Caltagirone

With two exceptions, Penn State’s University Park campus is a fertile landscape of sustained innovation, productivity and achievement.

The two exceptions are the desert wastelands of Rec Hall and the Bryce Jordan Center where the home basketball teams toil in a state of perpetual futility.

On Jan. 22, Penn State became the lone Division I athletics program with women’s and men’s basketball teams that were winless in conference play.

At the time, the Lady Lions were 0-9 in the Big Ten and the Nittany Lions were 0-8.

On the women’s hoops side, Carolyn Kieger held onto her job after a 1-17 Big Ten campaign in 2024-25, which was her sixth as Penn State head coach.

It can only be surmised that she must have one heck of a buyout written into her contract.

Watching Lady Lion basketball is like suffering through an endless loop of bad game film.

The only thing that changes is the margin of loss.

Those first nine Big Ten losses this season included a 40-point rout by Michigan and a 36-point drubbing by UCLA.

Both were home games, which helps explain why an attendance figure of 2,000 represents a big night for Lady Lion basketball, which is 1-13 in the conference.

A matchup of top high school girls teams in Blair County attracts more fans than that.

Men’s basketball at PSU generally avoids the slings and arrows of Nittany Nation and the national media because the program is simply regarded as irrelevant.

The Nittany Lions can occasionally throw a scare into a ranked team like Michigan but then revert to form, losing by 27 to unranked Wisconsin at home before winning at Washington earlier this week.

They’re currently 2-12 in the league.

The lone appearance in the Final Four by the Lady Lions was in 2000.

The Nittany Lions haven’t been back to the Final Four since debuting in 1954.

For years, Penn State men’s basketball fans have sought comfort in the theory that five-star recruits don’t want to play in a rural area like Happy Valley.

Well, Lawrence, Kansas will never be mistaken for a metropolis, but the University of Kansas somehow manages to fill its men’s roster with elite prospects.

For Nittany Lions head coach Mike Rhoades, the move from VCU to Penn State has demonstrated that securing a spot in the NCAA tournament field is a lot more challenging for a team that runs the Big Ten gauntlet than one that plays an Atlantic 10 slate.

Rhoades led VCU to three appearances in The Big Dance.

After winning nine Big Ten games in his first season and six in his second, Rhoades will need a considerable reversal of fortune to avoid yet another drop in his conference win total.

After opening at 8-1 overall, Penn State lost nine of 10 games.

Patience is obviously wearing thin with the diehards, who booed the Nittany Lions off the court at halftime of the Wisconsin game, which was hyped as a White Out in the annual Return to Rec.

As for the head coach, he’s obviously feeling the heat.

“Building a program is really hard, but I signed up for it, man, and I believe in me,” Rhoades said afterwards. “I believe in how we do things. Some of you guys may not. I don’t really care. I’ve never really cared before, but I’ll figure it out. It might kill me, but I’m going to figure it out.”

While searching for solutions to years-long problems, Kieger and Rhoades also might want to keep an eye open for greener pastures.

Jim Caltagirone writes a monthly column for the Mirror.