Growing up in central Pennsylvania, Penn State basketball coach Mike Rhoades knows that in-state battles are important to winning over local recruits and fans.
With that in mind, Penn State’s next game against Drexel can be viewed through the lens of two programs competing for more than just boosting their overall records.
โTo get back in the Philly area, you know, we’re going to recruit that area all the time and we have some guys from down there as well,โ Rhoades said during Wednesday’s media availability.
Kachi Nzeh is from Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. Photo via Penn State Athletics.
โI mean, it’s just, it’s a no-brainer, right? To be down there as much as we can to show off our program I think could help us as we move forward, as we continue to keep building this.”
Rhoades has discussed establishing a winning culture and knows that exposure is the line connecting point A to point B. Exposure gets your program’s name out there for future athletes and alumni support.
Saturday’s game at Wells Fargo Center, or any professional arena, is a great opportunity to showcase what Penn State basketball is all about.
โIf itโs in Philly, or the Middle Atlantic area, which is sort of our backyard, I think that helps us with our building, building our product, and building support and getting our alumni to games and all that stuff. Sometimes we have to go to them, just as much as we want them to come up here to State College.”
With Villanova no longer the national power it was under Jay Wright, the door is open for a new king of Pennsylvania college basketball.
Rhoades would like to run through it.
“You know, you want to be the best college basketball team in your state, without a doubt. And we have some really good programs in this state that have won a lot of games, and you know, that’s something that we’re always going to push for and try to do. But you got to play those games, and you got to get opponents that want to play those games as well.”
Winners of these games could potentially move up on local recruits’ lists, which is huge since the pool of high-level talent in Pennsylvania is either shallow or exported out-of-state.
Breaking Down the 3 โCornerstonesโ of PSU Basketball’s Future
Over the last decade, 57 Pennsylvania players in 247Sports’ database have been rated four-star or higher. Of those 57, 13 were from Philadelphia with six remaining in the state. PSU signed three of those six (Tony Carr ’16, Lamar Stevens ’16 and Mike Watkins ’15).
Saturday’s game is like presidential candidates battling for votes in a swing state. Sure, the bulk of your support might come from larger talent areas (California, Texas, New York, etc.), but winning on a local level could shift the current to bring a stream of home-based talent and support for years to come.
