Welcome to “Big Ten offseason at a glance,” a team-by-team look at the conference at the start of the summer. We’ll examine roster movement for each Big Ten roster and give an early outlook for each Big Ten program for the 2026-27 season.
Up first: Penn State (12-20 overall in 2025-26, 3-17 in Big Ten play)
For the third straight season, Penn State’s Big Ten record went in the wrong direction under Mike Rhoades.
Hired from VCU to replace Micah Shrewsberry in the spring of 2023, Rhoades finished 16-17 overall and 9-11 in his first season in State College in 2023-24. His second season in 2024-25 produced an overall winning record at 16-15, but only a 6-14 mark in league play. This past season, 2025-26, Rhoades posted a 12-20 overall record and a 3-17 Big Ten finish.
As the Penn State program prepares for a pivotal fourth season under Rhoades next winter, the Nittany Lions are slated to finish at the bottom of the league according to Bart Torvik’s 2026-27 projections.
Rhoades will be on hot-seat lists to begin the season, and if he doesn’t show improvement, it won’t be a surprise to see Penn State make a change in the spring of 2027.
Penn State roster movement
Players returning with eligibility: Ivan Juric, Reggie Grodin
Players departing due to exhausted eligibility: Josh Reed
Players who departed via transfer portal: Dominick Stewart (to Richmond), Eli Rice (to Middle Tennessee), Freddie Dilione V (to Georgia), Justin Houser (to Florida Gulf Coast), Kayden Mingo (to Baylor), Mason Blackwood (to St. Bonaventure), Melih Tunca, Sasa Ciani, Tibor Mirtic
Players arriving via transfer portal: Jay Rodgers (from Central Connecticut), Brant Byers (from Miami OH), Roberts Blums (from Davidson), Tim Oboh (from Buffalo), Thomas Allard (from Alabama Huntsville)
Players arriving from high school/overseas: Roko Pkracin, Francois Wibaut, Andy Gemao
Like many teams in college basketball, Penn State saw significant roster movement via the transfer portal. The Nittany Lions lost nine players to the portal, including their top two leading scorers in Dilione V and Mingo.
In what might be a troubling sign for next season, Penn State’s transfer portal additions are all from lower levels of the sport, which won’t bode well for moving up in the Big Ten.
What to like about Penn State
Penn State was the Big Ten’s worst team last winter, so a roster reboot should be welcome, right?
The Nittany Lions have just two returning players and the clear headliner is 7-foot sophomore Ivan Juric, who averaged 10.2 points and 5.3 rebounds in 26.4 minutes per game.
Beyond that, Penn State brought in three double-figure scorers from the transfer portal in Rodgers, Blums and Byers.
Rodgers, a 6-foot-3 guard who previously played at Central Connecticut, averaged 11 points, 6.9 assists and shot 36.2 percent on 3s last season. Blums, a 6-foot-4 guard from Davidson, shot 40.7 percent on 3s and averaged 12.4 points in the A-10. And Byers, a 6-foot-8 forward, was on the Miami (OH) team that made the NCAA tournament. He averaged 14.2 points, 4.1 rebounds and shot 39.2 percent on 3s.
Penn State also brought in Pkracin, a 23-year-old pro from Croatia who will be counted on for major production alongside Juric in the frontcourt.
What to question with Penn State
The trend line for the Penn State program under Rhoades’s leadership is not encouraging. Penn State finished No. 139 in KenPom last season and just lost its two most talented players to the portal.
There’s very little proven high-major talent on the roster and the program’s lone high school signee from the fall, Jamison White, bailed on the program this spring and signed with Saint Louis.
Realistically, Penn State looks headed for a coaching search in the near future and the portal and international signings made this offseason are unlikely to yield better results next season.
Penn State’s outlook for the 2026-27 season
Here’s the Penn State Big Ten schedule for next season:
Home: Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Northwestern, Oregon, Purdue, Washington
Away: Illinois, Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota, UCLA, USC, Wisconsin
Home/Away: Nebraska, Ohio State, Rutgers
Penn State missed the NCAA tournament for a third straight time under Rhoades last winter and there is little reason for optimism going into year four.
The top of the Big Ten is filled with elite teams, and the middle is full of teams fighting for a spot in the newly expanded NCAA tournament, which will feature 76 teams. Penn State won’t be among those teams and will be battling it out near the bottom of the league for a fourth consecutive season.
The Penn State job has always been among the toughest in the conference and unless the program steps up with more resources for roster building, it will be a fight to avoid a bottom-four Big Ten finish.
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