Just in case anyone’s wondering, they messed up their graphics … they posted a chart showing PSU’s top 5 ticket sale revenue generators, and later posted a graphic showing 5 of the Big 10’s men’s hoops ticket sale revenue totals, but they kept the actual revenue figures from the first graphic. Indiana isn’t bringing in 44M+ in ticket rev with the next highest school bringing in closer to 2M. Whoopsy.
2025-26 PSU MBB Thread
- Thread starter Tom McAndrew
- Start date
Just in case anyone’s wondering, they messed up their graphics … they posted a chart showing PSU’s top 5 ticket sale revenue generators, and later posted a graphic showing 5 of the Big 10’s men’s hoops ticket sale revenue totals, but they kept the actual revenue figures from the first graphic. Indiana isn’t bringing in 44M+ in ticket rev with the next highest school bringing in closer to 2M. Whoopsy.
I wouldn't say 'none' as he has tried to play a defensive style that does not fit his roster. He also plays guys who do not look to be playing hard on the defensive end, those items are on him
I'll give more thoughts tonight (or tomorrow night, or whenever the season is over)...I'd give him about a C+ for his coaching job this season (defensive philosophy, continued inability to generate anything from BLOB sets, frequent delay in using his timeouts when needed, etc). It's a bad roster construction for the way he wants to play, but we're also limited in many areas. We've got the 18th best roster in the Big Ten, and he wasn't good enough to get us over the hump this year and get more out of it. And still feel that we need an upgrade within the coaching staff (a Kanaskie/Ferry type could help a lot...or a really dynamic recruiter). If we're going to spend $6 million on something this offseason, I'd rather it be on NIL for next year's squad and not the sunk cost of a buyout.
There is certainly an argument for moving on from him at this point (no real wins on the recruiting trail, things are really stale from a fan support standpoint, this year was a step backwards, etc). But landing a realistic guy that might be in our wheelhouse like Kimani Young (though he might wait for a better option), Bobby Hurley (flamed out at Arizona St, but could he have success back East?), Gerry McNamara (though he could be leading Syracuse next year, especially if Siena wins tonight), Josh Schertz (though he'll likely have better options), Bryan Hodgson (probably a good fit), etc likely means nothing if we give them the 18th most NIL in the conference and ask them to get it done with one arm tied behind their back.
Jones said average NIL is $8 million in B10 or Power 4 and we are what like at 2 or 3. No one who is good coach is coming here with that pathetic state of resources. Not to mention we won't get any decent talent either.
This season has mercifully come to an end.
Turnovers are horrible. Many of them are live ball turnovers that lead to easy points at the other end. PSU had 17 turnovers tonight leading to 24 NW points (a third of their scoring).
Defensive rebounding sucks. Time and time again the opponent misses only to get an offensive rebound and an easy put back. NW won offensive rebounds 10-5 tonight.
Reed really came on as the season progressed. Too bad he's a senior.
Juric improved a lot on offense and FT shooting. He's still not a great rim defender but he's the guy I most want back.
Mingo has been a disappointment given his recruiting ranking but he's just a freshman. Too many turnovers, weak defense except for steals, poor perimeter shooter. I'd like him back but I wouldn't spend all of our NIL money to keep him.
Dilione is a good scorer but not so good on defense.
I don’t care if we get anybody back except for those 3. PSU really needs a D.J. Newbill or Jalen Pickett type transfer. We also need a PF to help score and rebound. Tunca is a turnover machine. Stewart plays hard but he's overmatched at this level. I was high on Rice for a while but he collapsed down the stretch.
Turnovers are horrible. Many of them are live ball turnovers that lead to easy points at the other end. PSU had 17 turnovers tonight leading to 24 NW points (a third of their scoring).
Defensive rebounding sucks. Time and time again the opponent misses only to get an offensive rebound and an easy put back. NW won offensive rebounds 10-5 tonight.
Reed really came on as the season progressed. Too bad he's a senior.
Juric improved a lot on offense and FT shooting. He's still not a great rim defender but he's the guy I most want back.
Mingo has been a disappointment given his recruiting ranking but he's just a freshman. Too many turnovers, weak defense except for steals, poor perimeter shooter. I'd like him back but I wouldn't spend all of our NIL money to keep him.
Dilione is a good scorer but not so good on defense.
I don’t care if we get anybody back except for those 3. PSU really needs a D.J. Newbill or Jalen Pickett type transfer. We also need a PF to help score and rebound. Tunca is a turnover machine. Stewart plays hard but he's overmatched at this level. I was high on Rice for a while but he collapsed down the stretch.
