Penn State basketball coaching candidates: James Jones, more (2024)

On Wednesday, Penn State men’s basketball plunges into the Big Ten tournament with no clarity on who will occupy the head coach chair beyond it. So we’re considering the job open until school officials tell the world otherwise.

Pat Chambers’ exit, and the circ*mstances surrounding it, surely will impact the direction this goes. But no one can be sure how. Maybe interim coach Jim Ferry gets the nod relatively soon, with administrators putting more weight on holding the operation together than a sub-.500 campaign. Maybe everyone wants a cleaner break and a cleaner slate. Nothing is certain yet.

About the only unassailable truth in the matter is this: Whoever takes the job steps into the most difficult and thankless job in the league.

Job evaluation

Penn State’s commitment to improving its men’s basketball product should be the first discussion had in whatever meeting rooms, virtual or otherwise, the job interviews take place. No one can sanely claim it should be held in the same esteem as football. But it’d probably be nice to be considered the second-most important sport, period, and not arguably the second- or third-most important winter sport. If you’re going to bring in someone to develop talent over the long haul, you have to give that person the tools and resources to do the developing.

And that seems like the model worth following in the next coach: a grinder who can make players better over time. All athletic director Sandy Barbour has to do is reference the Big Ten program one state over to see the benefits of that philosophy; Rutgers didn’t make a splash by hiring Steve Pikiell, but it sure as hell made its basketball product relevant again. Going in another direction might be overcomplicating the process for Penn State. (Also, if the school doesn’t want to shell out the big bucks, a splashy hire is out of the question anyway.)

Barbour made two men’s basketball hires at Cal. Both (Mike Montgomery and Cuonzo Martin) were proven head coaches. Same thing for her women’s basketball hire at Penn State: Carolyn Kieger won 85 games in her last three seasons at Marquette. It could be a tell for this process.

Call list

(In alphabetical order)

John Becker, Vermont head coach. It’s the start of a pattern on this list: that mid-major coach unafraid to stick his hands in the dirt and pull out the weeds and then start something fresh on fertile ground. Becker, 52, might not be surpassed in that department, with a 228-94 record in nine seasons at Vermont and five first-place finishes in the America East. He’ll instill a spine defensively, and for a place in need of an identity, that’s a pretty smart place to start. And if he’s craving the chance to coach at the power-conference level at this point in his career, Penn State’s drawbacks won’t matter. Which is good if you’re Penn State.

Jim Ferry, Penn State interim head coach. Ferry, 53, has a sub-.500 career head coaching record in Division I, with stops at LIU and Duquesne before the audition in State College produced a 10-13 record to date. Anyway, Barbour doesn’t have to make any calls, of course, to evaluate what she has seen. Depending on your perspective, it’s the choice if you want stability … or the choice if you want to make it easy.

Dennis Gates, Cleveland State head coach. With only two years and 53 games under his belt as a head coach, Gates would be a dice roll not entirely in alignment with Barbour’s previous hires. But you’re Penn State. Why not roll the dice every now and then? Cleveland State has jumped from 11-21 in Gates’ first season to 17-7 in Year 2. To give you an idea of how rough the job was upon arrival, Gates directed his team to a 7-11 record in the Horizon League in his debut year … and shared conference coach of the year honors. He’s only 41 and he has a long stint at Florida State under Leonard Hamilton on his résumé, where he saw a football school develop into a basketball power. Maybe give Gates a veteran assistant with Big Ten experience, and then see if you’ve got a long-term solution on your hands.

James Jones, Yale head coach. Well, what do we have here: another proven commodity at the mid-major level with a history of developing talent and doing more with less. When you can direct Yale to multiple NCAA Tournament berths, and your team hasn’t finished with a losing record in eight years, you have established a track record of solid program development while dealing with some pretty significant headwinds. Jones recently turned 57 and might be looking for that opportunity to run a show at the highest level. He also might offer an antidote to the circ*mstances of Chambers’ departure.

Kyle Neptune, Villanova assistant coach. A young East Coast native with years of experience at one of the nation’s most successful men’s basketball programs is right down the road, so why wouldn’t this be the answer? Well, because the last Penn State coach was also a Villanova assistant and he’s probably going to have some candid conversations about the job with any Villanova assistant who might be interested. It makes sense for Penn State to reach out. It also makes sense if Penn State would prefer a sitting head coach. It makes sense if Neptune jumped at the chance for a Big Ten job. It also makes sense if he had a bunch of questions to ask before he jumped.

Mike Rhoades, VCU head coach. This would qualify as a fairly significant statement about Penn State’s intentions. Rhoades recharged Rice in three years and has won 65 percent of his games in four seasons at VCU. He’s only 48 but has more than 500 games under his belt as a head coach counting his time at the Division III level. Rhoades surely grasps the do-more-with-less dynamic, but winning consistently in the Atlantic 10 demonstrates a readiness to mix it up in a power league. If the interest is mutual, and it might be, it’s an intriguing option.

Ryan Odom, UMBC head coach. There’s a legitimate level of happiness and comfort for the 46-year-old Odom at UMBC. It’s not a façade. But if you’re looking for a guy with a consistent and reliable demeanor who will focus on what’s possible, instead of what’s working against him, Odom checks those boxes. UMBC isn’t just the school that beat a No. 1 seed; it won 20-plus games in each of Odom’s first three years and was one of the two best America East teams in 2020-21. This year the Retrievers are a top-20 team in terms of opponent effective field goal percentage; it’s arguably Odom’s best defensive team. He can extract good results without all the advantages.

Dana O’Neil’s hire

The needs for Penn State are obvious: a coach with recruiting connections on the East Coast and someone willing and able to do the excavating to rebuild a program. Everyone on this list would work, but if I’m making phone calls, I’m starting with Rhoades. VCU wasn’t in shambles from a win-loss perspective when he returned, but the program’s psyche had been bruised by Will Wade’s quick exodus. Rhoades has a style of play that is exciting to watch, and even more fun to play, which will help lure both fans and recruits to State College, a critical pairing for the Nittany Lions’ success.

Brian Hamilton’s hire

It must be someone who can push the basketball culture forward, in every sense. Someone who will be comfortable out of the spotlight while maximizing the resources available. If the school can get past the Ivy League’s opt-out this year, James Jones offers a known quantity in the head coach chair. If the administration is fixated upon a longer-term solution, Dennis Gates may be making the trek to State College.

(Photo of James Jones: Joshua S. Kelly / USA Today)