REPORT: Penn State Basketball Hiring Mike Farrelly as Assistant Coach

With Adam Fisher being named associate head coach shortly after Micah Shrewsberry arrived in Happy Valley, and Aki Collins’ hire becoming official last week, there was only one assistant coaching chair left to fill. According to Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel, it appears that last assistant chair is going to former Hofstra interim head coach Mike Farrelly.

Farrelly spent the past season as Hofstra’s acting coach when the original head coach Joe Mihalich, retired for health reasons. Despite being thrust into the head coaching chair on a whim, Farrelly managed to coach Hofstra to a 13-10 overall record and fourth place in the Colonial conference. With Hofstra having recently hired Speedy Claxton as their head coach (those of you who are huge March Madness geeks like myself might remember Speedy as Hofstra’s star point guard back in the late 90’s or otherwise from his nearly decade-long NBA playing career), Shrews leaped at the opportunity to hire Farrelly away from that program into his own.

A former walk-on at St. Joseph’s under Phil Martelli, Farrelly brings in solid Northeast recruiting ties, according to Thamel. With Fisher already being the point man on Philly recruiting, it sure helps to have someone like Farrelly who can help the program not only double down on Philly, but also expand the recruiting footprint. Additionally, this means that Talor Battle will be transitioning from No. 3 assistant coach to either director of operations or some type of player development role on the staff. We should be hearing reports about those moves soon enough.

Welcome to Happy Valley, Coach!