I don’t know; that’s not my job. Are you telling me that someone wouldn’t want this job, considering it’s in the Big 10 and close to Northeast and Delmarva basketball hotbeds?
A coaching change should be made after two or three seasons if the AD believes that the current coach is incompetent or just in over his head at this level. Just based on how this team plays fundamentally and not even considering the win-loss record, I think that we’re close to determining that Rhoades just may be in over his head here if not outright incompetent, and I really don’t care what he did at VCU, which is doing alright without him.
Come on, they’re not traditional basketball heavyweights. Yeah, I know that Charles Barkley went to Auburn and Bama was good under Wimp Sanderson, but I’m 57 years old and I don’t believe that any of those programs ever has made the championship game let alone win it in my lifetime.
This is always the dumbest question people ask. You don't keep a coach because of fear of the unknown.
You make a great point about the competition for talent. Yeah there are elite or very good players in these cities that are not that far from State College but there are a lot of options for them not named PSU. A Philly player could go to an ACC or BigEast school, local Philly schools, could go to Maryland. We have no tradition in basketball, nada. Makes it very difficult to get talent.
Another name that I’ve mentioned is Shaka Smart. Also, Sean Miller would be interesting, as he’s from PA and had great success at Arizona. I’ve also mentioned Richard Pitino, who already has coached in the Big 10 and is doing a great job at New Mexico.
Speaking of power forwards Chambers has PA kid Keeshawn Kellman at FGCU who's averaging 13 pts & 7 rebounds.
Losing that many close games tells me two things: 1 - They do not know how to win. At this level of basketball that is a team skill that needs to be learned and it starts with respecting every possession and carrying about every detail... high BB IQ, 2 - They do not have a go-to leader / star on the roster that can regularly make the play, hit the shot, grab the rebound, ets. that puts the game on ice. These both fall on the coaching staff, the first in terms of accountability, the second in terms of recruiting talent. Not saying either are easy!
Going into the season, I believed that returning B1G Defensive Player of the Year Ace Baldwin was that man. And early in the season, that seemed to be the case. But somewhere along the way he and Puff Johnson were injured. I know that he has been working his way back from an injury, but I believe the team began to falter even before the injuries.
Seems we have this problem every year. Have significant difficulty winning close games. Not limited to Rhoades. Shrewsberry struggled but did catch lightning in a bottle. But that was more the players than him as we are now seeing with his lousy coaching at ND.
Shrews got lucky with getting Pickett and Funk. Otherwise he wasn’t much
How did he get lucky? Shrews brought both of those guys in...and in year 2, made the dance. He also adapted the offense a bit better in the 2nd year and really went with the post up game, half-court style that benefited Pickett. From an offensive standpoint, Shrews is miles better than Rhoades to this point. Meanwhile, Rhoades had all of his guys from last year return..including his two core guys from VCU, and this team is garbage.
He got lucky that he had two NBA players willing to come here to finish their careers. You’re correct, he was much better off offensively than any coach we’ve ever had here but it helps when you’ve got two pros in the lineup . Chambers was probably the worst XO coach I’ve ever seen and rhoades just lets too much of the offense rely on what ace does but shrews was not nearly the coach that some people here make him out to be otherwise he’d have more success right now at Notre Dame, a place that’s got a ton of money to get whatever kids he wants.
He won 9 conference games last year…that doesn’t point to being over his head. Two years is not long enough to judge whether someone is bad or whether someone is good. If Shrews would have stayed there’s a very real possibility he only has 3 wins this year as well. It’s too small of a sample either way especially at a school that has no basketball history and has very limited NIL money to go toward basketball.
In principle, I agree with you, and I've said that with a clearer head, I believe that he should get a third season, which he most definitely will. However, to have lost all of these Big 10 games since January when several of them not only could've been won, but should've been won, gives off bad optics. His most important job after this season is ensuring that the players whom he wants back stay, which obviously is going to be tricky, and he adds meaningful pieces from the portal. If he doesn't do those things, next season may make this season look good by comparison.
Wojo would never have come to PSU. would’ve been a drastic step down from Marquette and the only two schools that I think he would’ve left for were Duke or his hometown team, Maryland.
I have often thought about PSU trying to develop a pipeline off of one of the Coaching Trees.
If next season is worse, then it’s likely time to move on. Barring multiple injuries (like they had this year) a coach should so improvements each year.
You can't wait until April or really May to see everyone has bailed then can him. You are in no man's land at that point. What coach is coming?
Hopefully Kraft has his fingers on the pulse and is doing exactly what you suggest. This is why he makes the big $$$$, right? He should have a better sense than you or I as to whether Rhodes has lost the team or whether this is a run of injury ridden bad luck.
Exactly. He gets paid a lot and yes he has many responsibilities but he needs to invest time in understanding what is happening inside the hoops program.
I am not advocating this strategy but you could fire him now as in two weeks if another (better) coach is lined up. You wouldn't just can him then be like well we now need to search for another coach.
