Source: Penn State men’s basketball making changes to coaching staff
Penn State men’s basketball has already made a change on its coaching staff. Assistant coach J.D. Byers will leave the Nittany Lions to take the same position on the Virginia Tech staff, while Jimmy Martelli will move from his chief of staff role to an assistant coach role to replace Byers, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
The now-former Penn State assistant is taking the job at Virginia Tech where he will reunite with his wife, Marci, who is the school’s volleyball coach and will move back to be with her and his two children.
He originally joined the Nittany Lions after spending 2014-2023 on staff with new head coach Mike Rhoades at Rice and VCU.
Martelli is the son of Philadelphia coaching legend Phil Martelli, who spent 1995-2019 coaching the St. Joseph’s Hawks and is now the associate head coach at Michigan. The younger Martelli was previously an assistant coach at various stops, but last held that title at Rutgers from 2010-2013 under head coach Mike Rice. Rice was fired after a video was released of him shoving, grabbing and throwing balls at players and using gay slurs during practice. Martelli resigned following the scandal.
