UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Peter and Ann Tombros Endowed Head Coach Mike Rhoades has announced the hiring of Scott Pera as General Manager of the Penn State men’s basketball team.

Pera, a Penn State graduate and Hershey, Pa. native, owns nearly 20 years of college basketball coaching experience, most recently serving as the head coach at Rice for seven seasons.

As General Manager, Pera will be tasked with organizing and executing recruiting and long-term roster management strategies, developing NIL networks, aiding in fundraising for the program and leading game scheduling efforts.

“We are really excited to have Scott Pera join our program as General Manager,” said Rhoades. “Scott is well equipped to navigate the new landscape of college basketball and brings a wealth of experience, passion and leadership with him.  He directly knows how I want to operate a program and develop our young men moving forward.  It is great to bring Scott back home and work with him again. Please welcome Scott and his family to PSU.”

“I am thrilled to be the new GM of Penn State Basketball,” said Pera. “To have this opportunity at my alma mater with one of my best friends is such a unique and awesome opportunity.  I am looking forward to helping Coach Rhoades continue to grow this program as we navigate the constantly changing landscape of college basketball.  I hope to assist him and the staff in a variety of ways to help them take Penn State back to the NCAA Tournament.”

Pera served as head coach at Rice from 2017-24, leading the Owls to two postseason appearances and an increase in wins in five of his first six seasons. Pera spent the previous three years as associate head coach at Rice under Rhoades, who was the head coach of the Owls from 2014-17. Rhoades and Pera led Rice to 23 wins in 2016-17, the second-most wins in school history.

Pera’s time at Rice was preceded by two seasons as an assistant coach at Penn, where he was named the top assistant in the Ivy League and No. 19 nationally among low-to-mid-major programs by Basketball Times in 2013 and ‘14.  

Pera spent six seasons on the sidelines at Arizona State from 2006-12. The Sun Devils averaged 18 wins per season with Pera on staff as an assistant coach, including three 20-win campaigns and an at-large bid to the 2009 NCAA Tournament and two NIT appearances (2008 & 2010).

Pera spent 11 years as a wildly successful high school coach prior to entering the college ranks, compiling a 258-65 overall record. He served as the head coach at Artesia High School from 2000-06, where he coached NBA All-Star and Olympic Gold Medalist James Harden. He led his prep teams to seven league championships, two CIF Southern Section Division III championships, three 30-win seasons, a 102-9 record in home games and a 38-12 mark in the playoffs. He was named the Los Angeles Times and Long Beach Press Telegram Southern California Coach of the Year in 2003 and 2006, and the CIF Division III AA and SCIBCA Division III AA Coach of the Year the same seasons.

Pera coached Annville-Cleona High School from 1995-2000, where he led the squad to the Pennsylvania state title with a 30-3 mark in 1999. He was the Lancaster/Lebanon League PA Coach of the Year that season and earned the same honor from the Lebanon Daily News. He got his coaching start as an assistant coach at Elizabethtown College from 1992-93.

Pera graduated with a degree from Penn State’s Harrisburg campus in 1989. He and his wife, Alyssa, have two daughters, Sydney and Brynn.

A year ago at this time, James Hagens was expected to be the apple of every team’s eye at the June 27 NHL draft.

Since then, a little bit of shine may have come off that apple. But the Boston College centerman, who finished up a good freshman season at the Heights, is still a highly coveted prospect that most teams would be the thrilled to employ one day.

While Hagens was the top-ranked player to start the season, he was surpassed in the NHL Central Scouting final rankings by a pair of Ontario Hockey League players, Erie Otter defenseman Matthew Schaefer and Saginaw Spirit center Michael Misa.

Schaefer and Misa are expected to go 1-2 and, though Hagens is ranked third, there’s a lot of debate over the slotting of the rest of the top 10 prospects like Caleb DesNoyers, Porter Martone, Jake O’Brien and Brady Martin, as well as European players like Swedish center Anton Frondell, who are ranked separately.

Several prognostications have Hagens going third to the Blackhawks. Whether that happens or not, it’s a fair bet he won’t drop any further than the Bruins at No. 7.

