2025-26 Big Ten basketball season preview: Penn State Nittany Lions

With the start of college basketball season in early November, Inside the Hall is taking a team-by-team look at the Big Ten and a player-by-player look at IU basketball’s roster over the next two months.

Today, our team previews begin with Penn State.

Penn State basketball took a step backward last winter under second-year coach Mike Rhoades.

After the Nittany Lions finished with nine Big Ten wins in the 2023-24 season – the first for Rhoades in University Park – the program won only six league games last winter and missed the conference tournament.

Penn State’s 2024-25 season did end on a high note – an 86-75 upset win at Wisconsin on March 8.

Like most Big Ten programs, Rhoades dealt with major roster turnover in the offseason. Only three players return from last season’s roster and the program graduated Puff Johnson, D’Marco Dunn, Nick Kern, Zach Hicks and Ace Baldwin Jr. while losing Yanic Konan Niederhauser to the NBA draft.

The leading returning scorer for Penn State is 6-foot-5 redshirt junior guard Freddie Dilione V. The North Carolina native began his career at Tennessee before transferring to Penn State before last season. Dilione played in all 31 games for Penn State and made 28 starts. He averaged 9.4 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.7 assists and scored in double figures 17 times.

He’s likely to be joined in the backcourt by freshman point guard Kayden Mingo, the highest-ranked recruit in program history. The New York Gatorade player of the year last season at Long Island Lutheran, the 6-foot-3 Mingo averaged 13.6 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.9 steals as a senior. In the final RSCI rankings for the 2025 class, Mingo was ranked as the No. 35 player in the country. He should be a contender for Big Ten freshman of the year.

Freshman Melih Tunca, a native of Turkey, arrives after spending last season with Turk Telekom, which played in the top professional league in Turkey. At 6-foot-5, he’s got excellent size for a guard and could start alongside Mingo and Dilione V or come off the bench.

Eli Rice, a returnee who sat out last season with an injury, should figure into the wing rotation for Rhoades and the Nittany Lions. A 6-foot-8 native of Gallatin, Tennessee, Rice began his career at Nebraska in the 2023-24 season before transferring to Penn State. In 17 games at Nebraska, Rice averaged 4.2 points and 1.6 rebounds while shooting 37 percent on 3s.

A transfer portal addition, Josh Reed, played his first three seasons at Cincinnati and brings experience to the frontcourt. The 6-foot-8, 220-pound Reed played in 97 games for the Bearcats and last season, he started nine of the program’s final 10 games. Reed averaged 4.8 points and 2.5 rebounds.

Another international addition, 6-foot-9 freshman forward Tibor Mirtic, spent last season with Krka Novo Mesto, a professional team in Slovenia and has represented Slovenia in the FIBA European championships four different times, dating back to 2019.

Sasa Ciani should start at the five. Ciani, a 6-foot-10, 240-pound big man, is now at his third school in three seasons. The Slovenia native began his career at Xavier before a breakout sophomore campaign last winter at UIC. Ciani averaged 9.9 points and 7.6 rebounds and had 11 double-doubles for the Flames.

Croatian freshman Ivan Juric, a 7-footer, spent last season at Sunrise Christian Academy in Kansas, where he averaged 14 points, 9.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists while shooting 43 percent on 3s.

Two others who should figure into the rotation are freshman forward Mason Blackwood and sophomore Dominick Stewart, a returnee.

Blackwood was the No. 113 player in the final 247Sports rankings last season. The 6-foot-7 Rochester, New York, native is a player the Nittany Lions hope to develop as a roster centerpiece for the future.

Stewart, a 6-foot-5 sophomore, played in 24 games last season and scored in double figures three times. He should get a shot at a more prominent role with all of the offseason roster attrition for the Nittany Lions.

After last season’s disappointing performance, expectations are low for Penn State in year three of the Rhoades era. The Nittany Lions were a poor defensive team last winter, finishing 270th nationally in 3-point percentage defense and 195th in 2-point field goal percentage defense. Penn State was also one of the league’s worst offensive teams in league play, finishing 15th in points per possession, 17th in turnover percentage and 18th in offensive rebounding percentage.

Given how poorly the team played last year and all of the roster movement, it’s no surprise that Bart Torvik’s preseason projections have Penn State as the worst team in the league entering the season at No. 113 nationally. If that comes to fruition, Rhoades could be on the hot seat.

Bottom line: Penn State is one of the most challenging jobs in the Big Ten and the Nittany Lions face an uphill battle to avoid missing the Big Ten tournament for a second straight season. Mingo should be one of the top young guards in the league, but the overall talent on the roster took a step back in the offseason with the losses of Baldwin Jr. and Niederhauser. If Penn State can make the Big Ten tournament in March, that will be an accomplishment given the preseason expectations.

Quotable: “We have got to go everywhere, near and far, to find players that fit what we’re trying to do and are gettable. That’s just the name of the game, and that means we got to scour the whole world.” – Rhoades on the program’s international approach to recruiting.

See More: Commentary, 2025-26 Big Ten preview, Penn State Nittany Lions