Mike Rhoades releases statement after being named next Penn State basketball coach
The Penn State Nittany Lions men’s basketball team had to deal with losing their old head coach this offseason, Micah Shrewsbury. After leading the Nittany Lions to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in over a decade this year, Shrewsbury decided to move onto become the head man for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Penn State didn’t take long to find a replacement, as they recently officially VCU head coach, Mike Rhoades, to lead their basketball program on Wednesday afternoon. On Wednesday evening, Rhoades issued a statement after he landed the new job.
His statement reads: “It’s with great honor and excitement to be Penn State’s Peter and Ann Tombros endowed men’s basketball head coach. I would like to thank Dr. Bendapudi, Pat Kraft, and Michael Wade Smith for their faith in me and the opportunity to lead this great program. We will be bold, different, and aggressive moving our program forward. 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,” Rhoades wrote in his statement released on Wednesday evening.
Rhoades was the head coach for the VCU Rams since 2017. This past season, he led the Rams to an Atlantic 10 Championship and a No. 12 seed in the 2023 NCAA Tournament. He had a 129-61 overall record during his six seasons at VCU, leading the program to three NCAA Tournament berths in the past four years.
Mike Rhoades latest VCU head coach to leave for Power Five job
VCU is used to losing its coaches to top-level programs. He is the fifth Rams headman to leave for a Power Six conference head coaching job since Jeff Capel first did so in 2006. He made his way to Norman and made two NCAA Tournaments with the Oklahoma Sooners.
Anthony Grant (Alabama), Shaka Smart (Texas), and Will Wade (LSU) were prior to Rhoades and to some extent, had success. However, none of the previous four mentioned are still at the place they left VCU for. All four are still active head coaches though.
Rhoades will be taking over at Penn State after an incredible end of the season for the Nittany Lions. Making it all the way to the Big Ten Championship game, an NCAA Tournament win against Texas A&M was obtained as well. Stepping into a program with a ton of momentum, Rhoades felt like this was the right time to leave VCU.
On3’s Griffin McVeigh also contributed to this article.