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Report: Penn State basketball set to bring in first general manager

nate-mug-10.12.14by: Nate Bauer05/08/25NateBauerBWI
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Penn State basketball coach Mike Rhoades (Nate Bauer/BWI)

According to a report from Field of 68’s Jeff Goodman, Penn State men’s basketball coach Mike Rhoades is set to create a new position for his staff. Scott Pera, the head coach at Rice and a former assistant of Rhoades during his tenure in Houston, is set to become the Nittany Lions’ first general manager.

Rhoades and the Penn State men’s basketball program have not yet provided public comment or confirmation of the report.

A native of Hershey, Pa., graduating from Penn State Harrisburg, Pera has climbed the coaching ranks through a number of stops locally and nationally. Beginning his career as an assistant at Elizabethtown College, Pera followed with stints at Palmyra High School and Annville-Cleona before he became James Harden’s coach at Artesia HS in Lakewood, Calif., a suburb of Los Angeles.

From there, he was a director of basketball operations at Arizona State, then becoming an assistant. Again crossing the country, his next stop was at Penn as an assistant before joining Rhoades’ staff at Rice in 2014. Upon Rhoades’ return to VCU in 2017, Pera was elevated to head coach at Rice, where he finished with a 96-127 overall record, including a 45-81 mark in conference play, twice reaching the CBI.

Pat Kraft discusses hiring general managers

A role that has not yet been defined in its scope or responsibility at Penn State, the trend is a growing one in today’s college athletics. Among the 2024-25 season’s Final Four participants, Duke, Florida, and Houston all had general managers with an official title, only Auburn exempted from the same.

Meeting with reporters in February, Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft discussed the trend, particularly in its relation to the Nittany Lions’ football program. In his response, the department’s stance on handling the many new complexities of today’s college athletics clarified.

“I’m 100 percent supportive, let me say that,” said Kraft. “A lot of these general managers that you’re seeing hired have full roster discretion. That’s hard in college sports, meaning, they’re choosing the players much like the pros. I don’t agree with that. I do not think that’s right. They’re coming here because they’re going to play for the coaches and James Franklin’s football program.

“So there’s different ways to look at general manager. General manager handling, the cap, handling how we handle scholarships, because now you can get 105 scholarships. You don’t have to give full rides. It goes up four perc every year, right? So you gotta know if you’re gonna offer someone two years, how much money do I have in year two, three to go? So that number on the cap keeps going.”

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