When the dust settled on exits for the NCAA Transfer Portal, the Penn State basketball team was set to return five players. And all five of those Nittany Lions were slated to enter their final seasons of eligibility. So as coach Mike Rhoades and his staff looked to the transfer portal to augment their roster for the 2024-25 season, they wanted to re-establish some balance on their roster.
Between four incoming freshmen and four incoming transfers to pair with those five senior returners, Penn State did just that. The Nittany Lions roster now features five fourth- or fifth-year players; two third-year players; two second-year players; and four first-year players.
As Rhoades aims to build his program moving forward, he re-introduced a certain sustainability with his roster construction.
"[It was] very intentional because I wanted class balance," Rhoades said last week at the Penn State Coaches vs. Cancer Golf Tournament. "Last year, we had to get a roster. With five guys returning that are seniors that will be out of eligibility this year, I didn't want to add on to that because then now, you're gonna look at six or seven guys next year. And you never know if you a lose guy, now it's eight or nine. So we were very intentional about getting underclassmen that would have two, three years, and there's a level of development we can have with those guys in our program."
Guard Ace Baldwin and guard/forward Puff Johnson are back for their fifth years, thanks to the NCAA waiver granting athletes an extra year of eligibility because of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Guard D'Marco Dunn, forward Zach Hicks and guard Nick Kern are entering their true senior seasons, and all three are in their second year in the program after transferring in last offseason.
Forward Yanic Niederhauser, a Northern Illinois transfer, carries junior eligibility, while guard Freddie Dilione V, a Tennessee transfer, is listed as a redshirt sophom*ore. His redshirt season came in 2022-23 when he enrolled in January of that season but didn't play in a game.
Read more: Penn State Basketball Recruiting Notebook: Official visits and new offers (VIP)
Forward Kachi Nzeh, a Xavier transfer, and guard Eli Rice, a Nebraska transfer, are both sophom*ores entering their second years of college basketball.
And then there's the four-man freshman class that was ranked in the top 25 in the 247Sports Composite rankings: guard Jahvin Carter, forward Miles Goodman, guard Dominick Stewart and forward Hudson Ward.
Rhoades has previously spoken about how he wants to be a developmental program and wants to rely on high school recruiting to build up the Nittany Lions. But he also knows that the transfer portal is part of the reality of today's college basketball landscape, and he wants to supplement his roster when he can.
After the crush of building a roster essentially from scratch upon his hiring in March 2023 — Penn State returned only three players —Rhoades could be more selective this offseason. And that yielded an influx of talent, along with a class distribution that projects forward.
ARRIVAL TIMES
Rhoades expects to have his full team on campus June 16. Then, the Nittany Lions will "jump right into" their eight-week offseason program, which will wrap up Aug. 9.
NON-CON NOTES
The 2024-25 Penn State schedule continues to come together in pieces from both the Big Ten and non-conference standpoints. So far, a trio of non-league games have been announced for the early part of the calendar.Penn State is scheduled to face Virginia Tech in Baltimore on Nov. 15, and then the Nittany Lions will face two of Clemson, San Francisco and Fordham in the Sunshine Slam on Nov. 25-26.
There are other reports floating around of who Penn State will face in November and December, but so far, only three games are locked in on the schedule. Rhoades expects more news to trickle out soon, and he plans to stick to his declaration of being different when it comes to scheduling for Penn State.
Last season, Penn State played an exhibition game at Robert Morris just outside Pittsburgh, a three-game tournament in Kissimmee, Fla., a matchup against Georgia Tech at Madison Square Garden and a Big Ten game against Michigan at The Palestra in Philadelphia.
"Without a doubt," Rhoades said. "We want to play a couple of different places, and we're still working on it, so until it's completed, we won't announce it. But yeah ... we're gonna think outside the box and do a couple of different things. Even if it's not all this year, as we move forward, I think every year we'll have some different scheduling changes, some outside of the box ideas, just to be different. Be different. Take advantage of some opportunities. I think there'll be a lot more neutral games out there than ever before, and go from there."
