Following two very different losses to start Big Ten play, Penn State men’s basketball is set to finish its non-conference slate over winter break, with its toughest test coming this Sunday against in-state rival Pitt.

It won’t be like any other regular game between the Nittany Lions and Panthers, however, with the teams playing at a neutral site in Hershey, Pennsylvania, in the Giant Center.

The Giant Center is home to the AHL’s Hershey Bears and hosts the PIAA Basketball Championships each March. This weekend, it will host its first-ever collegiate basketball game between two Pennsylvania programs.

“It’s the first college basketball game in the Giant Center ever. And then we get to play our opponent, who we’ve played the most ever in Pitt, which I think is just really cool, and great timing right before Christmas, so it should be a great atmosphere,” head coach Mike Rhoades said Thursday.

Penn State sits at 8-3 heading into the holiday season, but is coming off back-to-back losses to Indiana and Michigan State, and will aim to get back on track against the Panthers, who are 6-6 to begin the season.

The Nittany Lions and their rivals from the western part of the Keystone State have not played each other on the hardwood since 2017. Penn State dominated its ACC foe in its last matchup, winning 85-54 at another neutral site game in Brooklyn, New York.

But for two programs with a rich history, it’s been far too long since they have competed for 40 minutes on the court against each other.

“Regional matchups, old school traditions, and rivalry matchups, we should always play them, in my opinion, especially in basketball, when you play 31 games,” Rhoades said.

Rhoades has brought his team to the Palestra and Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia, to Connecticut, to New York City, to Washington D.C., and now to Hershey, Pennsylvania, all in his first few seasons at the helm of the blue and white. He’s made it a point of emphasis to bring Penn State basketball to different communities in the area.

For Rhoades’ program, consistency is the key moving forward. Through two seasons in Happy Valley, the Nittany Lions have won a few signature wins in the Big Ten, but have not been able to find consistent success through a full season. With the matchup against Pitt on the horizon, it’s another chance to build toward more consistent success.

“Since I’ve been here, we’ve had some good signature wins, we’ve had some tough moments. We want to get to a point where we get a level of consistency. That’s the goal. That’s really hard with a really young team,” Rhoades went on to say.

Penn State has the youngest team in the Big Ten this year, and there have already been and will be more growing pains throughout conference play. With the Panthers on deck and North Carolina Central at the end of December to wrap up out-of-conference play, it’s two more winnable games before the final two months of the season.