Penn State Hoops More Competitive With Transfer & Freshmen Additions

For the second year in a row, Penn State men’s basketball has experienced lots of roster turnover.

Last year, the program experienced a full rebuild with the addition of Mike Rhoades after former head coach Micah Shrewsberry left for Notre Dame.

Rhoades brought Ace Baldwin Jr. and Nick Kern Jr. along with him from VCU and added other key transfers like Puff Johnson and D’Marco Dunn from North Carolina, Qudus Wahab from Maryland, and Zach Hicks from Temple. Rhoades’s only freshman addition was Iceland native Bragi Gudmundsson.

This year, the quantity of turnover was similar, but the quality of talent was different. The Nittany Lions lost 10 players in the offseason, including Wahab, Gudmundsson, and Kanye Clary. Wahab graduated, Gudmundsson transferred to Campbell, and Clary transferred to Mississippi State.

Penn State has since added nine players: five freshmen and four transfers. According to the 247Sports Composite rankings , Rhoades’s 29th-best high school recruiting class and his 50th-ranked transfer class placed the Nittany Lions 56th overall in 2024’s recruiting rankings. By the same metric, the 2023 class was ranked 62nd in the nation, carried by its 18th-best transfer class.

Besides the nine new additions, the rest of the 14-man roster is filled out with five returning seniors: Baldwin, Kern, Johnson, Hicks, and Dunn. Each are experienced starters, but despite that, Rhoades said during the team’s media day Wednesday he plans to play many of the freshmen.

“I’ll throw them in the fire and some days are going to be pretty good, other days as a freshman, you’ll learn by getting burned,” Rhoades said.

Rhoades spoke about each freshman: four-star center Miles Goodman, four-star forward Hundson Ward, three-star guards Jahvin Carter and Dominick Stewart, and walk-on forward Joe Sedora, but it was Carter and Stewart he mentioned first.

“I think Dom and Jahvin have had really good preseasons here,” Rhoades said. “They’ve impacted the program.”

As for the big men, the Seattle, Washington native, Goodman, has been battling an injury this preseason, and Rhoades said Ward’s improved physicality over the summer. Rhoades also said the walk-on from York, Pennsylvania, Sedora, has been impressive, too.

“He has given us valuable minutes and competition at practice,” Rhoades said. “I’ve been so proud of him, without a doubt.”

Like last year’s transfer class, this year’s class will likely be full of impact players. The 2024 class consists of four-star guard Freddie Dilione V from Tennessee, four-star center Kachi Nzeh from Xavier, three-star forward Eli Rice from Nebraska, and three-star center Yanic Konan Niederhauser from Northern Illinois.

With Wahab, Demetrius Lilley, and Favour Aire gone, the center position was left with a gaping hole. Goodman, Ward, Niederhauser, and Nzeh are all candidates to start at the position, and Rhoades highlighted Neiderhauser’s ability in the post.

“What was great about [Wahab] last year, especially when we got to the second of the year, he became a threat for us down there and he did a great job protecting the rim and rebounding,” Rhoades said. “Yanic can do those things [too]. And then I think Yanic does a good job showing his versatility. You’ll see him step away from the basket and be in action.”

Between the returning starters, the transfers, and incoming freshmen, there’s a lot of competition for playing time heading into the first game of the season.

“What I love about it is there’s competition at practice every day,” Rhoades said. “These freshmen could go after the seniors and the sophomores and juniors know that they can’t just show up because there’s competition. Guys want to take minutes, and I think competition brings out the best in everybody in so many ways, and we have that.”