Penn State men’s basketball is closing in on what ought to be the final hire of Micah Shrewsberry’s coaching staff as the athletic department listed a job opening for Director of Operations/Assistant to Head Coach position earlier this week.
The role comes following the departure of former Nittany Lion and Pat Chambers’ assistant Talor Battle who held the Assistant to Head Coach role briefly under Shrewsberry. Battle had been hired as an assistant under Chambers and was retained by interim head coach Jim Ferry and briefly retained by Shrewsberry.
Battle recently took an assistant position with Northwestern where he will not only be back in a bench role but will also be able to coach with his half brother and Wildcat guard Boo Buie.
Under Chambers’ the Director of Ops position had long been held by Ross Condon who was promoted to assistant coach in 2020. In turn Shrewsberry’s current Chief of Staff Nick Colella was named Director of Ops in what would end up being Ferry’s year at the helm following Chambers’ departure.
Shrewsberry’s staff is a relatively conventional format in terms of job titles and responsibilities, although Director of Recruiting Brian Snow finds himself in fairly rarified air as it pertains to title.
“I wanted to think outside the box,” Shrewsberry told StateCollege.com. “For us to do cookie cutter things in this league I don’t know if it makes sense. I think we need to think outside the box. I think we need to use all of our resources to really be different and find ways to be different and find ways to be unique. I don’t know if there’s very many people in this country who are as connected to the recruiting world as Brian Snow in terms of the amount of coaches that he knows and that he’s connected with […] I want to reap the benefits of that and kind of commandeer all that knowledge.”
As for the most recent opening, Penn State lists the job description as follows.
Penn State Intercollegiate Athletics, a Division 1 and Big Ten Conference Institution, is seeking a Director of Operations/Assistant to Head Coach for the Men’s Basketball program reporting to the Head Coach. This is a non-coaching position which will coordinate all player development aspects of the Men’s Basketball program. This position will be helping and supporting the coaching operations. Job duties include:
- Schedule road practices and shoot arounds
- Assist Head Coach with practice prep
- Assist with the development of individual player workouts
- Coordinate team travel
- Assist with the coordination of the non conference schedule
- Camp coordinating
- Special projects as assigned by Head Coach
