Penn State xoach Mike Rhoades acknowledges recruiting elite talent is a challenge. He's prioritizing transfers to elevate the Nittany Lions' competitiveness.
Following an 85-72 loss at home to Rutgers on Wednesday night, Penn State fell to 11-16 overall and 2-14 in Big Ten play.
The Nittany Lions have the worst record in the conference, a half a game back from the 9-17 Oregon Ducks, who beat PSU 83-72 on Saturday.
Things aren't going well in State College for the basketball program.
PSU has not made the NCAA Tournament since 2023, Micah Shrewsberry's final year with the program. Penn State head coach Mike Rhoades is 43–48 in his third year.
Recently, Rhoades discussed the state of the program when it comes to recruiting.
Per The Daily Collegian, Rhoades said he doesn't believe Penn State can recruit elite players out of high school, but he hopes the team can in the future.
Rhoades knows PSU needs to start winning games to make the program more attractive to high school athletes.
“I think we got to continue to just keep pushing the envelope forward of men's basketball here in everything we do,” Rhoades said.
“That's the key to it, and when you bring recruits on campus and they see how awesome it is here, how much fun our student-athletes and our students are having here, the people you could be around, and you get a chance to play in the Big Ten.
I mean, that's appealing. We got to continue to do our part, too.”
Rhoades has faith that his staff can build relationships with recruits. He wants to pursue transfers, hoping age will help the Nittany Lions quickly become more competitive.
“Recruiting has changed, and it's changing as we're speaking right now,” Rhoades said.
“You always want to get high school talent, without a doubt, but you also make sure, like in the Big Ten, you got to be completely open to getting older all the time because that's what our league is doing, and that's what power-four teams are doing.”
It sounds like it's going to take time for Penn State to build the program into an annual contender. Rhoades is still at the building phase, and he needs to find ways to take a shortcut to jumpstart the program.
It'll be interesting to see if Penn State agrees with his line of thinking or makes a change at the top after another disappointing season.