Penn State Hires Mike Rhoades As Next Men’s Basketball Coach

Penn State Athletics announced Wednesday that the university was hiring Mike Rhoades to become the new men’s basketball coach, replacing Micah Shrewsberry following his departure for Notre Dame. The Nittany Lions made an unlikely run in the Big 10 Tournament this year and advanced to the Round of 32 as a 10-seed in the NCAA Tournament.

“We are excited to welcome Mike Rhoades as our head men’s basketball coach,” Athletic Director Patrick Kraft said in a statement. “He is a veteran head coach who is a proven winner at multiple levels. Mike has been a tremendous recruiter and talent developer throughout his career. As a Pennsylvania native with a strong family history with our University, Mike understands what it means to be a Penn Stater and how impactful it is to be part of Nittany Nation. Mike has a vision of how to build Penn State Basketball into a championship program.”

Once a star Divison III college basketball player at Lebanon Valley College, Rhoades began coaching in 1996 as an assistant at Randolph-Macon College. At the age of 25, he became the head coach of the Yellow Jackets in 1999 and led the team to four NCAA Division III Tournament appearances in 10 seasons.

Following the 2008-09 season, Rhoades accepted a job as associate head coach at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), where he served on the staff that made four straight NCAA Tournament appearances and advanced to the Final Four in 2011. After three seasons as the head coach at Rice University, he returned to VCU, this time as head coach from 2017 to this past season.

Rhoades, who has appeared in three D-I NCAA Tournaments as a head coach, will inherit a successful program from Shrewsberry, who has been lauded for Penn State’s rapid turnaround during his two seasons coaching for the team.

“We will be bold, different and aggressive moving our program forward,” Rhoades said upon accepting the job as Penn State’s coach. “We will play with great energy and excitement while always being relentless in our pursuit of making this basketball family into something special. I can’t wait to get to work.”

Article by Patrick Moquin