If it is lower than Northwestern, then that's not Mike Rhoade's fault, is it! You could bring in John Wooden, and with no NIL to spend, what difference would it make.
2025-26 PSU MBB Thread
- Thread starter Tom McAndrew
- Start date
Yeah, but Shrewsberry was beginning to make a difference and seemed to be establishing some direction, and he was working with the same NIL. This program, if that is what you call it, is just a complete mess right now with absolutely no direction.
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Question for you................can you build a program through the portal, every year? Or, do you "try" to first build a program thru recruiting, and only use the portal for one or two guys a year, as needed?
I disagree about Shrewsberry. First of all Shrewsberry had no interest in PSU. He was just using us as a stepping stone. Second, during his first two seasons at ND his teams went 13-20 and 15-18 and that's after taking his son. Njie, and Booth with him.
I would say that the latter is preferable; it's not a great way to run a program when you lose your whole team after every season and have to scramble to fill your roster mostly with borderline D-1 players.
Shrews was the best 'in game' coach PSU has had in a long time, maybe ever. He got some recruits but the development wasn't there as his best players were transfer portal guys like Pickett and Funk or Pat's guys in Lundy and Dread.
In most scenarios you build with recruiting and development, I like the overall idea of what Rhoades brought in this year but their are definitely some missing pieces and the athleticism for running his defense is not there. Personally, I would try to play more zone as we are a terrible defensive team, 297 in opponents true shooting percentage and 132 in offensive rebounds against. Rotations out of traps are not quick enough and thus teams get a high % of open threes. I think that would slow the pace down a bit too which might not be a bad idea considering our bigs are not that athletic but can shoot a bit from the outside.
Your other options are to try and play at a much faster rate/smaller to offset the lack of rebounding by trying even more pressure/running. This team really needs someone besides Dillione to hit outside shots consistently. Tunca is solid, and Rice and Stewart have shown flashes but they are way too streaky and bring nothing else to the table if they are not hitting outside shots. I expected more from them and Reed, who gets a ton of minutes but really doesnt do much.
Mingo had his 'worst' game of the year and he was still 9 pts, 5 reb, 5 ast, 2 stls. He needs some help and will probably hit the freshman 'wall' soon unless Tunca steps up. I dont know if he was sick or hurt, but he hardly played and was ineffective but he has shown flashes of being a solid player. These two will be a good backcourt next year if both are here.
Houser played hard, and should get more minutes, maybe he can develop in to a Harrar type. Blackwood got some PT but didnt do much, but these are all young guys, this team gains experience over this year and gets one more capable wing, they will have a much better season next year.
I don't know the money details but I'll make an ignorant estimate based on the few things I've read.
PSU has more total NIL money than most teams in the league. Well below OSU & Oregon and close to Michigan and USC. I'm going to say $15 million.
I read that most schools allocate NIL 75% to football, 15% to basketball, and 10% to all other sports. I also read that schools like Purdue allocates more to basketball and less to football. PSU also allocates less to basketball, about 10%. That would mean teams with $15 million would have $2.2 million and PSU would only have $1.5 million. A team with only $12 million in NIL that allocates 15% to basketball would have $1.8 million.
I think that the biggest difference between a $2.2 million team and a $1.5 million team is that the $2.2 million team can afford to pay for a deep roster while the $1.5 million team has to focus to their top 7-8 players.
You probably have to double those numbers when you add revenue sharing. So maybe some teams spend $4.4 million on basketball while PSU spends on $3 million. My point remains the same. It seems like PSU should be able to field a team that can compete in the middle of the conference.
Rhoades had a decent team after bringing in Baldwin, Puff, Kern, and Hicks. In fact they played in the BiG tournament finals. Last year started out great until Puff was out for the season and Ace played hurt. With so many seniors this year was going to be a total rebuild and it shows. The question is if they can keep their best players and add a few critical pieces from the portal next year. If not Rhoades probably has to go. Either way I don't expect PSU to field a top basketball team given their history and money allocation but I do expect them to be able to field a competitive team that can finish between 8th and 12th in the conference.
your last statement is spot on. Basketball is not like football where kids will come here to develop and know they have a shot at being seen by NFL guys even if they dont have a great season.
Basketball kids almost all want to either A.) go to a school where they get paid a LOT and then get out after their mandatory one year to go to the NBA; these are the first round draft pick types. B.) go to a school where they get paid a GOOD amount and can still play for a respected program that will get seen and they will get plenty of minutes so they potentially can develop in to a draft pick at either that school or another and then potentially play overseas. C.) go to a school that gives them the most money to play basketball because they know they probably wont make the NBA and they dont really want to be a student so they need to max out their value in college by transferring repeatedly. D.) go to a school where they can play basketball at the D1 level so they can brag to their friends/family that they 'went D1'. E.) kids who are using basketball to get an education and want to play a high level and maybe get into coaching but probably working a 9-5 in 4-5 years and just want to play as long as they can.
Psu being where it is, doesnt have the resources, culture or urban style to attract kids from big cities so they either have to play up for them (Mingo's brother) or they really need to find the best kids in the 'E' group and develop them so that every 3 years or so they have a team that fights to do what the team did in 2024.
Regarding location, how do you explain schools in Provo, UT and Ames, IA and now Lincoln, NE having big success in basketball. Also, PSU is mere hours away from NYC, Philly, the DMV, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Buffalo.
It just shouldn't be this difficult for the preeminent athletic program in the Northeast to at least have a .500 Big 10 Conference type of team. This team is going to suffer some of the most lopsided losses in its history this season after playing Big 10 basketball for going on thirty five years; it's unacceptable.
