From December 29 to January 13, Penn State men’s basketball played a total of five games. Ace Baldwin Jr. didn’t make a single shot from three within that span and, aside from the Michigan game, was averaging only 6.3 points per game.

Many asked when the Atlantic 10 Player of the Year from a season ago was going to show up for the Nittany Lions. Fast forward a month and three straight Big Ten wins behind the efforts of Baldwin, it’s fair to say that the Baltimore native has arrived.

On Thursday night, Baldwin officially cemented himself as the leader of the Nittany Lions. After squandering a 10-point lead to the Hawkeyes, it seemed as if Penn State had once again been knocked down onto the canvas and couldn’t recover. Even Mike Rhoades questioned his group’s mentality, as it was trending in a downward direction like it had against Minnesota.

“Sooner or later players on the team got to say that’s enough. We’re not doing this again today. Today, it was one of those steps to do that,” Rhoades said.

Trailing by as many as seven points twice late in the second half, Penn State’s steps were taken by its leader. Baldwin scored eight points and recorded a steal in a span of 40 seconds to seal a third-straight victory in the final two minutes of play.

“I was a little bit careless with the ball in the first half, and as a leader, as a point guard, I just had to step it up, and that’s what I did,” Baldwin said.

Baldwin completely took over the game, scoring 18 of his 22 points in the second half. When it mattered most, the point guard channeled his inner hunger to snatch the victory for the blue and white.

“The dude’s not afraid. He’s not afraid to be the guy to say, ‘All right. I’m going to make a play, and if it doesn’t happen, it’s on me,'” Rhoades said. “There is a level of competitiveness that not everybody has, and I think he’s an outlier in that area, and he’s going to do whatever it takes to win.”

Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery knew the kind of player the Nittany Lions recruited from VCU this offseason and he got a taste of his talent in the second half inside the Bryce Jordan Center.

“He’s a gamer. He runs the show. He wants the ball, and he makes plays late,” McCaffery said.

It wasn’t just the Iowa game that Baldwin unlocked his full potential. In the past three games, Baldwin averaged 19.7 points per game. In two of those games, the Nittany Lions’ leading scorer Kanye Clary was absent from injury, and Rhoades and Co. registered its first road wins of the season. On Thursday, Clary only played 18 minutes off the bench while tallying eight points.

It’s not just scoring where Baldwin has excelled of late. He has shown his ability to affect the game as a passer and on the defensive end. During the three-game winning streak, he’s averaging eight assists and 3.7 steals per game. Baldwin developed into an all-around difference-maker for Rhoades at Penn State.

A lot of players have played well in the three-game stretch. Zach Hicks and Jameel Brown shot their best ball of the year in the last two games, while Qudus Wahab consistently puts up great numbers from the center position. D’Marco Dunn, meanwhile, has been solid in place of Clary.

But one player has outshined all of them and that’s Baldwin. When it comes to winning night in and night out in the Big Ten, each team needs its x-factor of a player. Baldwin answered the bell from his inconsistent play to start his time in the blue and white.

“He’s very demanding of his teammates, but he’s also very demanding of himself. He gets mad at himself for not playing a certain level,” Rhoades said.

From a non-statistical standpoint, Baldwin does what Rhoades says is the biggest compliment you can give a team sport athlete by making others around him better. From the beginning, Rhoades emphasized how good of a leader the VCU transfer would be.

Baldwin was benched early in the season, and Penn State lost games it shouldn’t have. The leader that was talked about from the start was now in the Penn State locker room. Though it’s not Baldwin’s stats the team has benefited most from, it’s benefited most from having Baldwin as the head of its snake.

With eight games to play, and a surging Baldwin, Penn State could be a dark horse to make some noise to end the year.