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.
https://gopsusports.com/news/2025/05/27/scott-pera-named-mens-basketball-general-manager
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