College basketball hot seat: ESPN insider reveals where Mike Rhoades stands with Penn State

Penn State is having its worst season yet under head coach Mike Rhoades. Nonetheless, ESPN’s Jeff Borzello believes the Nittany Lions are at least a year away from parting ways with Rhoades.

“Mike Rhoades arrived in State College in 2023 with three NCAA tournament trips in his previous five seasons at VCU. Unfortunately, the Nittany Lions haven’t come close to the tournament during his three seasons in the Big Ten,” Borzello wrote. “They’re last in the conference this season, with a 2-15 record. When Rhoades was hired, he signed a seven-year contract with nearly $26 million guaranteed. There’s still $15.4 million remaining on it.”

Since Borzello released his article, Penn State won another conference game, improving its Big Ten record to 3-15. Alas, the Nittany Lions are still last place in the Big Ten standings.

Penn State’s record has worsened in each of its three seasons under Mike Rhoades. In the Nittany Lions’ debut campaign under Rhoades, they posted a 16-17 overall record and a 9-11 mark in conference play.

The following year, the team went 6-14 against Big Ten opponents. Now, with only two games remaining in the regular season, Penn State will fall short of its six-win mark from last season.

As Borzello mentioned, Rhoades’s tenure at Penn State has been a stark contrast to his time at VCU. In six seasons at the helm of the Rams, Rhoades led the program to three NCAA tournament appearances and two regular-season Atlantic 10 titles.

Mike Rhoades and Co. showed signs of life Saturday with a 71-69 win over Iowa. In the win, Penn State forward Josh Reed was spectacular, tallying a team high 25 points while shooting 9-12 from the field.

Reed wasn’t the only player for the Nittany Lions who shot an efficient rate. As a team, Penn State connected on 64% of their total field-goal attempts and 60% of their attempts from 3-point range.

This offseason, Penn State must acquire the necessary pieces to turn Saturday’s result into a consistent reality. Earlier this week, Mike Rhoades revealed how the Nittany Lions can turn around their program this upcoming offseason.

“No. 1 is you got to be great in your evaluations,” Rhoades said. “Some you hit and some you don’t. But you got to do a really good job of being right on your evaluations. You got to be right getting the right guys on the board.

“… It’s not about what others are doing all the time. It’s about are you maximizing what you’re doing and what you got as the best of your abilities? That comes with the help from administrators and your planning as a staff and your general manager.”