Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1540433
4 8 N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 5 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M pose of what we're trying to do. I think our character is just really good. I like the group we have. BWI: How important is the nonconfer- ence schedule for this team? RHOADES: My goal as the coach is, let's improve more than anybody in the country from now until Christmas, and that's going through nonconference. We play some good teams. Go play and win the games, compete, but [make sure you] get better. The biggest thing when you have all these new guys and a young team is, what games are you going to win? We all do it. Coaches do, too. But if we really im- prove from now until Christmas — and that doesn't mean just straight-up im- provement; it's peaks and valleys — we can create some depth that could impact our team and impact winning. I really like our team. They've been an absolute joy to coach. We're just young as hell. But it's fun, too. It's been refreshing, to be honest with you. We've got a lot of high-character dudes, and we have guys that play the game the right way. They're very coachable. There's no BS. They come in and put their work in, and then they usually come back [strong]. This team has been in the gym more than any team I've coached in a long time. That doesn't mean you're guaranteed success, but doing it the right way builds your culture, builds your program, and it makes it harder to surrender. The most dangerous team is one that never quits, and that's the mentality you've got to have when you're really young. ■ 2025-26 Penn State Men's Basketball Roster No. Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Elig. Home High School/Last College 1 Mason Blackwood F 6-7 230 Fr. Rochester, N.Y. New Hampton Prep School (N.H.) 3 Ivan Jurić F 7-0 250 Fr. Zagreb, Croatia Sunrise Christian Academy (Kan.) 4 Kayden Mingo G 6-3 195 Fr. Farmingdale, N.Y. Long Island Lutheran 5 Freddie Dilione V G 6-5 195 R-Jr. Fayetteville, N.C. Word of God Christian Academy/Tennessee 7 Dominick Stewart G 6-5 195 So. Ocean Springs, Miss. Southern California Academy 9 Melih Tunca G 6-5 195 Fr. Istanbul, Turkey FMV Ayazağa Işık HS 10 Josh Reed F 6-8 230 Sr. Atlanta, Ga. Pace Academy/Cincinnati 11 Eli Rice G 6-8 230 R-So. Gallatin, Tenn. IMG Academy/Nebraska 12 Reggie Grodin G 6-5 200 Fr. Larchmont, N.Y. Newman School (Mass.) 16 Tibor Mirtič F 6-9 255 Fr. Ljubljana, Slovenia Gimnazija Moste 21 Justin Houser F 7-0 235 Fr. Camp Hill, Pa. Phelps School 22 Saša Ciani F 6-10 240 Jr. Nova Gorica, Slovenia Koder School/Illinois Chicago 30 Chris Lotito F 6-7 215 Fr. Upper Saddle River, N.J. Don Bosco Prep Rhoades was impressed with the diligent work that guard Dominick Stewart and his teammates did during the Nittany Lions' offseason conditioning program. COURTESY PENN STATE ATHLETICS