Penn State men’s basketball assistant Joe Crispin is reportedly taking the head coaching job at Air Force, per CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein.

Crispin was a major part of one of Penn State’s best-ever basketball seasons, as the six-foot point guard from Pitman, New Jersey, was named to First-Team All-Big Ten in 2000-01, the season where the Nittany Lions made it to the Sweet Sixteen, their only trip to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament since 1955.

After a strong collegiate career and a brief, 21-game stint in the NBA with the Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns, Crispin played in the American Basketball Association, winning MVP in 2004, before going overseas, playing until the 2011-12 season in Ukraine. He went into coaching shortly after, becoming an assistant at Division III Rowan in 2014.

He took over as Rowan’s head coach in 2016, going 114-54 over seven seasons where he led the Profs to three NCAA Tournament berths, two conference titles, and a trip to the Division III Sweet Sixteen in 2022-23. After Mike Rhoades was hired as Penn State’s head coach for the 2023-24 season, Crispin joined him on his staff.

He takes over an Air Force team that has fallen on hard times. The program hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2006, and, since flaming out after a strong start the following season, hasn’t finished above .500 in conference play since. Over the past two seasons, Air Force has gone just 7-57 and 1-39 in a very competitive Mountain West Conference, leading to the midseason dismissal of head coach Joe Scott.

The loss of Crispin is big for the Nittany Lions, as he oversaw two of the team’s best offensive seasons in program history while specializing as the team’s “offensive coordinator”. Rhoades is down to four assistant coaches, including associate head coach Jamal Brunt and assistants Brent Scott, Talor Battle, and Clay Conner.