On Kayden Mingo

This year’s roster headlines the highest-ranked recruit in program history in the 6’3″ guard Mingo, a consensus top-40 prospect in the 2025 class who was the New York State Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior at Long Island Lutheran.

Rhoades did not shy away from saying Mingo will have the keys to the team’s offense at Big Ten Media Days last week, and he echoed those thoughts Wednesday, saying Mingo took off from his first day on campus.

“[He’s a] high-character young man on and off the court, thinks of his teammates before himself. For a college freshman, very mature, has an even keel,” Rhoades said of Mingo. “He’s a super aggressive and competitive dude, but man, he has a really good feel. He’s a guy that’s going to have the ball in his hands.”

Despite being a freshman, Mingo made it a goal of his to prove his worthiness as a leader when he joined the team, and it paid off.

“I felt like it was a day in, day out type of process, just coming in, showing I could lead the team, and showing that I’m trustworthy of having the keys, as he said, and it’s really a blessing that coach and all my teammates trust me with the keys and are able to put the ball in my hands,” Mingo said.

On Team Leadership

Only three of Penn State’s 13 players are returners, and eight of them are freshmen. While the team has confidence in their ability, such a young roster can create leadership challenges, which Rhoades said can be addressed, starting with himself.

“I’m the leader of the program, so I have to be the greatest example to our players what a leader is. Number one, the leaders is giving yourself to everybody else, serving others. So you want to be a captain and be a leader of the team, you got to be an awesome teammate.”

Rhoades also said associate head coach Jamal Brunt, who served as captain on a Rhoades-coached Randolph Macon team, is a prime example of what it means to be a leader.

On The Frontcourt

The biggest loss of the offseason was 7’0″ center Yanic Konan Niederhauser, who decided to forgo his final year of eligibility and declare for the NBA Draft, and went on to be picked No. 30 by the Los Angeles Clippers.

After Konan Niederhauser’s departure, Penn State added seven-foot freshmen Ivan Juric and Justin Houser, as well as 6’10” transfer Sasa Ciani.

Rhoades talked at length about Konan Niederhauser being a “threat vertically,” which Penn State no longer has, but Rhoades believes Juric could blossom into that type of player eventually.

“We’re probably, overall as a team, longer and bigger and heavier, but we don’t have that crazy vertical threat like we did with Yanic, but I do think it will come with a couple of our young guys in due time,” Rhoades said.

“This is a game when you don’t have that, you play a different way, and we’ve done that before. I think we have some guys that are big and long that can shoot threes and step away from the basket and put pressure on the defense in different ways, too, than just vertical lobs. I think Ivan will very quickly become one of those lob-threat guys, but he’s still figuring it out as well as a freshman.”

On European Talent

Over the offseason, the Nittany Lions brought in four players from Europe who Rhoades said will become “really good players” for the program. While last year’s team had just one European player, the coaching staff’s connections to basketball on the continent made it easy to recruit the new group.

Assistant coaches Brent Scott, Joe Crispin, and Talor Battle all played professional basketball in Europe, and Rhoades and Brunt have previous experience recruiting players out of Europe. The five were comfortable adding a slew of European players to the squad.

Rhoades is grateful for the support of his staff and community for helping the four become adjusted to life and basketball in the United States.

“The resources we have here, the support we have here, not just our staff, but everybody here: This community, these guys have had open arms for our guys, and they feel the Penn State love, which I think is really important,” Rhoades said. “They love it here. They got off to great starts. They bonded with our guys and I think they’re going to be really good players, too. The key is keeping them here.”

While there are some rule changes between FIBA basketball and collegiate basketball, Ciani has already seen the differences in his two years of college basketball.

“[FIBA] prepared us a lot, because there, you played against older guys all the time, so you kind of get experience for that here. Maybe the game was a little bit faster when I got here. Now, I kind of adjusted to it,” he said.

On Upcoming Exhibitions

The Nittany Lions have exhibitions at Dayton on Sunday, October 19, and at home against Shippensburg on Sunday, October 26.

When asked what he wants to see from his team in those two contests, Rhoades said, “Just compete.”

“The best thing about scrimmages and exhibitions, you can do a lot of different things with lineups. There’ll probably be a time on Sunday at Dayton we’ll have four freshmen on the court at one time. I’m not sure you’re going to do that in every Big Ten game, but we’ll probably do that on Sunday and see what happens,” Rhoades said.

While the key is to learn about his team before the regular season, there’s something else Penn State is playing for, despite the result not counting for anything.

“Do I care about the score? Yeah, damn right I care about the score. We’re going there to win, but I want to know a lot about my team when I get back on the bus and we head back,” he said.

The regular season will begin at 7 p.m. on Monday, November 3, at the Bryce Jordan Center against Fairfield.