Penn State men’s basketball team prepares for season of new faces, venues. What to know

Mike Rhoades’ first game as Penn State men’s basketball coach is a couple weeks away and the Nittany Lions are ramping up for their opener against Delaware State in the Bryce Jordan Center. With that Nov. 6 game nearing, the program held its annual media day Monday in its home arena.

Here’s everything you need to know before the team opens the season.

Playing in different venues

Penn State’s schedule came out in September with a couple notable destinations on it — with another one announced during the football team’s game against UMass. Two of those spots are The Palestra and Madison Square Garden, with the Nittany Lions playing a conference “home” game in Philadelphia against Michigan at the former and a non-conference game at the latter against Georgia Tech.

The game against the Yellow Jackets came together after the team’s original plans fell apart.

“We were gonna go play in Atlanta, it fell through, in the Atlanta Hawks arena,” Rhoades said. “So we just got on the phones and started working stuff. I talked to Damon Stoudamire, the new coach at Georgia Tech, and said I think this might be an option if it’s something you’re interested in. He was all for it as well.”

The Palestra game has become a staple of the team’s conference schedule and came as no surprise, but the third venue — a conference game against Illinois at Rec Hall on Feb. 21 — will be on campus and allow for a more raucous environment.

All of those decisions line up with what Rhoades wants to do moving forward.

“In the future we’re going to try to play different venues as much as we can to have fun with it,” he said.

Spacing the floor on offense

Rhoades’ first year comes with a few known qualities about how his teams will play — the group will pressure the ball on defense and try to force turnovers by their opponents. Offensively, however, there have been questions about what his team will look like and what he wants it to do on that end of the floor. Monday afternoon there were two main qualities he focused on when asked what the identity will be.

“They really share the ball,” Rhoades said. “... What I do like about this group, from day one they’ve done a very good job of trying to make the right play with sharing the basketball. A hot basketball, as I call it, is a harder one to guard. ... Then I think you’ve got to be able to shoot the ball at a high clip. We’ve had days where we’ve done that and given our guys confidence. ... That’s got to be our identity. We’ve got to play with great pace but we’ve got to share the ball and then we’ve got to make shots.”

He will have plenty of options to help out in that regard, with a few players on the team who will be able to space the floor and create the room necessary for the team’s guards to attack the rim.

Leo O’Boyle and Zach Hicks were volume 3-point shooters at Lafayette and Temple, respectively, and should bring that dimension to Penn State this season. There was another player, though, that Rhoades said will add value from outside, too.

“I would put Puff Johnson in that category as well,” he said. “Having those guys with length and size and toughness, but also can stretch the floor and create spacing allows some of your dynamic guards more space to get downhill.”

Johnson should be a key part of the team this season, although he did not participate in the primary part of practice that the media watched Monday afternoon.

Finding stability

Rhoades is taking over after former head coach Micah Shrewsberry left for Notre Dame after two seasons at the helm at Penn State. He took the team to the NCAA Tournament last season and now the new head coach will be looking to build something similar — while looking to do it for a long time.

“I am locked in,” Rhoades said. “We have a lot of things we need to do to make this program better. Some of it’s short term, some of it’s long term. I’m in it for the long haul. I’m excited about that. I said this from the first day I got here, we’re gonna build this to last.”

The Pennsylvania native said his contract — which goes for seven years and will pay him $25.9 million — is indicative of the stability he will bring.

The other driving force in what could keep him around has to do more with his family.

“My daughter is gonna be playing lacrosse here next year, she’ll be a freshman,” Rhoades said. “My son can’t wait to get up here next year and go to State High. There’s a lot of neat things. I’m two hours from my mom. I’ve seen my mom more in the last six months more than I ever have since I got into this crazy business and that’s been a lot of fun.”