The shifting rankings could have been enough to unnerve a teenager as he went through his freshman college season. But in a Zoom call with reporters, Hagens stuck with a theme of gratitude for the season he had and whatever may lay ahead for him.

“Honestly, you just have to be grateful about it, being able to hear your name in those conversations and leading up to the draft now, having the opportunity to get drafted into any organization in the league,” said Hagens. “It’s something you have to be grateful for. It’s one step in the process, but you just have to be ready. Getting drafted has been my dream my whole life. That’s why I started playing hockey, that’s why I play. I’m really just grateful for everything right now. The noise will always be there. You just have to make sure you live in the moment and take it day by day.”

Hagens did not have the explosive kind of season of, say, last year’s No. 1 pick, Macklin Celebrini, who had 32-32-64 totals in 38 games for Boston University.

But the Long Island-bred Eagle was a point-per-game player (11-26-37 in 37 games) for BC. Some scouts have had questions about Hagens’ size (5-foot-11, 177 pounds) and his ability to get inside ice. On the other hand, Hagens was just 17 years old when the college season began and he did center BC’s top line with first-rounders Ryan Leonard and Gabe Perrault, who have since signed with the Capitals and Rangers, respectively. With the way college hockey is these days, it can be a physical challenge for a young player.

“I thought I had a great season. You’re playing against guys that are 25-, 24-year-olds every night. It’s tough. It’s hard hockey,” said Hagens, who has yet to decide whether to return to BC next season. “But I’m grateful to have the year I was able to have with the group of guys that we did have, those guys who were able to sign and move on and just seeing all the great things they’re doing now, being with them throughout the year was special. This year went really well, coming in right away and learning how to adapt to the pace of play and the structure of a college-level game is something that really helped me and helped my game out.”

The NHLers from whom Hagens takes a lot are players like Patrick Kane, John Tavares, Logan Cooley and Jack Hughes, players who can slow down the game and control it with their thinking. Hagens’ goal total this year suggests a pass-first mentality – and playing with Leonard and Perrault would have certainly pushed any young centerman in that direction. But Hagens contends his game is appropriately diverse.

“I love making plays. I love being able to find guys backdoor. That’s something I feel like is a big part of my game my while entire career,” said Hagens. “But I wouldn’t say I ever deflect away from shooting the puck. I know when to shoot and when to pass. It’s just something that really helps take my game to the next level, the way I’m able to find other guys. Obviously playing with Ryan and Gabe and Teddy (Stiga, Nashville’s second-rounder last year), those are guys that if you find them, they will put the puck in the back of the net. College is a different level of hockey. It’s harder. It’s not junior hockey. It’s tough to score every given night. You have to work to score goals.”

Since the season ended, Hagens has been hitting the gym to prepare for next week’s scouting combine. But while the physical testing is important, player interviews allow teams to test what’s between a player’s ears and in his heart.

“I’ll just try to explain how high my compete level is at the combine. I’m getting ready to show that, with all the tests, I love winning. I will do anything to win,” said Hagens. “It’s something that’s helped me get to the point where I am today. I’ve been able to work my whole life. Nothing’s ever come easy. I’ve had to work for everything I’ve gotten. That’s something that I’m super grateful for and it’s something that’s in my family and something I was taught by my parents and coaches. Going into those meetings, I want to impress how hard that I compete and how badly I want to be on a team that will hopefully win a Stanley Cup one day.”

While he said in a recent Newsday story that he’d love to be selected by his hometown Islanders, pretty much every mock draft has Schaefer going first to the Isles, who won the lottery. There’s no doubt Hagens wants to go as high as possible. It is how competitors are wired. But if he should fall to the Bruins at seven? Well, that would be OK, too.

“I love Boston,” said Hagens. “Obviously being at Boston College, we’re right in the middle of Boston there so … it’s a beautiful city and I only have great things to say about it. I love it there.”

And if Hagens is still there at No. 7, it’s a good bet the Bruins would have mutual feelings.