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It’s no mystery that Penn State men’s basketball isn’t a Big Ten powerhouse. It also hasn’t really been a mystery as to why. Sure, the program will buck every few years, as it did during the 2022-23 season under Micah Shrewsberry, but the investment obviously isn’t there for the program to have any sustained success.
That fact probably didn’t elude Rhoades when he left VCU, the top-resourced program in the Atlantic 10, to come to Happy Valley. But now, heading into Year 4 of his tenure, with the cost of a championship-contending roster in college basketball ballooning over $20 million, he’s decided to come out and say it.
During a summer press conference on Tuesday, Rhoades explained that, unsurprisingly, Penn State is “at the bottom” of the Big Ten in terms of NIL spending.
“No coach is ever going to say they have enough. Everybody wants more in this arms race. This and that. It is what it is. Whatever you’re given, you gotta try to do the best you can with it and make no excuses and figure it out. The situation we’re in is what we’re in, and we got to find a way to make the best of it and go from there. What teams are doing in our league and what we’re doing is totally different; it is what it is, and just make the best of it. I’ve said it, I’m not making excuses, when your back’s up against the wall compared to what others are doing, no excuses, gotta figure it out,” Rhoades told the assembled reporters in Happy Valley.
Mike Rhoades states the obvious with latest NIL comments
Through three seasons at Penn State, Rhoades is 44-52 and has yet to make the NCAA Tournament. As disappointing as that sounds, it’s on par for a program that has only made the Big Dance three times this century and 10 times in its history.
In some ways, Rhoades should be thankful for that lack of investment. Obviously, if the program had more money to spend, the results may have been different through his first three seasons, but also, with the results he has produced, if Penn State cared about basketball, there’s no way he’d still be at the helm.
Rhoades doesn’t have the resources to compete. He doesn’t punch above his weight, so maybe that’s worthy of criticism, but with so much of the athletic department’s money needing to be allocated elsewhere, there was absolutely no reason to pay two basketball coaches at the same time.
Rhoades signed a seven-year deal in 2023, which carried an average annual value of $3.7 million. It’s a safe bet that no matter how he performs, he’ll probably see the end of it. Still, if he’s feeling any pressure to save his job this season, comments about how little money the program has may ease it in the minds of a fanbase that was largely indifferent to begin with.
The problem isn’t a lack of money; it’s a lack of money for men’s basketball (and women’s for that matter). Penn State’s priorities are clear. The Nittany Lions want to be dominant in wrestling, women’s volleyball, and, more recently, are looking to be serious contenders in men’s hockey.
It takes less money to be a top spender in those sports than it does in men’s basketball, and the department has had real success with that model, so why would anything change? It won’t, and Rhoades probably knows that. As much as this is a cry to donors and athletic director Pat Kraft for more help, it’s much more an explanation for his struggles and a ploy to keep his job. But he hardly needed to do it because every Penn State fan already understands the situation.
If the cost of a wrestling dynasty under Cael Sanderson, a women’s volleyball national championship under Katie Schumacher-Cawley, and a year of Gavin McKenna is another losing season on the hardwood, what’s one more? Because it’s not like the program was any good before the NIL era.
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This article was originally published on victorybellrings.com as Mike Rhoades got brutally honest about the reason Penn State basketball is stuck in the Big Ten basement .
