Penn State Firing Mike Rhoades Comes With Important Question

Penn State's basketball season is one week away, giving us at least something to be excited about. 

Penn State isn't expected to be a great team or win the Big Ten, but there's at least reason to believe things will be somewhat more promising than last season. 

I don't want to say that Penn State is going to even be close to the top of the Big Ten, but if it plays as poorly as it did a season ago, I'd be somewhat surprised. I'm still predicting that it's going to be one of the worst teams in the conference, but it should be an improvement from a year ago. 

As for what Penn State has to do beyond that, if it's another failed season, the Nittany Lions ultimately have to decide what they want this basketball program to be. 

We can either sit here and blame Mike Rhoades for not finding success, or we can be honest about what the program is right now. Athletic director Pat Kraft has not done a good enough job of putting the right pieces around him, and as much as anybody wants to blame Rhoades for the lack of success that he's found as the head coach, the reality is that until Penn State starts putting funds toward this basketball program, things likely aren't going to change.

“Toward the end of last season, Rhoades was asked why he should remain Penn State’s head coach. The Nittany Lions went 12-20 in Rhoades’ third year, another step backward after a promising 16-17 and 9-11 conference record in his first season. It’s now Year 4 for Rhoades, who is 44-52 in three seasons at Penn State, including an 18-42 record in Big Ten play. If this season’s results don’t improve, Rhoades will certainly have to answer similar job status questions again.

“Rhoades’ buyout dropped from $9 million last season to $6 million in 2062-27. It’s difficult to build a basketball program at Penn State, but the pressure will only increase,” Will Horstman wrote.

In terms of whether his job is safe, that's a different story. 

Penn State will have to decide whether Rhoades still wants to be there after this. 

There's a good chance another team around the country, and we all know there will be openings, will be interested in making him its next head coach. Penn State also has to decide what the future of this program can even look like if it decides to allocate the funds it has. 

With how good New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania basketball is, there's truly no excuse for Penn State to at least not try.