Penn State hoops staff shuffles in Mike Rhoades' first week
The onslaught of activity of Mike Rhoades’ first full week in charge of the Penn State men’s basketball program continued on Friday. Blue White Illustrated has confirmed that assistant coach J.D. Byers has accepted the same position on Mike Young’s staff at Virginia Tech. And, in his place, BWI has learned Rhoades is expected to move director of operations, Jimmy Martelli, to the bench.
Byers’ wife, Marci, is the women’s volleyball coach at Virginia Tech, and they are parents to a young daughter, Kamryn. The move pauses a working relationship with Rhoades that spans stints at Randolph-Macon (2007-09), Rice (2014-17), and VCU (2017-23). A vigilant recruiter, Byers is credited with helping to sign top recruiting class in the A10 in three of the past four years at VCU.
In Byers’ place at Penn State, Martelli will transition from the director of ops role to the bench. Martelli, the son of former St. Joe’s head coach and current Michigan associate head coach Phil Martelli, served as Rhoades’ ops director throughout the six-year tenure at VCU.
His relationship with Rhoades dates back to Randolph Macon College, where he worked as an assistant coach during the 2006-07 season. In all, before taking on the administrative role for Rhoades, Martelli notched eight seasons of experience as an assistant coach at stops that also included Dickinson College, Robert Morris, and Rutgers.
Penn State recruiting plans
When asked how he intended to recruit Philadelphia at his introductory press conference last week, Rhoades made no disguise of the dividends Martelli is expected to deliver on Penn State’s staff as a well-connected piece.
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“Hire a Martelli. How about that?” Rhoades joked. “I think recruiting, and I understand that question, there’s certain areas that you want to recruit. But recruiting is relationships. And we have a staff that have lots and lots of relationships because they’ve been doing this for a long time at a high level.
“And so you build relationships over time that become friendships. They have players, so they have connections to recommend players to you, based on your relationship and how you do your job and how you take care of kids. That’s recruiting to me.”
Rhoades will look to fill his director of ops role moving forward as the Nittany Lions work tirelessly to rebuild a depleted roster.
With six players lost to graduation from Penn State’s 2022-23 NCAA Tournament team, plus an incoming three-man Class of 2023 not expected to enroll, as well as another five players that have entered the transfer portal, Rhoades and his staff have 11 scholarships to play with as they look to build the roster.
