Head coach Mike Rhoades just announced the star guard is no longer with the program. It was a decision made by Rhoades himself to "move on".
Basketball Penn State guard Kanye Clary no longer with team
- Thread starter Dylan Callaghan-Croley
- Start date
Per Mike Rhoades, coach's decision.
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Happy Valley Insider - Penn State Basketball guard Kanye Clary is no longer with the program
Penn State Basketball's leading scorer Kanye Clary is no longer part of the team per HC Mike Rhoades.
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I know he’s the leading score, but this is probably something good for the program in the long run. Coach is setting the expectations in year one.
It only became a coach's decision after he quit the team himself. He now officially can be labeled as a quitter because that's what he did after he didn't like how he was being played when he came back from a concussion. That's the way that a lot of people his age now react to challenges; it's just embelmatic of what a soft society we now have.
I’m sure Kanye will have plenty of suitors after his play this season. Could see him landing at JMU (or wherever Byington ends up after this season), reuniting with Micah at ND, or something like a Virginia Tech/Maryland (a solid power 5 school in the Carolinas/Virginia/Maryland).
And then he'll quit there like he did at PSU. If I were a coach, I wouldn't go anywhere near somebody like him.
This is a huge loss. He was our best offensive threat and he had 2 years of eligibility remaining.
I guess we'll never know why he's gone. It could be academics, poor work ethic, or just irreconcilable differences with teammates or coaches. Who knows?
I guess we'll never know why he's gone. It could be academics, poor work ethic, or just irreconcilable differences with teammates or coaches. Who knows?
Thankfully the season is almost over; they were going to finish under .500 with him, so they can finish under .500 without him. They actually played their best basketball several weeks ago when he was out of the lineup because of injury.
Cool…I’m sure you wouldn’t have gone near Larry Bird either then, and loads of other guys that turned into stars.
Not really.
He’s a big loss…though we needed to lose one guy to make numbers work, and at least one more if we want a capable starting 5 next year, and there were limited possibilities, so not shocking.
Hey, it's his life. But frankly I'm tired of people who support or make excuses for others who bail at the first sign of some perceived slight or adversity. By the way, as we have seen since the end of last March, this program didn't and doesn't have enough loyal people who have been associated with it, and that's why it's in its current and forever state.
IMO, this team played its best and reached its apex in the Rutgers and IU games, in which I don't believe that he played; maybe it just was a coincidence.
You actually think that we played well at Rutgers? It was probably one of our worst games of the year, but Rutgers played even worse. I’d attribute that win more to Rutgers inability to shoot 3s, FTs, and layups.
That Minnesota loss was brutal- and the injury took it to another level. We are cursed in hoops.
Young man stuck around and may have been most improved in conference if not country.
Whatever the reasons are- it is never a good thing to have stuff like this go down in your program. I had wondered if Kanye would be looking for greener pa$ture$ next year anyway. Now he will for sure.
Adam Silver said over the weekend that G League "Team Ignite" may be obsolete due to the NIL opportunities available to kids.
I was pleased that Kanye, Lilley, and lately Brown were all getting run and seemingly getting their due after staying loyal to PSU.
No knock on Rhodes- but the whole college sports landscape is FUBAR. I'm yet another step closer to not caring...
Young man stuck around and may have been most improved in conference if not country.
Whatever the reasons are- it is never a good thing to have stuff like this go down in your program. I had wondered if Kanye would be looking for greener pa$ture$ next year anyway. Now he will for sure.
Adam Silver said over the weekend that G League "Team Ignite" may be obsolete due to the NIL opportunities available to kids.
I was pleased that Kanye, Lilley, and lately Brown were all getting run and seemingly getting their due after staying loyal to PSU.
No knock on Rhodes- but the whole college sports landscape is FUBAR. I'm yet another step closer to not caring...
To us, guys like Ace and Kern are “loyal”, while the fickle VCU fans would see them as disloyal.
Guys transfer often after coaching changes. Some right away, and others after some time. I’m glad Kanye gave it a shot at working out here. Reminds me of Deforest Riley-Smith.
Really, how often does PSU ever play a good game; anytime PSU wins a Big 10 game on the road by double digits, which happens about as often as Halley's Comet appears, has to be considered to be one of their best games of the season?
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These coaches have to walk on egg shells these days for fear of hurting players' feelings; that's no way to run a railroad. The way that Bobby Knight acted often was despicable, but the pendulum has swung so far the other way; the players basically have these programs held hostage to a large extent.
