HV: TV: Everything Mike Rhoades said at Big Ten Media Day
On Tuesday, Penn State men's basketball head coach Mike Rhoades met with the media to discuss the Nittany Lions ahead of his first season as the program's head coach. Here are the major takeaways from his time at the podium.
Special thanks to ASAP Sports for the quotes of today's press conference. You can view the full transcript, here.
On Kanye Clary returning to Penn State
"Very important," Rhoades said when it came to having Kanye Clary return for the Nittany Lions. "I love dynamic guards and guys that can make plays with the ball in their hands, and Kayne is one of them. To put him together with Ace Baldwin, that's a dynamic backcourt." He would later go onto note that Clary plays the way that fits their system, that features being fast and aggressive. "I'm really proud of him. He's had a great off season, great fall here so far. So I'm excited to see what he does.
On what he tried to instill in his team as he built it
Rhoades and his staff this off season spent a lot of time with his players and getting to know who they are and how they operate in order to build a strong level of trust and communication between the staff and players. Each Wednesday this off season, the team had Wednesday night family meals where they would also have serious conversations on top of spending time together.
"Just building a level of trust off the court because basketball is the easy part, so that was important to me," he said. "To get guys to give themselves to you, they've got to know that Coach has my back, and it takes time. We're still working on that."
He also said it is important for everyone to know just how hard that it was going to be. "We love it that way that for us to get where we want to go and do what we want to do with Penn State basketball, it' going to take a lot of effort, a lot of time. It was going to be intense. There's going to be a lot of tough days, but those are the days we're going to grow the most."
The hardest part so far at Penn State
He was a little stumped about what the hardest part of his job has been so far, but his answer was also an insightful one.
"Just getting guys to understand what it takes, what it takes to get where we want to go, and it's an everyday thing," He said during his answer. "But that's everybody. Everybody has to go through that. Every coach, not just the new coach."
"The neat thing about starting a program or building a program and putting your tag on it is getting guys to see what they're capable of doing on a daily basis, on a weekly basis and as a team going forward into the season," he added. "That's a great adventure for me. Getting the guys to understand that you have to stack days together and all that."
The transfer portal and getting the right fits
If the transfer portal didn't exist, Penn State would've been in a very tough spot this season as they would've had to taken a lot of high school kids who likely wouldn't have been ready to play at the Big Ten level right away. Instead, over 59 days, Rhoades and his staff were able to land 10 players out of the transfer portal.
That being said, when the Pennsylvania native took over the Nittany Lions head coaching job, it was all about finding the right fits for his program. Rhodes told the media that the Nittany Lions received interest from quite a few players due to their style of play but at the end of the day, the Nittany Lions staff "wanted to make sure they were guys that fit Penn State."
He would go onto mention players like North Carolina transfer Puff Johnson, calling Johnson natural leader and a captain of the Nittany Lions this season while mentioning how he wanted to come back home after playing for a Final Four team last season. He also mentioned Lafayette transfer Leo O'Boyle who is looking to get his masters from Penn State but also fit the Nittany Lions needs as a shooter.
On DeMarco Dunn
Rhoades called Dunn a versatile guard who could score in multiple ways and has a chance to be an elite defender. He believes the Arizona native is someone who could surprise a lot of people and just needs the playing time and freedom to go out and "just be a player." Dunn will be a player that Nittany Lions fans will need to watch out not just this season but next season as well. "He's a good player right now, six months from now, a year from now, I think he could be very, very good," Rhoades would add.
What will it take for Penn State to become an annual torunament team?
Rhoades believes Penn State needs to have the belief that they can be that type of program. He also echoed much of what he has heard from head football coach James Franklin over the last year or so regarding alignment of himself, athletic director Pat Kraft, and university president Neeli Bendapudi. "I came to Penn State to work for Pat Kraft and the alignment of our president and our athletic department is the best it's ever been, I've felt that and I've seen that. Working for Pat every day has you wanting to run through a wall to get that done."
He also would go onto say that it will take a huge commitment and changes for that to become a reality.
"It's going to take changes. It's going to take a huge commitment," he said. "It's going to be the belief that we can do this. Especially on the days when you get beat or the days it becomes really hard or some things don't go your way, but that's how you build something successful. To sustain it, you have to have people on board on the toughest days. I think we have the people that want to be a part of building this thing to make it a huge winner.
So I came here to win. I came here to try to win big and doing it the right way with great student-athletes, but people that want to play basketball and guys that want to play basketball at Penn State, and I believe we've gotten off to a good start on that."
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