Mike Rhoades explains Penn State's offseason roster overhaul through the transfer portal

New Penn State basketball coach Mike Rhoades had a big job to do this offseason: rebuild the roster through the portal.

After Micah Shrewsberry left for Notre Dame, the cupboard was bare for the Nittany Lions. So what did the former VCU coach do? Find his guys.

He explained the roster overhaul while at Big Ten Media Days in Minneapolis.

“Well, we were down to three guys,” Rhoades said. “So I had no choice. Right? So we just jumped right into it. Number one was not to panic. Make sure we found guys that fit me, fit our staff, fit our program and what we’re trying to do and we didn’t want to make any mistakes. And when I met somebody that’s going to help us build our program the right way, our way.”

Rhoades made sure to find the specific type of player throughout the offseason within the transfer portal.

“So we’re very picky in the transfer portal,” Rhoades said. “We had a lot of people reach out to us because of our style of play, and it’s a fun way to play. But we also wanted to make sure they were young men that fit Penn State and what we were trying to do to build our you know, our foundation to get off to a great start.

“So I’m really proud of our staff. But yeah, I think we got 10 players in 59 days. So yes, we were in the transfer portal pretty intense.”

As far as the players that returned, only 5.5% of Penn State’s minutes from 2022-23 returned this season.

“Well, if if we couldn’t use the transfer portal then we would have had to take high school kids,” Rhoades said. “A lot of high school kids that might not have been ready to play at this level right away or take junior college players and you’re just trying to sometimes squeeze them into your program. They may not be a great fit. Now with the transfer portal, you get a guy like Puff Johnson who is a natural leader, was voted one of the captains of our team who played in a Final Four wanting to come back to his home state.” 

Rhoades, who’s 373-189 overall as a head coach and went 129-61 at VCU, wants to win right away. But you have to balance the quick fix and the right approach.

“So you know, there’s quick fixes, if you want to call it, but also we’re trying to get a quick fix to push our program forward,” Rhoades said. “But then there’s some great fits too, and I think we got a few of them for sure.”