2024-25 ITH Season Preview: Penn State Nittany Lions

  • Sep 5, 2024 12:05 pm in

With the start of college basketball season in early November, we’ll examine the conference as a whole and Indiana’s roster over the next two months.

Today, our team previews begin with Penn State.

Penn State had an up-and-down season in year one of the Mike Rhoades era, finishing 16-17 overall and 9-11 in conference play.

The Nittany Lions swept Indiana in the regular season, but the Hoosiers avenged their losses with a win in the 2024 Big Ten tournament in Minneapolis.

Expectations for Penn State are tepid as Rhoades gears up for season two in University Park. The Nittany Lions are currently No. 74 in Bart Torvik’s 2024-25 season projections, the lowest ranking for any Big Ten team.

The clear headlining returnee is point guard Ace Baldwin Jr., one of the best two-way players in the league. The 6-foot-1 senior averaged 14.2 points, six assists, 2.7 rebounds and 2.7 steals last season in 35.9 minutes per game. His 3-point shooting percentage dipped to 32.9 percent after he shot 41.3 percent (2021-22) and 34.2 percent (2022-23) the previous two seasons at VCU.

Baldwin is known for his defensive prowess; he finished last season with a steal percentage of 4.2, the 24th-highest mark in the country.

Four other key contributors return for the Nittany Lions – Nick Kern Jr., Zach Hicks, Puff Johnson and D’Marco Dunn – and all are entering their final season of eligibility like Baldwin.

Kern, a 6-foot-6 wing, started 23 games last season and averaged 8.7 points, 3.9 rebounds, 1.5 assists and a steal in 24.9 minutes per game. Like Baldwin, Kern followed Rhoades from VCU before the 2023-24 season.

Hicks, a 6-foot-8 forward, is a capable floor spacer who started all 33 games last season for the Nittany Lions. Hicks made a team-high 67 3-pointers last season and shot 34.2 percent from distance.

Johnson, a 6-foot-8 forward, will use his additional year of eligibility granted by the COVID-19 pandemic after an up-and-down season last season at Penn State. He made 12 starts last season and averaged 7.3 points, 3.1 rebounds while shooting 33.3 percent on 3s.

Dunn is Penn State’s best returning 3-point shooter from a percentage standpoint. The 6-foot-5 guard went 30-for-82 (36.6 percent) from deep last season and averaged 6.8 points in 18.2 minutes per game.

Penn State was active in the transfer portal and welcomes four players who should figure heavily into the rotation immediately: Eli Rice (Nebraska), Kachi Nzeh (Xavier), Freddie Dilione (Tennessee) and Yanic Konan Niederhauser (Northern Illinois).

The No. 41 player nationally in the 2022 class, Dilione played sparingly last season at Tennessee as a redshirt freshman. Without a clear path to more minutes, he opted to enter the portal and could slot in next to Baldwin in the starting Penn State backcourt.

Niederhauser, a 7-footer from Switzerland, showed promise last season as a sophomore at Northern Illinois. In 19.6 minutes per game for the Huskies, Niederhauser averaged 7.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.1 blocks. He should be the starter at the five.

Rice, listed as a 6-foot-8 guard, and Nzeh, a 6-foot-8 forward, have high-major experience. Rice played regularly last season at Nebraska before suffering a season-ending ankle injury. In 17 games for the Huskers, Rice averaged 4.2 points and 1.6 rebounds while shooting 37 percent on 3s. Nzeh, from Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, played in 19 games last season for the Musketeers and made four starts. Known as an athlete, he averaged 2.5 points and 2.5 rebounds and should compete for minutes as a backup in the frontcourt.

Penn State also welcomes a four-man recruiting class headlined by 6-foot-10 center Miles Goodman, the No. 108 player in the 2025 class, according to 247Composite. Goodman reportedly missed time at the end of the summer due to an injury.

After winning nine Big Ten games last season, Penn State must address some of its significant deficiencies to move up the league standings. The Nittany Lions were one of the Big Ten’s worst rebounding teams last season, finishing 12th in offensive rebounding percentage and 13th in defensive rebounding percentage.

Penn State’s aggressive defensive style was effective at times, as the Nittany Lions were second in the conference in defensive turnover percentage. However, the overaggressiveness at times was costly. Penn State ranked 13th in the conference in opponent free throw rate. And when it got beat defensively, there was little resistance at the rim. Big Ten opponents shot nearly 55 percent against the Nittany Lions, which ranked last in the league.

Bottom line: Penn State returns over half of its scoring from last season and has one of the league’s premier guards in Baldwin. The ceiling for the Nittany Lions will likely be determined by its frontcourt, which has been revamped with the additions of Niederhauser, Nzeh, and Goodman. Defending in the paint and rebounding were two critical issues for Penn State that it must clean up to avoid a bottom-three Big Ten finish and missing out on the conference tournament.

Quotable: “Maybe the best advantage we have right now. We had five guys go through a summer, have gone through a season. Of course, with Nick and Ace being around me for a number of years, that helps. But now a year here under their belt, it has helped our new guys come in and the comfort that the five guys have being here at Penn State, being an athlete here at Penn State, but also being able to help the new guys and what they’re in for on the court, in the weight room, in the locker room, off the court.” – Rhoades to reporters this summer on the importance of having a strong nucleus of returning players.

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