Though the past three weeks has been a bumpy ride for Penn State men’s basketball, new athletic director Pat Kraft has managed to land the plane.

It was officially announced that Mike Rhoades, former coach of Virginia Commonwealth, will replace Micah Shrewsberry as the new head coach. The university’s Board of Trustees approved the contract Wednesday afternoon.

Rhoades agreed to a seven-year deal that averages out to $3.7 million a year, totaling $25,900,000 over the course of the contract. It also includes bonus incentives that can add up to a potential $1,075,000.

The contract is a steep upgrade from that of prior PSU men’s basketball coaches, which may explain its publication. Possibly due to the embarrassment of their lowball totals, the deals of previous Penn State coaches were not made public. It is believed Rhoades’ contract pays nearly twice as much annually as that of predecessor Micah Shrewsberry, who left for Notre Dame last week, and three times Pat Chambers’ yearly salary when he was forced out 2½ years ago.

It is expected Rhoades will bring several members of his VCU staff with him. Also confirmed as an assistant is Rowan head coach and former PSU star Joe Crispin. He will be an offensive specialist who fills a new coaching role just designated by the NCAA in January. Crispin may engage in all typical coaching activities except that he may not recruit off campus.

The announcement comes after a weeklong search and negotiations regarding infrastructure and NIL fundraising that were not without challenges, for both Kraft and Rhoades.

In something of an ironic twist, the VCU coach will return to his home state, just as Micah Shrewsberry departed PSU last week for Notre Dame in his home state of Indiana. Rhoades, 50, grew up in Mahanoy City, son of a Pennsylvania state senator, then was a Division-3 All-American at Lebanon Valley College as it won the 1994 national championship under Pat Flannery.

Rhoades is ready for the Penn State job in a broad sense that no other candidate is. He is well-versed with the culture of central Pennsylvania and the school. Yet, through his 24 years at Randolph Macon and VCU, he has cultivated relationships with AAU and high school coaches in the talent honeypot of the Washington D.C. area that is arguably the most fertile of any in or near the Big Ten footprint. That’s a region that any Penn State coach must recruit abundantly.

Rhoades also has ventured beyond the mid-Atlantic as a head coach and built a winner at Rice (2014-17), a private institution in Houston that could not be much more arduous as a recruiting sell.

Rhoades is in for a total rebuild. That would’ve been the landscape even had Shrewsberry remained because the surprise 2022-23 NCAA tournament team was constructed almost entirely of fifth-year transfers and seniors. The eligibility of starters Jalen Pickett, Andrew Funk, Camren Wynter and Myles Dread and rotation sub Michael Henn has expired. Seth Lundy has declared for June’s NBA Draft.

As for the remaining integral members, Rhoades will now make it his business to retain freshmen Kanye Clary, Kebba Njie and Evan Mahaffey, all of whom were rotation players this season. Mahaffey entered the transfer portal on Tuesday but has not yet committed to another school. As for members of Rhoades’ VCU team, it’s not yet known whether any will defect and come to PSU with him. The best player on that team was tough, fearless junior point guard Adrian “Ace” Baldwin, named 2023 Atlantic 10 player of the year.

The Rams won in dominant fashion both the A-10 regular season and conference tournament, yet were still seeded a mere No. 12 in the NCAA tournament and paired against burly, physical No. 5 seed Saint Mary’s. In what was an even game, Baldwin fell awkwardly on an SMC player’s foot early in the second half and was hobbled with Achillies and groin strains for the remainder of what would become a 63-51 loss to the Gaels.

Rhoades had the VCU program rolling the past several years with A-10 regular-season titles in 2019 and 2023 and NCAA berths in 2019, 2021 and 2023, although each time the Rams failed to escape the NCAA first round.

His teams are known for their fundamentally sound defense; they finished atop the A-10 in overall defense in Ken Pomeroy’s metrics three of the past five seasons. But Rhoades also coaches a pleasing up-tempo style. Each of his past seven teams at Rice and VCU have ranked in the top 40% in KenPom’s “adjusted tempo” stat (i.e., possessions per game).

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