New man on campus; Penn State hires Mike Rhoades as its next head basketball coach
Penn State has made its move, hiring former VCU head coach Mike Rhoades to take over the basketball program.
Penn State reportedly met with Rhoades on Sunday to discuss their coaching vacancy, with Rhoades officially being hired this afternoon.
Rhoades is a Pennsylvania native, being born in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania while also attending Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania.
The new head coach has led three different programs in his career, coaching at the Division III level with Randolph-Macon from 1999-2009.
His first Division I job was at Rice from 2014-2017 before taking over at VCU in 2017. Rhoades has a career record of 373-189, good for a .664 winning percentage.
Rhoades was extremely successful during his tenure at VCU, taking the Rams to the NCAA Tournament on three separate occasions.
During the 2022-23 season, he led the Rams to a 27-8 record, while winning the Atlantic-10 regular season and tournament championship. The Rams made the NCAA Tournament, and their season came to an end at the hands of Saint Mary’s in the Round of 64.
Rhoades is coming into a program that is in transition, with only three scholarship players currently on the roster, with Kebba Njie, Demetrius Lilley and Kanye Clary.
Penn State also only has one commit still signed to his National Letter of Intent at the moment, State College guard Braeden Shrewsberry.
Rhoades will look to rebuild the program immediately upon his arrival, looking to the transfer portal to help field a full roster in his first season in the Big Ten.
The Nittany Lions have had a very successful track record in the transfer portal over the past few seasons, with former head coach Micah Shrewsberry adding many key transfers like Jalen Pickett and Andrew Funk to help build a winning program.
Rhoades will be looking at the portal to try and find his style of players, which is known for very tough defense.
Last season at VCU, the Rams held teams to less than 63 points per game and forced over 16 turnovers per game as well.
Penn State was a great perimeter shooting team last season but could be in for a new style of play with the changing of the guard in University Park.
VCU only made six shots per game from behind the arc and was looking to punish teams on the interior instead of from deep.
The transfer portal will definitely help facilitate a quick change of style in Univeristy Park, with a lot of changes expected to the roster to help build a team to fit the style Rhoades wants to run.
With the change, Penn State will look to help maintain the success they had in 2022-23 and hope to potentially return to the NCAA Tournament for back-to-back seasons for the first time since the 1954 and 1955 seasons, with Rhoades paving the way for sustained success in Happy Valley.
Adam Sheetz is a junior majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email ads360@psu.edu.