It won’t change unless and until some well-heeled alumni tell Kraft and Neeli that it’s unacceptable and go beyond that by handing over significant cash money to buy a top program.
BYU pays out the $$ for players, ISU has historically had a better program than PSU and midwest kids have a different mentality with regard to that program than the east coast kids do with PSU. DMV kids would rather go to places like St Peters or LIU than PSU, I coach down here and they dont even give PSU a thought. Myles Dread was an anomaly. PSu will have to hire a young AA assistant coach from this area to convince kids to go up there with him. Coach Conner is from the area but he doesnt have that pull since he is a small white guy who played at Shippensburg
It has to start somewhere. PSU, even in its many bad Big 10 seasons, never had a team that is going to be as uncompetitive as this one. Just three years ago, PSU made it to the Big 10 Championship game, beat TAM in the NCAA Tournament, and then competed with Texas in the next game. God, PSU even has won a couple of NIT Titles in the last twenty years or so, regardless of what you think about that tournament. It doesn't have to be and shouldn't be this hopeless; I mean, you shouldn't be losing by 50 points to a average IU team and never even being in the game against a below average Pitt team that lost at home to Hofstra last week.
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Disagree about worst team, the 2002-2005 teams were D2 caliber, PC's 2nd year overall, without Frazier they were bad. This team is super young, that team had Newbill and Marshall. Young teams go back and forth from competitive against top 10 teams top getting blown out on the road. Their #1,3,4 players in terms of minutes are freshmen.
Chambers was able to get kids like Dread, Tony Carr, and Stevens from the Philadelphia area
chambers was from Philly. We dont have a coach from the DMV that playing in the city/urban areas to get those kids down here.
I agree about the change of defense. A solid coach looks at what is not working and makes necessary changes. If Rhoades is fixated on his defensive scheme without having the personnel then he is not effectively coaching.
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Penn State will probably never get the jimmies and joes to win playing ‘regular’ basketball. They need to be different in my opinion. Either fast paced up and down or slow, zone D with some shooters. Maybe go 1-3-1 on D with Reed in the back and Mingo at the head.
When Ben Howland took over a bad Pitt program, he totally turned them around by playing tough, physical defense and just having enough offense to get by. That’s the ethos that PSU basketball needs to develop. I’d like to see them play like the Bad Boys Pistons without the dirty play, although I wouldn’t mind seeing some of that too, as PSU has been a patsy in that sport for too long. It takes a lot of effort to play this way, but it can be effective for less talented teams.
Because they’re almost always at a talent disadvantage, PSU needs to make it tough on the other team by playing suffocating defense and trying to intimidate the other team; think Nolan Richardson’s forty minutes of hell at Arkansas.
PSU basketball never has had an identity; it’s just been a hodge podge of nothingness. Right now, they neither play good defense nor good offense. Somebody needs to come here and develop some kind of identity.
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I guess that's one reason you have assistant coaches with some of those connections.
I worry about that same thing with Campell for the football team. What connections does he have with high schools in PA/NJ/MD.VA? He also can't tell recruits about his head coaching experience at a top 10 school or in the NFL. You can be a great coach but you've got to get the players.
Late last season Rhoades made comments to the effect that he understood his defensive approach was not working well in the B10. They actually played some zone. Now he has an even less athletic team yet he's still trying to do what he did at VCU. He's simply not recruting players athletic enought to play that style in the B10 as opposed to the A10.
Doubtful but worth a shot. I coached against him when he was at Eleanor Roosevelt
There's a big difference between PSU football and PSU basketball. With PSU football, you play in front of over 100,000 people for every home game for an iconic team that has won the seventh most games in D-1 college football history; the football program recruits itself in many respects.
Agree but for a school that recruits itself Franklin wasn't able to sniff at a top 10 class the last 4 years.
For whatever reason, Philly kids would go down a level rather than come to PSU outside of that couple year run by PC. Unfortunately he couldn't make in game adjustments ro he would have been to more NCAA tournaments.
This kids chose VCU over PSU and other big time programs.
They should be in on this kid, doesn't look like they are though
This kids chose VCU over PSU and other big time programs.
They should be in on this kid, doesn't look like they are though
I've wondered this as well... lots of talent in Philly, why can't PSU land more of it? These guys would go against top notch competition in the BIG. Maybe they don't like State College being out in the "middle of nowhere"?
Thats a big part of it. I coach HS basketball in a predominantly minority district in MD. I have had 3 of my players go to Millersville (and start as a freshman), Mansfield and East Stroudsburg, all of those areas are pretty exclusively white, or at least were when they went. All of my kids hated the area and left to come back home or transfer to a more urban area (like West Chester), and they plainly would say that there were either too many white people, or there was not enough to do outside of apartment parties.
It seems like PSU would be able to offer more money than places like VCU or the Big Five. Maybe not Villanova.
I worked with his brother and still see him. I always joke with him about having his brother send some of his kids to PSU. Seems like he likes it at Paul VI.
Doesn't require a home run coach, just the "right" coach. Look at what Cignetti did for Indiana football. Cignetti had a nice career, especially at JMU, but was not considered a home run at the time.
We need the guy who can once again put PSU hoops and Indiana football on the same plane. No one expected Indiana to become a powerhouse when Cignetti was hired.
Cignetti is the exception not the rule and he might be the worst thing that ever happened to college sports. Now every fan of every mediocre college team thinks they’re just one coach away from being undefeated.
