‘Who wouldn’t want to be here?’: Penn State introduces men’s basketball coach Mike Rhoades

Mike Rhoades already had some Penn State gear in his collection before becoming the new men’s basketball coach at the university. He recalled sitting on his back porch with his wife, Jodie, last year while watching Penn State’s wrestling team take on Iowa.

“I have a Penn State wrestling T-shirt,” Rhoades said.

And now?

“I have Penn State basketball T-shirts now,” he said with a smile.

The new head coach was introduced Thursday afternoon in the Bryce Jordan Center, on the court his team will play on.

And his teams could be playing on it for a while. Rhoades’ contract is for seven years and $25.9 million in guaranteed money. But more than the contract, the Pennsylvania native said he was committed to the university and the program. The money helps, but so does the hometown.

The former VCU head coach is from Mahanoy City and played for Lebanon Valley College, where he led the basketball program to a Division III national title in 1994 before being the national player of the year in 1995.

Pennsylvania was then, and is now, home.

“It’s Penn State,” Rhoades said. “I’ve known Penn State since I’ve been born. My dad used to drive us up here for a lot of different things. I’ve seen games in Rec Hall. I worked basketball camps here. My sister went here. My brother went here. My dad went to graduate school here. ... Who wouldn’t want to be here?”

The homecoming for Rhoades is a good story, but will only matter if he and his team are able to turn it into something more. Last season, Penn State men’s basketball made the NCAA Tournament for only the third time since the turn of the century. They did so under the leadership of Micah Shrewsberry.

Just hours before Rhoades was introduced in the Bryce Jordan Center, Shrewsberry was introduced as the Notre Dame head coach. There will inevitably be comparisons made between the two and the success they have at their respective programs, but Rhoades does not have to compete with Notre Dame.

He has to compete with the history of a program that has not had much success.

Fortunately for him, he will have someone with plenty of familiarity with the program. Penn State all-time great Joe Crispin will be a member of his coaching staff and brings the familiarity only former Nittany Lions can. Crispin was the best player on one of those three teams to make the NCAA Tournament — in 2001 when he led the team to the Sweet 16.

“His pride in Penn State is something else and he loves this place,” Rhoades said. “... That is great, but beyond that Joe knows basketball. He was a pro. He’s a successful college coach. He and I have talked basketball and we all see the game similar in how we want to do things. Him bleeding on this court and sweating on this court adds to it.”

Managing the roster

Rhoades’ most important task will be determining just who will be playing for him this year. The Nittany Lions have three scholarship players — Demetrius Lilley, Kebba Njie and Kanye Clary — on their roster that are not in the transfer portal. Two more freshmen are in the portal in Evan Mahaffey and Jameel Brown while two more upperclassmen are in it in Caleb Dorsey and Dallion Johnson. The two upperclassmen are unlikely to return, but Rhoades will have to get to work convincing the freshmen to stay.

It doesn’t help either that the team’s three freshmen are all unlikely to stay. Carey Booth and Logan Imes have both requested their release from their national letters of intent, while Braeden Shrewsberry will follow his dad to Notre Dame.

Rhoades knows he has work to do but said he also has to make sure he gets the process right.

“That’s the landscape of college basketball now, but I think it’s more important to get everything right,” he said. “I think we owe it to the program and you owe it to what you’re trying to do to get it right. Now it’s time to go recruit. It’s time to build relationships with these young guys that are here.”

There could be familiar help on the way, with several of Rhoades’ former players from VCU entering the transfer portal Thursday — including Ace Baldwin, the Atlantic 10 player of the year.

There is no guarantee they will follow their coach to their new destination, but it would be a surprise if some don’t choose to join him. That should create a baseline for Rhoades in his first year with the program.

Part of the formula to building on the baseline will be about the amount of Name, Image and Likeness opportunities Penn State can present prospective players. That’s something athletic director Pat Kraft said he wants the program to be able to compete with at the highest level.

“It’s the world we live in right now,” Kraft said. “We gotta be aggressive and we gotta do it on every level. I’ve said it before. Everything we do has to be at the highest level. And so it’s the same with (NIL). It’s a part of the recruiting world we live in.”

Quick hitters

• Rhoades said he brought his staff with him, which included J.D. Byers, Brent Scott, Jamal Brunt, Jimmy Martelli and Crispin.

• Baldwin was joined by Jamir Watkins, Jalen DeLoach and others from the Rams in entering the portal Thursday.

• Mahaffey, Clary and Brown were at Rhoades’ introductory press conference.