Penn State's Mike Rhoades Takes Small Shot at Pat Kraft

It was a disgusting year for Penn State's basketball program a year ago, a very concerning sign, as the future of this program doesn't really seem to be in great hands. 

Much of that is because the school doesn't seem to care much about basketball, and the funds allocated to the program just aren't at the level they need to be. 

That's unfortunate for head coach Mike Rhoades, who many had high hopes for after coming over from VCU. 

I still don't know how much to blame Rhoades for some of the struggles we've seen over the past couple of years from Penn State, but at the end of the day, his job is to win games, even if it sounds unfair. 

Not many people are going to continue to give him grace, even if we all know deep down that a lot of this is Pat Kraft's fault.

As for how Rhoades feels, I actually appreciate some of the comments that he's made over the past year or so. 

He's made it very well known that Penn State isn't at the top of the Big Ten in terms of spending, as its NIL is extremely below average. Rhoades once again spoke about that at the Big Ten Media Day, suggesting that he has to do a lot more than some other coaches around the league to win games at a high level.

“We went out there and found it,” Rhoades said on Big Ten Network during Big Ten Basketball Media Days. “We got some older guys. We got some bigger, tougher guys. That's important. Maybe not as deep as the rest of the league, but I like our group, and we had to address that, the character of competition and the character of toughness. We needed that for sure.”

“We have to overachieve at Penn State,” Rhoades said, per Will Horstman. “It is what it is in the Big Ten for us. I'm cool with that. I'm excited about that, but we have to have a level of toughness and grit and fight to find a way to overachieve on a Saturday night on the road in the Big Ten because that's pretty darn hard to do.”

As for what Rhoades has been able to do throughout his first couple of years at Penn State, there have been some problems on both sides of the basketball. 

However, it looks like he finally made some right decisions this summer. But he took a completely different approach than he has in years past. 

I'm curious to see if that's going to lead to more wins, but at least there is more talent on this team than we've seen over the past couple of seasons now.