We scored .9 points/possession and won that one due to Rutgers inability to score. They went 1-17 from 3 and 11-22 from the line. Those weren’t due to good defensive, it was Rutgers having an awful night. Nothing I saw at the RAC that night would lead anyone to believe that losing Kanye helped us.
We did play much better at Indiana.
I wonder if we’ll see a reappearance of Mitchell in the rotation. While he’s much more of a 2/3, he did play some spot minutes at the 1 at UMKC…outside of him, I don’t know what we do to spell Ace (don’t want Dunn or Brown running the offense).
Over/under on Ace’s minutes the rest of the way might be 39. Not ideal heading to Minneapolis needing to win games so many days in a row (and makes avoiding Wednesday all the more important).
Over/under on Ace’s minutes the rest of the way might be 39. Not ideal heading to Minneapolis needing to win games so many days in a row (and makes avoiding Wednesday all the more important).
I guess that I'm just venting because 11 months ago, it appeared as if this program finally had some direction and was headed in the right direction and poised to become a consistent winning one that would be capable of making the Tournament maybe every 3 out of 5 years if not more. However, since that time, that completely has dissolved and we're now back at square one.
You should be able to turn around a basketball program much faster than a football program because you only really need three to four really good players and then surround them with competent parts. Hopefully, Rhoades can begin the rebuilding process in earnest after this season ends. However, as we've seen over and over again, nothing is ever that simple with this program despite who is running it.
The next couple of years are very big for Rhoades. I think we need to make the Dance by year 3 or 4 and year 4 will be a make Dance or fired situation and if we don't make it in year 3 hopefully we are a bubble team and NIT team at least. I think he gets 4 years although not sure how long his contract is for. I think he can do it in 3 years (meaning making the Dance) and have this program going in the right direction.
As for Clary, the only thing I can think of is when he was out we played well or at least other guys stepped up. Rhoades saw something with the lineup and what worked without him so when Clary returned he had some other role for him based on the success we saw with him out. Clary did not like it and quit. Hate to lose him but he probably was turning into a bad teammate with a bad attitude. As someone else said we were finishing the season with a losing record with or without him.
I think the recent 3 game losing streak has a lot to do with tougher opponents and injuries (Wahab limited minutes, Lilley, and Clary). Aire looks athletic but he's a big drop off at this point in his career.
I don't believe PSU is back at square one. The most important step forward has been completed successfully. And that's Coach Rhoades, who has shown the ability to find talent and put a team on the floor that competes for 40 minutes. Rhoades was handicapped by a roster and recruiting class that mostly opted out of PSU, and he put together some players left over from the main stretch of the portal year, together with a couple players that believed him him and followed him to PSU, to field a competitive team that in spite of the current 3 game losing streak still has more conference wins than UM and oh-high-ya, and as many as IU and MD which actually have basketball history. While playing the last weeks without their leading scorer who seems to have more interest in his personal agenda than the PSU team. And I commend coach Rhoades for recognizing that he must put the priorities and culture of the program above any one player's individual priorities or unacceptable behaviors.
I believe in coach Rhoades and wouldn't trade him for Shrew or most of the other B10 BB coaches who have more in their favor from a tradition and historical fan and administrative support basis and don't really have any better teams this season than PSU does. Rhoades is a defense first coach whose teams going forward will continue to play hard nosed basketball and with improved recruiting will compete well in the B10.
I just can't see or feel Ur enthusiastic take on the new coach and the old situation at PSU. Rhoades won 68% of his games at VCU. Very good but not great, at a mid level school in a mid level league. Now he is at Pennstate ,a school with a well known reputation for ugly basketball. I have 'enjoyed" this basketball situation for over 50 years. And it continues. One dance a decade.
Three stayed, but one of the three, Jameel Brown, did enter the portal and decided not to transfer. Clary and Lilley did not enter the portal.
You don't share my enthusiasm because your hung up on statistics and didn't follow or watch VCU.
My son graduated from U of Dayton that has some pretty decent BB tradition for a small religous school and since he began there in 2011 I've followed UD and their opponents pretty closely. VCU under coach Rhoades was the toughest team to play against, and there are some pretty good coaches in the A10.
And when you evaluate a coach you need to look at what he inherited and where he took his teams over time. Coach Rhoade' worst season at VCU was his first and his best season was his last. Sure it tougher to win games in the B10, but I still don't believe PSU could have gotten a better coach given the lack of men's BB tradition at PSU. What PSU now needs to take the next step is someone like Pegula to step up and rally the rich alums to build a BB only facility that would add significantly to the home field advantage, and would get packed with loud students right next to the court.....
