
And even in that season, they finished just 9-9 in the Big Ten and lacked a signature win. Because of that, they were left out of the big dance.
After yet another tough season, it may be time for the Nittany Lions to relook at their basketball program and try to come up with a better solution.
This disappointing season wraps up a year to forget in the spring and fall for the two biggest sports in college athletics for the Penn State Nittany Lions.