ALTOONA, Pa. -- The first rumbling of an official Penn State basketball coaching candidate came Sunday afternoon.
And it's a familiar name with regards to being a potential Nittany Lion coach.
VCU coach Mike Rhoades met with Penn State on Sunday, according to veteran college basketball insider Jeff Goodman.
VCU’s Mike Rhoades meeting with Penn State today, source told @Stadium.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) March 26, 2023
Rhoades has strong ties to the area. Played at Lebanon Valley.
Rhoades loves VCU, but A-10 was one-bid league and Big Ten got 8 teams in tourney.
Rhoades also was believed to be a candidate for the Penn State job when Micah Shrewsberry was hired two years ago. With Shrewsberry now at Notre Dame, many figured Rhoades would be a potential candidate for the job this time around.
Rhoades' salary at VCU is believed to be less than $2 million a year, although a specific figure is not available.
Shrewsberry was believed to be making $2 million at Penn State. However, there has been unconfirmed speculation that the school was offering him around $4 million a year to stay, but he decided to take Notre Dame's offer instead.
If Penn State is willing to pay $4 million a year for the next coach, as has been speculated, then the candidate pool would seem be to significant. Again, Rhoades is making less than $2 million a year at VCU, so there really would not be any need to pay him an exorbitant amount to come to Penn State.
And if the university is indeed willing to go up to $4 million, then with all due respect to Rhoades, then Penn State should be able to land a candidate higher on the coaching food chain than him.
Rhoades is a native of Mahanoy City, Pa., and played in college at Lebanon Valley in Annville, leading the team to the 1994 Division III national title.
Rhoades just finished his sixth season as VCU's head coach. The Rams made the NCAA Tournament this season and lost in the first round, and they've made it three out of Rhoades' six years there. His record at the school is 129-60.
Rhoades previously served as head coach at Division III Randolph-Macon for 10 years and at Rice for three years.
We should start hearing about more candidates for the Penn State job in the next few days.
LIONS MISS OUT ON FROZEN FOUR
Penn State's fantastic and memorable hockey season came to a disappointing end Sunday night with a 2-1 loss in overtime to Michigan in the regional final.
The Lions would have advanced to their first Frozen Four had they won. They were up 1-0 with 8 minutes left in the third period, then Michigan tied it.
The game went to overtime, and the Wolverines scored 52 seconds in to win and advance.
Penn State was making its third NCAA Tournament appearance, the first two coming in 2017 and '18. The Lions had a great season that included two wins over No. 1 teams, and Guy Gadowsky's team finished up with a record of 22-16-1.
Some game highlights, from GoPSUSports:
• Penn State broke a scoreless tie late in the second period as senior Connor MacEachern hit a yawning net off a rebound chance after junior Christian Berger's blast from the point was blockered away by Erik Portillo for the 1-0 edge at the 18:58 mark.
• The Wolverines evened the game midway through the third period with a power play tally of their own as Adam Fantilli snuck a rebound inside the near post for the 1-1 score at the 7:52 mark.
• Michigan then wasted little time ending the game in overtime as Mackie Samoskevich picked the corner from the slot over the blocker of Nittany Lion junior net-minder Liam Souliere for the 2-1 final just 52 ticks into the extra frame.
• Souliere ends the year with 19-15-1 record after stopping 41-of-43 shots in the loss while his counterpart, Erik Portillo, improves to 24-11-2 on the year after making 31 saves in the victory. His 19 wins are good for the second-most in a single-season in program history while his 27 career victories are good for third all-time. The junior net-minder concludes the season with a 2.43 goals-against average, a new single-season program record, and a .917 save percentage, good for third all-time. He stopped 65-of-67 shots posting a 0.99 goals-against average and a .970 save percentage on the weekend.
• The Nittany Lions fell to 2-3 all-time in NCAA Tournament games and are now 0-2 in regional final contests.