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Won three in a row went he went down. After the second one I posted that the team played better without him. They worked the ball around better, hustled more, shared the shots, and played better d.
Said I was wondering how it work out when he came back. Would he be willing to share the spotlight? Would the team revert back to a few perimeter passes and then letting him work to the basket when under 12 seconds were left on the clock?
Never expected him to be off the team. Things must have gotten pretty ugly. Hope things work out for all concerned.
Said I was wondering how it work out when he came back. Would he be willing to share the spotlight? Would the team revert back to a few perimeter passes and then letting him work to the basket when under 12 seconds were left on the clock?
Never expected him to be off the team. Things must have gotten pretty ugly. Hope things work out for all concerned.
Last season was great…and I’m a huge Micah Shrewsberry fan…but what part of last year told you that “headed in the right direction and poised to become a consistent winning one that would be capable of making the Tournament maybe every 3 out of 5 years if not more”? We had the most experienced team in the history of college basketball last year, and this year was always going to be a rebuild.
While some overlook the job that Micah did and/or think that it should be easy to turn a school around in basketball, it isn’t. We’re still fighting a zero sum game in a conference where everyone else takes basketball very seriously (and 12 of our 13 peers care about it a lot more than we do).
Rhoades still has a big challenge ahead, and the Big Ten is light years more difficult than the current A10. But long term, while it sucks losing Kanye, establishing expectations and a culture is more important than another win or two this season.
This is not an optimistic outlook. Just say that....you think it will be very very difficult for Penn State to ever have a good basketball program as in making the Dance more than maybe once very 8-10 years. In fact your comments are a veiled "we will be lucky to ever breakout from being the doormat of the B10.".
Once Rhoades starts to get momentum then more support will come and the program will get better. You make it sound like the B10 is the NBA and the backhanded complement or whatever it was that we had the most experienced team last year? So we underachieved and should have gone to the Final 4? And unless we have a super experienced team we will not do anything? This year we could win 8 conf games, now maybe not without Clary but still a good season given the train wreck Rhoades inherited. I am more optimistic and think we can be a top half B10 team.
We can certainly be better than a program that dances once/decade. But the fact that we had such an experienced team last year meant that this year would have been a rebuild. Micah is here, and we’re taking our lumps with Clary, Brown, Mahafey, Kebba, Booth, Shrewsberry, etc, while building for the future. Last year wasn’t gonna be the start of a run of dominance simply based on roster construction.
My biggest concerns moving forward with predictions that we’re on our way to the top half of the conference are our lack of a freshman class this year, and lack of available scholarships. I don’t see next season going much differently than this year if we run it back with our same squad (minus Kanye and Wahab) and just add the freshman. We really need a starting big, and could really use more shooting…but I’m not sure how we juggle things to make room based on the current roster.
We’ve got infrastructure problems like Pitt has for football. Our facilities are sub par and the fan base has little enthusiasm. Worse, we don’t draw from a city that is close by. Unlike football that is a weekend event, basketball is all over the place in terms of days, times, locations. There is no tv coverage to speak of.
Sadly, this player has the upper hand. He’ll land at a top program and won’t skip a beat.
It is really tough to build a program.
I think it's extreme to say that 12 of 13 peers care more about basketball. Rhoades salary is middle of the conference. I suspect it's more difficult to raise NIL money in State College but that's different than a lack of administrative commitment.
Replacing Clary might be best for team chemistry but it's still a big loss. Not only was he the leading scorer but he also has another 2 yrs of eligibility. That's how you build a program, not with 1 year transfers.
I don't believe Rhoades will run it back minus Kanye and Wahab. O'Boyle will also be gone and it wouldn't surprise me to see another player or two leave as well. Given a full year at PSU to evaluate the current players and an early start to the off season due to not making a tournament coach Rhoades will have a better opportunity to fill the holes in the roster with a transfers or two in addition to the 3 player 2024 class coming in which can then be eased into the program and lineup. Should still be an interesting off season of growth for the program. Aire has shown some talent during his recent playing time and should be a bigger contributor up front next season.
Anyone know if Baldwin has another year to play? If he came back that would be a very big plus for next season.
Yes, Baldwin has another year. It would be a horrible sign if he abandoned Rhoades after playing for him at VCU and PSU.
I was really talking about fanbases…and outside of NW, every other fanbase cares a lot more (at a macro-level).
