Luminaries such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama delivered speeches at that venue. Penn State’s gymnastics, volleyball, and top-seeded wrestling teams continue their winning streak there. The Nittany Lions men’s basketball squad will be back at Rec Hall in University Park, Pa., for the first time since December 12, 2015, on Wednesday.
The visiting team, No. 12 Illinois (19-6, 10-4 Big Ten), is set to compete in the 6,502-seat arena, which will undoubtedly offer a stronger home court advantage for Penn State (12-14, 6-9) compared to the expansive Bryce Jordan Center, which has been the Nittany Lions’ primary home ground since its inception in 1996.
Penn State has not hosted a Big Ten match at Rec Hall since their dominating victory over Wisconsin with a score of 79-50 on January 7, 1996.
Nevertheless, the conversations inside the venue on Wednesday will not solely revolve around historical games at Rec Hall; it will also touch upon the departure of their top scorer, Kanye Clary, from the Penn State program.
Coach Mike Rhoades revealed on Monday that Clary, averaging 16.7 points per game, had left due to a “coach’s decision.”
“We’ll move forward and focus on the task at hand. It came to a point where as a coach, I decided to move on,” Rhoades said.
Clary made minimal impact during Penn State’s recent three-game losing streak. He was absent during Saturday’s defeat to Nebraska. Before that, the agile left-handed point guard played for 14 unproductive minutes against Northwestern on February 11 and managed eight points and five assists in a home loss to Michigan State on Valentine’s Day.
Considering Penn State’s low scoring of 49 points against Nebraska – 12 points below their previous season low – Clary’s exit comes at an inopportune time.
Penn State may find firmer ground against an Illinois defense that has conceded 83, 73, 96, 75, 88, and 80 points in their six Big Ten away games in 2024. Conversely, the Fighting Illini recorded an average of 84.8 points while achieving a 3-3 record in those matches, including an 85-80 victory over Maryland last Saturday.
Illinois not only succeeded in a challenging environment – their coach, Brad Underwood, described Maryland as “as tough of an environment as there is in the Big Ten” – but Terrence Shannon Jr. continued to demonstrate that he might be the league’s leading two-way player.
Shannon amassed 86 points in the last three games, hitting an impressive 30 out of 34 free throws, and also blocked four shots against the Terrapins, three of them while guarding the all-Big Ten point guard Jahmir Young.
“He’s been a great teammate, and he almost tried too hard not to mess things up or not to be so assertive,” Underwood said, referencing Shannon’s initial struggles after missing a month due to suspension. “People laugh, but we don’t run much to Terrence. It’s just kind of how he scores the basketball in transition, at the foul line, driving the basketball.”
“We aim to provide him with space, but his defensive contributions have been the key improvement since his return.”
