With the opening for a men’s head basketball coach at Penn State the focus of the athletic department at the moment, many names have been floated on who could and should replace [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag].
Assistant coach [autotag]Adam Fisher[/autotag] has been a popular name among the former players. Recently, a report surfaced that Penn State might be eyeing Texas interim head coach Rodney Terry.
Longtime Penn State assistant [autotag]Keith Urgo[/autotag] was highlighted as someone to keep an eye on regarding the open position. Urgo was an assistant for nine years in State College, coaching under [autotag]Pat Chambers[/autotag] for the majority of the time.
In 2021, Urgo left to be the associate head coach of Fordham and was eventually named the head coach for the 2022-23 season after [autotag]Kyle Neptune[/autotag] left for Villanova.
However, rumors about him returning to State College were put to bed on Friday after he signed a long-term contract extension with the Rams that keeps him in the Bronx until at least the 2027-28 season. Urgo led Fordham to a 25-8 record, the second most wins in program history. This earned him Atlantic 10 Conference Coach of the Year honors.
Sources: Fordham is finalizing a contract extension for Keith Urgo through the 2027-28 season.
Urgo was the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year and led the Rams to 25 wins.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) March 15, 2023
Urgo may have never been a realistic candidate for the job. Even with his past ties to Penn State, he doesn’t have a connection with the current athletic department.
Big picture, this might be a good thing for the program overall. It would have been easy for it to go back to something familiar, such as a past assistant to take over the program. That’s not a shot at Urgo. He proved he has the ability to be a great coach this past season at Fordham.
But this is an opportunity for Penn State’s athletic department to show it is actually committed to building a basketball program by devoting finances and resources to improve the current infrastructure.
This hire has to be the right one, not the easy one.
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