Going into the 2025 campaign, Penn State hoops faced a completely revamped roster filled with freshmen and international players. Despite a rough start against Fairfield, Melih Tunca, Ivan Jurić, Tibor Mirtič, and Saša Ciani made an early impact for the Nittany Lions.

Tunca paved the way with 19 points on seven of 11 shooting, four rebounds, six assists, and two steals. The 6’5″ guard previously played professionally with Turk Telekom in the Turkish Basketball Super League.

“Pace was different from European basketball, but I adjusted pretty quick,” Melih said postgame. “This is the basketball I like to play, so it was good.”

Melih led the team in points against Fairfield and only played fewer minutes than freshman phenom Kayden Mingo despite coming in off the bench.

Jurić, a Zagreb, Croatia, native, boasted 13 points against the Stags with a perfect 5-5 tab from the field. Jurić’s biggest challenge, however, doesn’t have to do with anything on the court. It’s his first time living outside of Croatia, and that provides a whole different set of obstacles for the seven-footer.

Yet, that adjustment period is a little easier to swallow when paired with fellow freshman Mirtič. Mirtič scored six points in the squad’s season opener and led the team with 11 rebounds in 24 minutes. The pair have navigated life in the United States together.

“We like to go on walks, we like to eat, try new stuff here…A lot of times we play video games, gamer team, but we like to spend a lot of time, especially eating,” Mirtič said. “We go out a lot to eat. I think it’s the best thing just to spend time together.”

Mike Rhoades commended the fact that while there are plenty of international players adjusting to life in a foreign country playing different basketball than they’re used to, the squad still has an innate desire to compete.

“I just think we have a group of guys that they want to win, and they want to try to please their coaches and want to be good teammates,” Rhoades said. “That’s not a guarantee of winning, but they’re good starts. And I just think that if you could be all about what is needed in that moment, in that urgency, that overcomes inexperience and not having enough reps under your belt, because just your mind is clear about ‘whatever is needed right now, in this moment, I’m going to do to help my team win’, that helps you build stuff.”

Penn State fans knew that this season was going to be a developmental year focused on getting Mingo as much tape as possible while fostering a foundation for years to come. Players like Tunca, Jurić, and Mirtič all exemplified that position against Fairfield, playing valuable minutes and making key plays down the stretch to sneak out the win.

Even Ciani, who didn’t necessarily pop out on the stat sheet, recorded his first Penn State points after transferring from UIC as a sophomore. He played in 31 games for Xavier as a freshman a year prior.

Ciani ended his night against the Stags with three points and four rebounds in 12 minutes. He got the start but was pulled and received fewer minutes down the stretch. Rhoades emphasized at his weekly press conference that he doesn’t believe in a fixed starting five, and he isn’t afraid to switch things up drastically.

“I’ve always played a lot of guys. Starting lineups don’t mean a darn thing to me, they don’t,” Rhoades said. “Who finishes the game? Who are the five guys that are going to get a big stop? Who are the five guys that are going to get a big score? Who are the five guys in this moment who are going to go down, get a score, get a stop, and then end the game? So, that to me is the most important.”

At the end of the day, though, Rhoades knows the only way that this team can continue to develop and build chemistry is to spend time together, just like Jurić and Mirtič. He said team bonding was a crucial component of the offseason, and it will be directly linked to improvement as the season goes on.

“What I was most excited about and really happy about was the way they celebrated each other’s success, the way, the type of teammates they were throughout the game,” Rhoades said. “And at the end of the game and after the game, there was some good stuff there. We talked about building and bonding this team from June when we got together, and you saw some of that come to fruition as we were playing the game.”