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Penn State Men’s Basketball: 6 Candidates to Replace Micah Shrewsberry

The pressure is on for Penn State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Pat Kraft to hire a replacement for now Notre Dame bound head coach Micah Shrewsberry. The problem of course is that good coaches, that are available to hire, don’t just grow on trees. While Shrewsberry was hired during a fairly robust crop of young coaches were on the market, the Nittany Lions head into this search with slightly less obvious options waiting in the wings.

Penn State’s bankroll will inform who is or isn’t on the table, but for now here are six completely hypothetical candidates for the job. Feel free to insert plenty of viable mid-major options here on your own time.

The Internal Hire, Associate Head Coach Adam Fisher or Assistant Mike Farelly: Neither of these names would really be the splash hire that Penn State fans might be hoping for, but both might provide the program some degree of roster stability. For his part Fisher has spent the better part of the last decade under Micah Shrewsberry, Miami head coach Jim Larranaga as well as Pat Chambers. Fisher has yet to have a big job of his own, but is well versed in all things Penn State, is an excellent recruiter and ought to be up for a head coaching gig somewhere soon if he doesn’t stick around at Penn State. As far as Farelly, he’s made no bones about the fact he wants to be a head coach sooner rather than later, if either of them are ready for a Big Ten job remains to be seen, but they both may as well interview before heading off to whatever is next.

VCU Head Coach Mike Rhoades: Coming off an A-10 Title and an NCAA Tournament appearance, Rhoades is the perfect example of a guy taking the next step. A product of Lebanon Valley College, Rhoades has plenty of ties in the state and a familiar sense of Philadelphia and the A-10 footprint which pretty well matches Penn State’s. How much the Nittany Lions will have to pay for Rhoades remains to be seen, but whoever the Nittany Lions’ next coach is, he shouldn’t come cheap. The Rams went 27-8 last year, and have been to the NCAA Tournament three of the last five years and made it out of the NIT’s first round in 2022. Postseason success, or lack of might loom large, but A-10 success still counts for something. So does a guy who knows the landscape.

Colgate Head Coach Matt Langel: Another Rhoades style hire, Colgate gave Texas a run in the first round of the NCAA Tournament this season but didn’t have the firepower to finish the job. Langel does have history with Pat Kraft though – Langel was a longtime assistant under former Temple head coach Fran Dunphy who was forced out of Temple in part by Kraft who was Temple’s athletic director at the time. Would he want to work for the guy who pushed out a legendary head coach? Money might heal all wounds, but Colgate might simply offer less drama.

Texas Interim Head Coach Rodney Terry: It seems unlikely that Penn State is going to be able to outspend Texas/one of the most lucrative athletic departments in the nation but Terry is the only coach at this point to have any actual reported connection to Penn State interest. The Longhorns haven’t lost yet – and could continue to make a deep NCAA Tournament run – so Kraft won’t have made any official calls yet. Terry took over in a tough situation and his players have certainly responded. He seems like a hail mary, but gets the nod here simply because he’s in the interim role and apparently Penn State – like everyone – would like to hire him.

Philadelphia 76ers Assistant Sam Cassell: This one is a little less serious, but Cassell has been sitting around in Philadelphia for ages waiting for his turn. If the Sixers make a deep playoff run that will likely only help head coach Doc Rivers’ job security and could open Cassell’s ears to something else. Then again it’s hard to imagine a coach like Cassell, who has lived his entire professional life in the NBA, wanting to take on all the strange things that are being a head coach at the collegiate level. He wouldn’t be far from Philadelphia where he is loved by the likes of Joel Embiid and James Harden, but he might be far from the things that make him comfortable. If Penn State tires to get creative he is certainly an option to call. It’s also hard to imagine Penn State waiting for the NBA Playoffs to finish before making that call. Then again, Florida State might come calling.