Penn State men’s basketball’s 2024 season got off to a hot start. The Nittany Lions opened up the year with six straight wins, three of which featured 100-point performances, in what was their best start since 1999.

With excitement mounting, Penn State dropped the final of the Sunshine Slam to Clemson but returned to the win column against Buffalo with the onslaught that is the Big Ten men’s basketball schedule looming.

To help the Bryce Jordan Center’s atmosphere heading into Big Ten play, head coach Mike Rhoades made his “sweat with us,” plea. It worked, and Rhoades celebrated with the fans on the court after an 81-70 upset of the Boilermakers.

“Purdue was the standard,” Rhoades said on Monday. “We dictated the game, and we put our mark on the game without a doubt.”

Purdue was a bright spot, and the outlook on the season only grew after the win. The Nittany Lions entered January sitting at 11-2 before notching a four-point win over Northwestern to begin the bulk of the Big Ten schedule. Then came a tight loss against Indiana in the Palestra that kicked off a four-game losing streak which, along with the Hoosiers, included Illinois, Oregon, and Michigan State. A win at home over Rutgers was a brief reprieve before dropping games to Iowa, Michigan, and Ohio State.

Players have flashed at different times, and leadership inside the locker room is strong. Nick Kern has been in double figures for each of the last eight games, Freddie Dilione V has been a presence from beyond the arc, Ace Baldwin Jr. has continued to have a big impact, and Yanic Konan Niederhauser is coming off a 21-point game against Ohio State. Even so, the results haven’t come.

Accentuating the issue is the loss of Puff Johnson, who left the game against Michigan State and is out without a timetable to return.

As it stands, the Nittany Lions have dropped seven of their last eight games and are tied for 15th in the conference with a 3-8 record. It’s been a tough January.

“We’ve got to get right, keep moving forward, and use all this as fuel to get better,” Rhoades said. “We’re in an unforgiving conference, and you’ve got to put your big boy pants on and go to work.”

Throughout the skid, the Nittany Lions have been close. Excluding the Illinois blowout and the recent Return to Rec stumble against Ohio State, five of Penn State’s seven recent losses have been by a combined 17 points. The close nature of the losses makes the stretch that much more taxing but adds that much more motivation to get better.

“It’s not like we’re getting blown out, we’re competitive,” guard D’Marco Dunn said. “We all feel like we should’ve won a lot of those games, but we dropped a lot of those games. That’s the motivation.”

There hasn’t been one overarching issue that’s caused the string of losses either. In some games, it’s turnovers, some free-throw shooting, some three-point shooting, and some foul trouble. The only consistent issue the blue and white have faced is consistency itself.

Against Ohio State last Thursday in Rec Hall, the Nittany Lions couldn’t keep up. Penn State lost the lead a little over three minutes into the game and never regained it in the 83-64 loss. It was an outlier of the month’s games, but it makes recovering even more important.

The blue and white are back in action on Tuesday night against Minnesota, which also boasts a 3-8 conference record. A Penn State team that rose into the 30s in the KenPom rankings earlier this season now might not only miss the NCAA Tournament but the Big Ten Tournament. Beating the Golden Gophers is critical.

After Minnesota comes, Penn State will head west to Los Angeles to face UCLA and USC before returning home to play Washington and Nebraska. After another date with Minnesota, Indiana, Maryland, and Wisconsin round out the schedule.

A turnaround needs to happen fast, but with veteran leaders in the locker room taking it one game at a time, Rhoades believes it can.

“There’s a lot of basketball left,” Rhoades said. “Let’s win the next game, let’s have a great practice today so we’re prepared to win the game tomorrow with a good Minnesota team, and then you never know what happens in this league.”