Read more: Penn State transfer Kachi Nzeh scouting report from high school coach Ben Luber
EXPECTATIONS ON FIFTH-YEAR VETS
Baldwin and Johnson returning for fifth seasons gives Penn State a significant boost for 2024-25. Both players were team captains last season, and after early season adjustment periods, both were impact players down the stretch. So what does Rhoades want to see from them in their final years of college basketball and their second years at Penn State?
Rhoades and Baldwin's relationship extends deep into high school when Rhoades recruited Baldwin to VCU out of Baltimore (Md.) St. Frances Academy in the Class of 2020. Last spring, Baldwin followed his coach from Richmond to State College and occupied a key role on the team.
"How much better can you get in the next eight weeks as a fifth-year guy? Right?" Rhoades said. "That's really important to me. How well can you lead this team? You take — I thought especially in the second half of the season — he really pushed the team further. Can you do it again with some new guys? I think that's really important for him. Show people at the next level that I can run a team at a high, high level and take some of these guys to a whole a whole different level as well."
Baldwin was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and earned All-Big Ten third-team recognition. He averaged 14.2 points, 2.7 rebounds, 6.0 assists and 2.7 steals per game last season. Over the final 16 games of the season, including the Big Ten Tournament, Baldwin scored in double figures 15 times and averaged 15.7 points, 3.5 rebounds, 7.3 assists and 2.3 steals per game while shooting 42.3% from the floor and 40.6% from three-point range.
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Johnson, a Moon Township, Pa., native whose relationship with Rhoades extends back to high school recruiting through his older brother Cam Johnson, joined Penn State last year after spending his first three years at North Carolina. He battled injuries early in the year as he tried to assimilate.
Johnson finished the year averaging 7.3 points, 3.1 rebounds and 0.2 assists per game. He closed the year primarily in a bench role and averaged 8.9 points, 3.3 rebounds and 0.2 assists per game while shooting 53.7% from the field and 51.9% from three in the final 13 games of the season, including 16 points in a Big Ten Tournament loss to Indiana.
"I just thought he did a really good job," Rhoades said. "Even though he didn't get off to a great start statistically, he was very coachable, kept working really hard. Just zeroed in on focusing on, 'All right, I just got to have a great day today and stack up a bunch of days,' and then started seeing it, especially the second half of the season. Later in the season, I thought he played well. Plays so hard. He's so coachable. He sets the example of how to do things on and off the court. That's what you want building a program."
FRESH EXPECTATIONS
Penn State has plenty of excitement about its four-man freshman class, and Rhoades expects the group to push for early playing time.
"All those guys play with a ton of confidence, got really good skill sets," Rhoades said. "I mean, part of that is I always tell players, you want to be surrounded by other really good players, and if they're a threat to take some minutes from you, they're gonna make you better, right. They're gonna make you better every day, so to have a group of freshmen that are going to come in to compete, it's going to make them better playing against older guys. It's going to make our older guys better because there's some guys on their heels, they're hungry."
Goodman might have the most direct path to playing time. The 6-foot-11 Seattle native spent his final year of high school playing on the OTE Elite circuit with Castaic (Calif.) Southern California Academy, and he finished rated as a four-star prospect and ranked as the No. 84player in the nation. Penn State is replacing all of its big men from a year ago, so Goodman, Nzeh and Niederhauser will be in the mix to see the court early and often.
Stewart, who played with Goodman for Southern California Academy, and Carter, a point guard out of Alcoa (Tenn.) High, are in a backcourt that returns Baldwin and Dunn and added Dilione. There could be an avenue into the rotation there, and Baldwin is coming off a year in which he played a career-high 35.9 minutes per game.
Ward joins Johnson, Hicks, who was one of Penn State's best players down the stretch last season, Kern and Rice in the wing/forward conversation. There's some excitement about him within the program, and if the Canadian's game translates to the Big Ten, he should fit in nicely.
Last year, guard Bragi Gudmundsson, who has since transferred to Campbell, was Penn State's lone freshman. He played 12 minutes over seven games. The workload for freshmen in 2024-25 projects to be much different.
More: Video: Penn State coach Mike Rhoades' full off-season press conference
Daniel Gallen covers Penn State for Lions247 and 247Sports. He can be reached at daniel.gallen@paramount.com. Follow Daniel on X at @danieljtgallen and Instagram at @bydanieljtgallen.
