Why Penn State men's basketball is fighting an uphill battle to compete in the Big Ten

Penn State men’s basketball has undergone yet another roster makeover this offseason, with nearly every player from last year’s team leaving - continuing a trend of at least eight players departing the program every season since Mike Rhoades took over as head coach in March 2023.

Rhoades’ arrival at Penn State came at a time when college sports were undergoing a massive upheaval with the increasing influence of NIL and the transfer portal in roster building - putting a premium on resources for roster building and changing the Nittany Lions’ ability to compete in the Big Ten.

“Within three months of me getting the job, the whole college landscape changed, and so you got to be in the fray, and you got to be in the fight with the people you’re trying to beat,” Rhoades said in a Zoom press conference Tuesday afternoon. “You got to do what they’re doing. You want to be in the same fight everybody else is in.

“And you know, when you’re not, that’s really hard. I think we’ve had moments where there’s some good things, but overall, it’s an uphill battle from day one in a lot of different areas. I don’t know if it’s a Penn State thing as much as it is the college landscape and college basketball in the Big Ten.”

That can create a litany of issues for Rhoades and company. Every decision is required to be more short-sighted than it was before, because every player who succeeds will have options to go elsewhere as the money spent on college basketball rosters continues to rise.

And to this point, Penn State has been unable to keep up, according to Rhoades, who didn’t mince words when asked where his team stands when it comes to NIL in the Big Ten.

“We’re at the bottom,” Rhoades said. “No coach is ever gonna say they have enough, right? Everybody wants more in this arms race. It is what it is. Whatever you’re given, you got to try to do the best that 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 not doing are totally different. It is what it is, and just got to make the best of it.”

And the cost of business in the Big Ten is high, and only going higher. According to multiple sources with knowledge of the program’s budget, Penn State’s roster sat around $4 million last year, and has nearly doubled as the cost of building a team rapidly increases.

But still, drawing and retaining high-end talent remains a struggle as players depart for bigger paychecks and other opportunities.

That creates an even smaller window for Rhoades and his staff to operate in when it comes to roster construction. So it helps when a player from central Pennsylvania has a lot of success in college and wants to come home - like Brant Byers.

Byers, who spent his first two seasons at Miami (OH), is relishing the opportunity he has with the Nittany Lions.

“Penn State basketball has always been kind of personal to me growing up,” Byers said. “I’ve always been a fan. ... I don’t know if it’s sunk in completely yet. I mean. just driving around campus, even driving by Beaver (Stadium) and the Bryce Jordan Center, it’s been pretty crazy and awesome to get to experience that. But I think as we keep moving along, it’ll keep thinking a little bit more how awesome and special this opportunity really is.”

But Byers is the exception, not the rule. There will not be many players who see Penn State, a program with a poor history, as an opportunity too good to pass up. So Rhoades and his staff will have to get their evaluations right and make the right calls in recruiting on who to add. This year, that meant going portal heavy with mid-major players.

Even that is a departure from what he did last season.

“Last year, we went with a really young team, we went with a lot of freshmen, and everybody in the league got bigger and older and deeper with older guys, and we just couldn’t do that,” Rhoades said. “We sort of pivoted on some of the decisions. You’ve got to learn from decisions you’ve made, and hopefully, even though we’re very limited in a lot of resources, we were trying to get some older guys, guys with experience, and find a way to get them here. I think we did a good job of that with what we have.”

And so Rhoades and company will embark on a new path, trying to find a way to succeed despite the lack of resources. His team is in the midst of summer workouts, a time of year when hopes can be high before games have even been played.

But soon enough November will roll around, and the results will dictate if this offseason was a success. And potentially determine what the path forward will be for a program fighting for any semblance of relevance.