Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1541276
8 D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 5 OPENING SHOT A FLYING START Penn State men's basketball coach Mike Rhoades acknowledged the shortcomings in his team's performance on Nov. 3. The Nit- tany Lions opened their 2025-26 campaign at the Bryce Jordan Center against Fairfield, a matchup in which defense, free throws and three-point shooting all proved problematic. Still, after watching the Lions earn a 76-68 victory with their late surge, Rhoades could view the effort with perspective. He and his staff had overhauled their roster during the offseason, loading it up with freshmen and transfers. The new-look team fought back to emerge with a win, and that was what Rhoades wanted to see. "That was a fun opener," he said. "We've got a lot of work to do. But what I was really proud of is that down the stretch, when we were down, even with all these new, inexpe- rienced guys, nobody was panicking. There were no frowns in the huddle. There was no blaming, complaining, excuse-making. It was just, 'All right, here's what we've got to do.'" That resolve took shape in the game's final three minutes and change. Despite flashes from a trio of freshmen — guards Melih Tunca and Kayden Mingo (No. 4 at right) and big man Ivan Jurić (No. 3) — Penn State trailed 66-60 late. After a Jurić triple, Rhoades called timeout to rally his players. "I said to them, 'If you guys get three stops, we'll win the game.' And the last 3:28 we went on a 16-2 run," he said. The Nittany Lions closed on an 11–0 burst to seal the win. Mingo, playing his first reg- ular-season game for PSU, finished with 15 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists, while Tunca had a team-best 19 points and 6 assists. "I think we'll score points, but we've just got to learn to keep playing defense. It wasn't great today, not to our standards," Rhoades said. "But the last 3:28 was to our standards." The goal this season is for Penn State's newly assembled team to show steady im- provement over the course of the campaign. The matchup with Fairfield helped provide PSU with a starting point. "We've got to play people so we can get better and get exposed and figure it out," Rhoades said. "Today was a great day of deal- ing with adversity, being down late, and the guys rung the bell. Good first win, a lot of these guys got their feet wet. Now we've got to get better." — Nate Bauer PHOTO BY MARK SELDERS/PENN STATE ATHLETICS