Penn State Basketball: 12 candidates to replace Micah Shrewsberry as head coach

Mark Schmidt

This next one may be quite unlikely but we’re considering all of Penn State’s options here. We’re looking closely not just at another A-10 head coach, but someone who knows how to build winning culture at a place where it seems impossible to win. This is also someone who has worked at Penn State before, albeit a long time ago.

Schmidt starred at Boston College in the early 80’s before beginning his own coaching career, with an early stop at Penn State back in the 90’s as an assistant. He spent nearly a decade under the late Skip Prosser before becoming head coach at Robert Morris in 2001. Six years later, Schmidt was hired at St. Bonaventure, a program destitute after a recent scandal and in desperate need of new leaderships. In these last 16 years, he’s won a lot of games with the Bonnies and led the program to a trio of NCAA Tournament appearances.

At this point, it’s fair to say that Schmidt might just stay at St. Bonaventure for the rest of his career, having already been there for nearly two decades. Schmidt has had options to leave Olean but has stayed with the Bonnies, including when both Boston College and Penn State were open two years ago. Still, he’s a former Penn State assistant who could be looking for a new challenge after struggling this season while losing most of his lineup to the Transfer Portal.