Penn State has identified who they want to be their next head coach, but it has yet to be determined if he wants to go there.
VCU’s Mike Rhoades, one of the top mid-major coaches available this off-season, is reportedly the recipient of a three million annual salary offer from Penn State. This information comes from Jon Rothstein, arguably the top college basketball insider in the country.
Sources: Penn State has offered its head coaching vacancy to VCU's Mike Rhoades, with an annual salary in excess of $3 million dollars.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) March 28, 2023
Rhoades has coached at VCU for the past six years compiling a 129-61 (.679) record and making three NCAA Tournaments. He also has both a regular season and conference tournament title in the A-10 while there.
Prior to VCU he spent three years at Rice where he turned them from a 12-20 team in his first and season seasons to a 23-12 team in year three. He also spent ten years at Division-III Randolph Macon where he coached them to six 20+ win seasons.
Rhoades is a Pennsylvania native which makes this sort of a homecoming for him. He was born in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania and played college basketball at Lebanon Valley. He’s the son of former Pennsylvania senator James J. Rhoades.
It’s unknown how many years he’s been offered nor if he’s willing to accept, but he’s been one of Penn State’s top targets since Micah Shrewsberry left to fill the Notre Dame opening.
Rhodes isn’t the first A-10 coach linked to Penn State. Fordham coach Keith Urgo’s name had been tossed around for the job, and understandably so. Urgo assisted Pat Chambers at Penn State from 2012-20 and, after Chambers’ ugly resignation in the fall of 2020, stuck around to assist interim coach Jim Ferry for a year. Urgo then spent a season at Fordham under Kyle Neptune before Neptune left to succeed Jay Wright at Villanova. From there, Urgo became Fordham’s No. 1 guy, and his 25-7 first campaign excited Penn State fans for a few days.
But Fordham gave Urgo a long-term extension late last week, effectively ending his chances of returning to Happy Valley.