No, unless he is desperate to coach immediately and has no other options. It starts and ends with money. If that blowhard Jones is right which he may not be but give him the benefit of the doubt then we don't have the resources which means we won't attract a decent coach nor good players.
Did you think we were going to magically play well and beat NW? This team is terrible. Surprised the margin was only 10. I thought it would be 20 or more.
This isn’t close to a new low…this team was much better than the late Dunn/early Ed years.
Hurley is unlikely to get another P5 job unless it’s another school down at the bottom rung. I’ve never been high on him so obviously think there would be much better options…but it would probably excite our basketball-ignorant fanbase.
Does it matter who we get? If we are significantly below the average in NIL ($8 mil vs $4 mil) that is all you need to know. Think Pirates competing with Dodgers and Yankees.
I agree about no tradition and no money. I don’t agree that PSU fans don’t care about basketball. I understand that people aren't going to drive 2-3 hrs through the mountains in winter weather to attend a Wednesday night game but I remember good crowds during the Talor Battle years, the Crispin years, and even the D.J. Newbill, Jalen Pickett, or Carr/Stevens years. People simply have no interest in coming out to watch a last place team get blown out.
PSU needs players. We used to be able to get transfers who wanted to move up to the Big Ten but now you need $$$ to attract those players.
Of course it matters. Leicester City spent <10% of their peeps and won the Premier League. The Mets spent loads last year and sucked. But it’s obviously that much harder without fixing the underlying issues.
“Good crowds” is relative. Our peers pack their buildings night after night even in their worst years…in our best years, those “good” crowds are a 65% full BJC on a weeknight. It’s a unique scenario that no one else in the Big Ten faces.
Penn State fans will care if we turn into an Indiana football situation. And it doesn't even need to be that extreme but field a top 20 team and people will come. It could take 2 to 3 years of sustained success but it will happen.
Nobody cared about Indiana football for years. The doormat of the B10. Memorial stadium in Bloomington holds about 55,000. Average attendance was probably 35,000 pre Curt Cignetti. At this year's Rose Bowl there were 60,000 IU fans in California! Another 60,000 IU fans packed the Peach Bowl in Atlanta 8 days later. Put out a winner and fans will come. Alumni ,fans have school pride. Dave Jones saying that for some reason Penn State fans are not basketball fans (yet every other Power 4 school has basketball fans) is absurd. Penn State fans are not fans of bad, inept basketball.
One last thing about Jones. He clearly is not objective. He hates Kraft apparently and sounds like some deranged lunatic ranting about him like Kraft bullied him in grade school or something. Then for him and whomever the host dude is (forget his name, long name starts with a B) to completely give Rhoades a free pass saying he is a good coach and can't be blamed for the team's performance is ridiculous. Sloppy journalism. Yes, we need resources and I don't expect to be in the top half of the B10 but you can't be last place two years running (by a wide margin) and think there are no issues with the coach.
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I am being facetious about whether the coach matters. We shouldn't be dead last in the B10 with a good coach but we need to get to at least average in NIL for the B10 along with a good coach. Then we have a shot at fielding good teams that can make the Dance and even get to the Sweet 16 occassionally.
Perfect comment about Jones, he was a piece of crap in his coverage of PSU basketball and football.
He thinks he gets a pass being a Ohio St alum that he had to mention.
I like the host Chris B but will quit listening to me if Jones becomes a regular on his show.
So in 2020, Chambers had a team that was going to the Tournament and was in first or second place in the Big 10 as late as early February, and in 2023, Shrewsberry took a team to the Big 10 Championship Game and won a NCAA Tournament game. Also, during their tenures, PSU mostly was solidly mediocre and competitive, and could go into places like MSU, Purdue, Illinois and OSU and win. Were they working with considerably more resources than Rhoades?
To hold Rhoades blameless is absurd, laughable and obviously rooted in alterior motives. IMO, he's mostly to blame for the state of this program. His three year tenure here has been an unmitigated disaster. He's shown that he can't recruit, hold a core group together from one season to the next and, most importantly, actually coach at the Big 10 level. I guarantee you that Chambers or Shrewsberry would've done something much more with the 2024-2025 team, which should've been a boderline Tournament team, than Rhoades did.
