I understand what you're saying about NIL, but there are a lot of schools that have less NIL money than PSU who are doing a much better job than what PSU is doing; I just think that NIL has become a convenient crutch to rationalize losing. PSU is not a pauper by any means. I mean, I'm sure that PSU has more NIL to spend than Miami (Ohio) and they've been ranked this season. Also, does Iowa have that much more to spend on their basketball program than PSU, which has a very good record this season? There are so many other examples. Also, in that sport, you really only need four or five so-called high-level players who can be surrounded with a bunch of grunts; you're not talking about having to stock a football team with 80 to 90 players. A good coach should be able to find four or five Big 10 caliber players within four hours' driving distance from PSU by just rolling out of bed; I mean, how many thousands of high school kids play high school basketball in PSU's footprint, many of whom are very talented, and they're all not going to Duke or UConn?
In the end, like I said, PSU has had many Big 10 seasons in which they won 7 to 9 conference games and actually beat teams like Illinois, MSU and Purdue, and also made the Big 10 Tournament Championship game twice; God, as recently as 2020, they were in first or second place in the Big 10 at some point in February. Even if PSU had no NIL to spend on basketball, which isn't the case, they should be able to put a more representative product on the court than what they have this season; this current team has an overall talent level that you would find on a mid-level Horizon League team.
In the end, this coach has failed to do whatever he set out to do in three seasons on the job. His biggest failing is basically losing whole teams to transfers at the end of each season and having to scramble to fill a whole roster. Obviously, as we've seen this season, it would be hard for any school to win like that, and especially a school like PSU that has no pedigree in this sport. Also, he did an absolutely terrible job with last season's team, which probably had enough talent to make the Tournament.