Following the departure of Micah Shrewsberry to Notre Dame and the subsequent NLI releases and players entering the transfer portal, Penn State basketball got back on track by hiring [autotag]Mike Rhoades[/autotag] away from VCU. He brought a lot of his old staff with him from Richmond, Virginia to State College and seemed set to hit the ground running with the culture his staff has established.
Unfortunately, that was short lived.
J.D. Byers has been a long-time assistant under Rhoades at all three of his previous coaching stops. He was there at the Division 3 level before heading to Rice and VCU with Rhoades. Byers was set to follow him to Penn State as an assistant before deciding to take the assistant job at Virginia Tech on Tuesday.
Byers’ wife, Marci, is the head coach of the women’s volleyball program at Virginia Tech.
“My family and I are thrilled for J.D.,” Rhoades released in a statement about the move. “J.D. has been on my staff for 12 years and this move was too good of an opportunity for him to pass up as he now gets to be together as a family with his wife, Marci, and their two daughters.”
Filling the assistant role will be Jimmy Martelli, who was previously brought on to be the Chief of Staff. Brandon Rozzell will now be the Director of Recruiting for Penn State basketball.
Official ✔️ Excited to announce the elevation of Jimmy Martelli to Assistant Coach and the addition of Brandon Rozzell to the staff as Director of Recruiting 🦁
🔗: https://t.co/hscGH4USaX#WeAre pic.twitter.com/aSjIHBu0SU
— Penn State Men’s Basketball (@PennStateMBB) April 11, 2023
Martelli is the son of legendary basketball coach Phil Martelli and has eight years of previous experience as an assistant coach on the sidelines. He coached under Rhoades in 2006-2007 while at Randolph-Macon.
Rozzell spent the last two seasons at VCU as the Director of Student-Athlete Development. After graduating from VCU with almost 1,000 points scored, he spent 10 years playing professional basketball overseas.
The biggest win so far in the Rhoades era was accomplished by getting one of the top transfer portal players in [autotag]Ace Baldwin[/autotag] to commit to Penn State. Baldwin previously played for Rhoades at VCU, where he was the Atlantic 10 Player of the Year last season.
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