PSU still is a Big 10 job, and to those of you who ask who would be better as a coach than Rhoades, my answer to you would be anyone. I'm sure that there are countless coaches who would take a Big 10 job. Shrewsberry was on the verge of turning PSU into a consistent mid-level Big 10 program similar to an OSU or Iowa, so the right coach can be somewhat successful here.
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That person is typical of many of the writers who cover PSU sports; it just seems that, unlike the writers who cover OSU sports for papers even in Cleveland, many of the writers who cover PSU sports seem to believe that it's their mission to sabotage the programs. I don't want the writers who cover PSU sports to wear blue and white cheerleading skirts, but I also don't want them to be intentionally intellectually dishonest, which is what this guy was being when he said that Rhoades is entirely blameless in the dumpster fire that is PSU basketball; that's just patently absurd.
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They were 3-17 in conference play, make that 3-18 with the Northwestern loss. "Isn't even close to a new low", give me a break.
This was the worst, least competitive, least talented, and most poorly coached PSU basketball team that I've seen, and I've been following them since the mid to late 1980s.
Honestly, the B1G should trim the conference tournament and not invite everyone like they do for the women. They really should make it a twelve or ten team tournament.
You're entirely correct. It's ridiculous that you have a tournament in which teams have three game byes like Michigan does. The ACC does it right, and even they have too many teams in their tournament.
I wonder if he had to do it all over again whether he would've stayed at PSU; he was beginning to build the foundations of a consistently solid Big 10 program.
Jones was fantastic in his coverage of PSU hoops over his 25ish years...I can understand not liking his smugness, but there wasn't anyone more plugged in, more willing to ask tough questions, etc.
Were you not around in 2002 to 2006? 7-23 (1-15)...7-21 (2-14)...etc...and that was against a very average to down Big Ten. This team was bad, but not even close to as bad as those squads. We were getting blown out by Power 5 teams this season...we were getting blown out by sub-200 teams in those years.
Indiana was averaging 45k in their 55k stadium in the 5 years before Cignetti...We're not even half filling the BJC. But without an influx of $ to upgrade their roster, Indiana likely is still in the same spot. Unless we put in an influx of money, we're likely in the same spot.
Jones is right on PSU fans not being basketball fans (in relation to our peers)...hell, look at any post here talking College Basketball (a handful of people join in) or the NBA (people come out of the woodwork telling you how bad the NBA/basketball is). Most of the teams in our conference have hoops fans that will support the team win or lose. Pulling in a post that I made two years ago...
Looking at our last two NCAA caliber teams, here are the numbers down the stretch...
Saturday 1/11/20 - ranked 20th hosting Wisconsin - 10,139
Saturday 1/18/20 - Ohio St (Thon Game) - 14,785
Wednesday 1/29/20 - ranked 24th hosting Indiana - 7,656
Saturday 2/8/20 - ranked 22 hosting Minnesota - 15,261 (bravo)
Saturday 2/15/20 - ranked 13th hosting Northwestern - 14,402
Tuesday 2/18/20 - ranked 9th hosting Illinois - 9,506 (really disappointing)
Wednesday 2/26/20 - ranked 16th hosting Rutgers - 8,345
Tuesday 3/3/20 - ranked 20th hosting 16th Michigan St - 13,437
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Wednesday 1/11/23 - Indiana - 8,502
Saturday 1/21/23 - Nebraska - 11,297
Sunday 1/29/23 (Thon Game) - Michigan - 12,047
Wednesday 2/8/23 - Wisconsin - 7,213
Tuesday 2/14/23 - Illinois - 7,297
Sunday 2/26/23 - Rutgers - 12,082
Sunday 3/5/23 - hosting 21st Maryland - 10,672 (really disappointing)
There isn't another team in the conference outside of Northwestern that has this many empty seats in their building as they're pushing for an NCAA bid. There are many factors here (BJC too big, fanbase too spread out for weeknight games, lack of fans that make attending basketball games a priority, etc)...but they are factors that no one other than Northwestern faces (and it's that much tougher to recruit bringing high school kids into a morgue when our peers have packed houses night in and night out, most even in their down years).
Even though I believe that the BJC is unduly criticized as a venue (it's a perfectly fine facility and schools like OSU and Wisconsin also play in very large venues), perhaps the time has come for PSU to build another arena of about 10,000 to essentially replace Rec Hall where both basketball teams and the volleyball teams can play, and gymnastics and most wrestling matches can be held.
Some may not like hearing this, but, if PSU simply has limited resources into which to put into the basketball program, maybe it's time to reduce the number of sports that it supports so that it can direct more money into the basketball program, which is the second most important college sport.
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