Penn State agrees to deal with new head coach Mike Rhoades

Penn State and VCU head coach Mike Rhoades have agreed to a seven-year deal Wednesday for Rhoade to become the next head coach of the Nittany Lions.

Matt Fortuna of the Athletic reports that the deal is pending approval from the University board, which is set to meet later Wednesday.

He just finished his sixth season as VCU’s head coach. He made the NCAA Tournament in three of those six seasons, including this past one.

The 2022-23 Rams team finished with a 27–8 record and 15-3 mark in the Atlantic-10 Confernece. The team won both the regular season and tournament titles.

Over his six years at the school, Rhoades has a 129-61 record. He never had an overall losing record and just once had a losing conference record.

Source: Penn State and Mike Rhoades have agreed on a seven-year deal to become the Nittany Lions’ next head coach. The deal is pending approval at a 4 p.m. board meeting today.

Rhoades, a Mahanoy City, Pa., native led VCU to three NCAA Tournament appearances in six years.

— Matt Fortuna (@Matt_Fortuna) March 29, 2023

Rhoades replaces Micah Shrewsberry, who left Happy Valley to take the head coaching job at Notre Dame.

“Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft wasn’t expecting Micah Shrewsberry to leave the program after a second season in which he delivered an NCAA Tournament bid to the Nittany Lions,” Blue-White Illustrated’s Nate Bauer said. “But, given the task of a late start, identifying Mike Rhoades as a top target makes sense. He’s a Pennsylvania guy with extensive experience as a head coach at a traditionally successful basketball program. That will be invaluable as he looks to quickly pick up the pieces of a program gutted by Shrewsberry’s departure and a roster depleted by exhausted eligibility. He’s going to have a big job to do if he accepts.”

Shrewsberry was 37–31 in his two season with Penn State, leading the program to its first NCAA Tournament bid in over a decade.

Rhoades is from Pennsylvania, having grown up in Mahanoy City and attended Lebanon Valley College. With Lebanon Valley, he won the 1994 Division III National Championship and then was named USA Today DIII National Player of the Year the following season.

Rhoades started his coaching career at Division III Randolph Macon. He was an assistant coach before taking over as head coach in 1999 at the age of 25. He was 197–76 with the Yellow Jackets before taking the associate head coaching role at VCU.

He was also the coach of Rice from 2014-2017.