You won’t often see a Big Ten basketball team playing a road game against a road game at a Northeast Conference school.
But that’s what Penn State is doing Saturday.
The Nittany Lions are traveling to New Haven in West Haven, Connecticut, for a 1 p.m. tipoff against the Chargers.
Their stadium, the Hazell Center, has a 1,000-person seating capacity. Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center seats more than 15,000.
Coach Mike Rhoades was asked why his team would do this, and the answer is pretty simple: New Haven agreed in exchange to play multiple future nonconference games in Happy Valley.
“Some people told me I’m crazy to do it. You gottta put yourself out there. Let’s do it,” Rhoades said. “Ted (Hotaling) runs a great program up there. He’s a very good coach, and they made a transition to Division I. They were looking for home games with an opportunity to get them to return the game multiple times.”
It’s a big money-saving move for the Nittany Lions to get multiple nonconference games for the price of one. Power conference teams typically pay smaller schools a significant sum to play.
“This has all changed, right? I’m not just a coach, but I oversee the program, and part of overseeing that program is overseeing the budget, too,” Rhoades said. “If there are opportunities, even in scheduling, where we could save money, make money, go out there and have opportunities for our guys and for our program — you’ve gotta look at it.”
New Haven is 0-2 this year, with losses against national power UConn and Columbia.
Penn State started its third season under Rhoades 1-0 with a narrow win over Fairfield. The Nittany Lions trailed by three with about two minutes left in the game but used a 11-0 run to secure the win.
“We’re going to go play in a little, small gym. It’s awesome,” Rhoades said. “It’ll be an awesome atmosphere for a young team to go on the road and play in a smaller gym like that.
“Not everyone else is going to do it. We’re going to do it and see what happens. Now, I might be sitting here next week and you guys are saying, ‘What? Why did you do that?’
“But you gotta put yourself out there and go from there. I think scheduling, you’ve gotta be creative now. You’ve gotta try to find some different things that can benefit your program and the future of your program. That’s why we did it.
“Plus they have good pizza up there, I heard.”
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