2025-26 PSU MBB Thread
- Thread starter Tom McAndrew
- Start date
I'd love for us to bring in an experienced, x's and o's type guy into this role. Someone in the Kanaskie/Ferry mold, that I think we've been missing on this staff. Replace Crispin with someone more in the recruiter mold. I'd make calls to guys like Billy Lange, Joe Scott, Stan Heath, Wayne Tinkle, Mark Schmidt, etc.
Great news on Juric…in a perfect world, he’s a top bench option playing 20 mpg.
Prkacin is really intriguing to me. He was thought to have a really bright future once upon a time, but injuries and a lack of development really leveled out. Interested to see if we can unlock that potential.
Report: Penn State men’s basketball wing Eli Rice enters transfer portal
A Penn State sharpshooter is set to depart the team.
PLayed well in a lesser league but would be a nice front court option for us.
247sports.com
Not a high volume 3 pt shooter but 34% for career and 36.5 last year. All defensive team and 17 ppg.
247sports.com
Straight up dead eye 3 pt shooter, Andrew Funk like.
I would definitely feel these guys out to gauge interest.
Jalen Cox, Colgate Raiders, Combo Guard
Jalen Cox is a 6-3, 180-pound Combo Guard from Los Angeles, CA.
247sports.com
Brett Decker Jr., Liberty Flames, Shooting Guard
Brett Decker is a Point Guard from Cecilia, KY.
247sports.com
I would definitely feel these guys out to gauge interest.
Its only message boards but the day after Hubert Davis was fired, I checked to see what they were saying at UNC, and it was almost a given in the discussions that he was not going to stay with UNC. Having said that, even if he opens it back up there is nothing leading me to believe he's coming here unless he wants to play with his brother. This is a major rebuild that may never end, and he is viewed as a one and done kid.
NO but Kaden just left us for the portal. I figure baby bro will announce today as well. My guess is they will be a 2-1 deal.
I'm shocked, just shocked I tell you. I think that he may have entered the transfer portal even before he played one game for PSU. The predictable joke continues. Seeing how Iliinois basically has the Croatian and/or Serbian Olympic team on its roster, maybe PSU can get the French, Italian or Spanish Olympic team.
What will it take for Kraft and Neeli to realize that basketball is not for us?
This is the way the roster is going to look like until we hire a new coach who hopefully pulls a rabbit out of the hat and starts to win a little like Chambers and Shrewsberry did and recruit kids who are going to stay in the program longer than a few months. When you're a program like PSU that has no cache in the sport, you can't continue to lose almost your whole roster after every season and then scramble to fill it up mostly with players who aren't even low level Big 10 players.
This is the beginning of the end. Not sure how we got here, since it started with such promise. MR brought in some of the best VCU players, not to mention two North Carolina guys (friggin' North Carolina!), and players from established schools like Temple and Xavier. The best we can do now is older foreign guys. SMH. I guess the bottom line is players want a combination of getting paid/winning, and apparently you can't do either at PSU. So what did Michigan do differently, other than hire Dusty May (who appears to be a good dude from all that I've read)?
The Rhoades era just has been a complete failure. He was unable to build on the momentum of the 2023 season in every conceivable way. Even when he had a legitimate mid-level caliber Big 10 team in the 2024-2025 season, he coached them down by a tremendous degree. He's an example of the Peter Principle: he was good in the A-10 but obviously is totally out of his league in the Big 10.
If this is the way that this program now is going to be run, why even continue it? Does this university really want to continue to serve as cannon fodder and schedule filler for even the bad Big 10 teams? It's a complete embarrassment to this university, but maybe the powers that be just can't be embarrassed enough.
I'd prefer older Euro guys to what we had that year to be honest. As far as what Michigan did differently? Had fans that supported their basketball program, and had a lot more $$$ to spend on their roster. Here is what I said about the roster in Mike's first year back in 2024...
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It's really a talent issue this year...Rhoades did what he could on the recruiting front, but it'll take a bit to get guys in here at the level that we need to compete in the Big Ten. Kanye has made a big jump, but no one else has exceeded expectations to me this season (and Ace isn't playing as well as he will at some point, and has in the past). Many seemed hopeful that this team was ready to compete this year (some were talking tournament/bubble or us being better than we were last season), but we're right about as good as I was projecting based on our roster (I had us as about the 105th best team coming into the season, and have us at 115 today). Below is a post I made on the Rivals board on June 10th that kinda sums up what we've got...
Just to give a sense of where Bart is coming from, here is this year's squad, and how they fit in last season with their PRPG! rating, which is his offensive rating to give a sense of how much they contributed per game over a replacement level player at that end...
Baldwin (3.0) - best player on the 62nd ranked team (VCU)
Wahab (2.4) - 2nd best player on the 203rd ranked team (Georgetown)
O'Boyle (2.3) - best player on the 266th ranked team (Lafayette)
Mitchell (2.0) - 3rd best player on the 332nd ranked team (UMKC)
Hicks (1.1) - 6th best player on the 105st ranked team (Temple)
Kern - (1.1) - 7th best player on the 62nd ranked team (VCU)
Johnson (0.9) - 6th best player on the 40th ranked team (NC)
Dunn (0.5) - 9th best player on the 40th ranked team (NC)
Clary (0.4) - 9th best player on the 36th ranked team (PSU)
Aire (-0.1) - 12th best player on the 27th ranked team (Miami, Fl)
Brown (-0.3) - 12th best player on the 36th ranked team (PSU)
Lilley (n/a) - not in the top 12 on the 36th ranked team (PSU)
Gudmundsson - freshman
Mass exits including the best player. The program needs a reset but we are stuck with Rhoades until the buyout is widdled down. Maybe he is canned next year but that does not make financial sense. We probably just stick with him until 2029 or whatever year his contract ends. Nevertheless the future is finishing at the bottom or best case third from the bottom in the B10 for the next few years.
Who can we attract as a HC? I don't know but they have to be better than Rhoades. Given our financial situation we most likely have 3 or 4 years to figure that out.
Who can we attract as a HC? I don't know but they have to be better than Rhoades. Given our financial situation we most likely have 3 or 4 years to figure that out.
The buyout becomes more manageable after next season. That would be the realistic time to move on from him.
I 'd love it if some of these portal players who contributed to such a terrible team this past season actually got no offers from any Power 4 schools. I mean, there's a main reason why PSU was so bad last season, and it's because most of the players aren't good Power 4 players, and actually are pretty poor.
The administration will continue to tolerate the embarrassment as long as the TV revenue remains.
Like in European soccer, PSU should be relegated to the MAC or Horizon League, where they also probably would struggle.
Manageable meaning what? That would be good if we can move on from him after next season. Of course, I would like him to miraculously turn the program around but that is unlikely.
Erial-who do you see as the best candidates that could be available in a year?
His buyout is $6 million today...it drops to $3 million after next season.
Not really worth getting into candidates a year out, as so much can change. And our candidate pool would be directly tied to our willingness to invest (and $ means more today than it's ever meant).
As for next season, we should continue looking to Europe to find experienced guys and then look to sell playing time in the Big Ten to some ball-dominant portal guys. The older Euros are the band-aid for a school in our situation, though it's a lot of dice rolls on what you'll actually get.
You're missing the difference in level of competition between the MAC/Horizon and the Big Ten. We would not "struggle" in those conferences.
I probably was being a little hyperbolic, but not a lot. Last season's PSU team still would've lost several MAC games and also a few Horizon Leegue games.