ALTOONA, Pa. -- Half a dozen people brought this up to me Thursday, including a few close to Penn State athletics whose opinions I greatly value.
It's not something I had though much about, to be honest, until others mentioned it the day after Micah Shrewsberry left to become head coach at Notre Dame.
What was it?
It's that picture up above. On the far left. That's Penn State athletic director Patrick Kraft celebrating the wrestling team's national championship Saturday night in Tulsa, Okla.
It took place around the same time the Penn State basketball team was playing Texas in the NCAA Tournament in Des Moines, Iowa.
The scuttlebutt going around is that Shrewsberry wasn't happy about Kraft being at the wrestling event instead of the basketball game. This, if you connect the dots for some people, was an example of Penn State not being committed enough to basketball because the AD chose a lesser sport over the much bigger marquis event of the NCAA Tournament.
I've had several people tell me they believe Kraft erred badly in his decision, knowing full well that Shrewsberry's future was hanging in the balance and that he needed to show full support for the basketball coach and team in that situation.
OK.
Whatever.
I disagree.
It's an excellent discussion, I get it, and am fully aware where people are coming from on both sides. The future of the basketball program was hanging in the balance, and Penn State needed to be doing anything and everything it could to make sure to show incredible support to Shrewsberry at that critical juncture.
But c'mon, we're talking about a national championship here. For the country's best sports dynasty right now, a wrestling team that has won 10 natties in the past 12 contested tournaments under Cael Sanderson.
This also was the first national championship Penn State has won in any sport since Kraft took over as AD.
He HAD to be there.
By the way, Kraft was at the first-round basketball game Thursday, a victory over Texas A&M.
OK, but here's where the discussion gets really interesting.
Penn State wrestling wrapped up the national championship early Saturday during the medal rounds. The Lions were light years ahead mathematically by around noon or 1 o'clock.
The basketball team didn't tip off against Texas until after 7. There was plenty of time for Kraft to hop on the university charter and fly from Tulsa to Des Moines after things were well in hand with wrestling.
He didn't, choosing instead to stick around until everything was said and done with wrestling.
That part of the equation, sure, I can totally see how it could be perceived as a bad look for Kraft -- and how Shrewsberry could view it as a lack of support.
If, mind you, that is indeed what happened.
When you have coaching changes, things get messy, everybody's talking about all sorts of things and whatnot.
One thing people have been talking about over the past day is finding a way to blame Kraft and/or Penn State for not finding a way to make a big enough commitment to Shrewsberry to convince him to stay.
But at this stage, we really don't even know for sure what was offered, and we may never know for sure. Yeah, there are rumors out there about Penn State offering him $4 million a year -- which seems absurd to me -- and yet Shrewsberry took Notre Dame's offer instead.
As I've said repeatedly, I just don't see much of anything Penn State could have done to convince Shrewsberry to turn down the Notre Dame job in his home state, for a program that has so little basketball tradition.
I cannot imagine that Kraft choosing the be at wrestling instead of basketball would have been a factor in Shrewsberry's decision to leave for Notre Dame. But hey, coaches are like everybody else in that they can find ways to get offended in just about anything.
David Jones of PennLive has an excellent column with comments from Shrewsberry about why he made his decision. You should definitely check it out.
Meanwhile, post your thoughts in the comments about whether Kraft erred in going to the wrestling championships instead of the basketball game.
WHAT'S THE COMMITMENT NOW?
Everybody likes to throw out names for potential coaching candidates, and I'll have some in a bit.
But first, we need to know how much money Penn State is willing to spend for the next coach. Because THAT will determine the candidate pool.
Let's say, for the sake of discussion, that Penn State was going to bump up Shrewsberry's salary from the $2 million he's believed to have been making to $3 million. Or even $3.5 million. Or whatever the number, which I'm sure is really high.
Will the school be committed to offering the next coach the same salary? Or was that level of financial commitment reserved only for Shrewsberry, who had proven his value with an NCAA Tournament appearance?
If Penn State is gonna pay the next guy $2 million, it may not necessarily get a home run hire.
If it's $3 million or $3.5 million, you could be bringing some bigger names into the equation.
My hunch is that, no, Penn State isn't gonna offer the next guy what it was offering Shrewsberry. Unless, that is, there's some huge name out there that the school decides to target.
THIS IS KRAFT'S BIG MOMENT
Another thing to keep in mind with the hire is that Kraft is going to want to make a splash here. This is his first big hire as the AD, and in some ways his legacy at the school will be determined by it.
Look, Kraft is already being criticized by some for not even going to the second-round NCAA Tournament game. He's had a good tenure so far with no speedbumps until now, but with all this basketball stuff, he will find himself in the crosshairs with every decision he makes.
All of which leads me to believe Kraft is going to push to hire an accomplished coach who will indeed warrant a good bit of money.
THE CANDIDATE POOL
Everybody is talking about current Penn State assistant Adam Fisher as a good candidate. And he is, absolutely, based on his strong recruiting and experience on the staff at Villanova.
Also a Penn State alum, Fisher checks a whole lot of boxes.
But he has never been a head coach, he is not a big name in the college basketball world and there's a good chance that hiring him won't excite many Penn State basketball fans. Sure, he would be a popular pick among the current players and a safe pick in all regards, but that is NOT what the program needs right now.
Penn State needs an experienced head coach or an assistant who has a resume that blows you away, such as Shrewsberry had. Fisher does not check those boxes.
Personally, I would love to see Penn State hire Joe Crispin, the Penn State legend who led the team to the 2001 Sweet 16. He's the head coach at Division III Rowan, and I know for a fact that he would badly love to be the Lions' head coach.
But that's not going to happen because Crispin doesn't have the Division I resume at this point.
Kraft has no ties to Penn State, so he may not be enamored at all with staying in the Nittany Lion family for the next coach. That, therefore, also would exclude Talor Battle, who's an assistant at Northwestern and isn't quite ready yet for this kind of jump.
The candidates you'll read the most about include:
• Colgate coach Matt Langel
• FAU coach Dusty May
• Texas coach Rodney Terry, if he's not retained as head coach
• Virginia assistant Jason Williford, who was a candidate two years ago when Shrewsberry was hired
• VCU coach Mike Rhoades, who also got a lot of mentions the last time around
• Delaware coach Martin Ingelsby
• Chattanooga coach Dan Earl, a Penn State alum
• Fordham coach Keith Urgo, a Penn State alum
• Syracuse assistant Gerry McNamara, a Scranton native whose name hasn't been brought up much but who would be an intriguing candidate
I would expect this process to move pretty quickly, since Penn State won't want to wait too long finding a coach because the transfer portal will be up and running in full force, plus there are recruiting concerns.
It may only be a day or two before we see some national reports about Penn State honing in on a candidate, although with the weekend and NCAA Tournament games coming up, it might be Monday or Tuesday before we hear much.
