Wisconsin basketball suffered arguably the worst loss of its 2024-25 season on Saturday, falling 86-75 at home to the 15-15 Penn State Nittany Lions.
Wisconsin entered the contest ranked No. 10 in KenPom, No. 19 in ESPN’s BPI and No. 14 in the NCAA NET. Penn State, meanwhile, was slotted No. 65, No. 60 and No. 67, respectively. The Badgers were in position to finish with a top-four seed in the Big Ten Tournament, with the Nittany Lions set to miss the field entirely.
The 11-point loss is a surprise from every angle. For Wisconsin, the result clouds the team’s expectations entering postseason play. It saw star wing John Tonje continue to struggle (13 points on 2-of-13 shooting), Max Klesmit miss yet another game due to injury and Nolan Winter exit with an ailment of his own. While Wisconsin now has some time to get healthy and regroup, the team finished the regular season 2-3, relinquishing a golden opportunity at a Big Ten regular-season title.
Penn State’s postgame outlook differs from Wisconsin’s. The Nittany Lions get their first ranked win since Dec. 5 vs. Purdue. After a 1-11 stretch in conference play, the team finishes the regular season winners of three of five, building some momentum entering 2025-26.
For more on Penn State’s perspective on the result, here is everything Nittany Lions head coach Mike Rhoades said postgame
Opening statement
“Awesome college basketball experience — I’ve never been here before. That was awesome. I have unbelievable respect for Coach [Greg] Gard and how Wisconsin runs their basketball program. So to come in here and find a way to pull out a win like that. I’m just really proud of our guys, proud of the approach we’ve taken. This is the last game of the season for us. It was a fun college basketball game. I really appreciate our guys having clear minds to come in here today, one last time, let’s go, let’s play the right way, let’s go play for each other. We talked about being tough and together. And I thought we did that for a lot of the game to give us a chance. Down the stretch we made enough plays to win the game. So just really proud of our guys. It’s been a hard year, it’s been a tough last eight weeks. But the guys never quit. They had pride today and I’m proud of them.”
On what led to Penn State’s offensive success
“We shared the basketball. We got each other great looks. 21 assists on 31 baskets. I thought we really penetrated and got the ball hot. I thought out of ball screens, we didn’t hold it too long, we got the ball hot. Certain guys got it going, D’Marco Dunn of course. Having Zach Hicks out there gets guys shots because nobody helps off of him. We have a guy like Ace Baldwin moving the ball like he did today, I thought he was a catalyst for us getting really good looks.
I just thought we penetrated, we paint touches and we really shared the ball today. It was a hot basketball. That’s the way you have to play against really good defensive teams like Wisconsin.”
On Ace Baldwin instigating offense, sharing the basketball
“Well, he’s just an innate passer so he’s going to make the right play. I think he really was figuring out the ball screen defense in the first half. I think he did a good job not holding the ball too long, getting it out. When you put two people on the ball, two defenders on the ball, that person’s got to make a quick decision. So you put the defense in rotation. Ace does a really good job of that.”
On whether Penn State would accept an NIT bid
“I’m not even there…We haven’t had a lot of wins in the last two months so I’m going to enjoy this. Then we’ll figure it out from there”
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