UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The 2025-26 Penn State men's basketball season officially tips off Monday night when the Nittany Lions host Fairfield inside the Bryce Jordan Center. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. and the game will stream on B1G+.
KNOW BEFORE YOU GO
- FAN INFO GUIDE: Fan Info Guide
- PARKING: Parking for all athletic events requires a valid university permit or payment of an applicable parking fee. Parking can be purchased in advance via ParkWhiz prepayment, or on the day of via HONK (zone PSUCR).
- MOBILE TICKETING: All Penn State Athletics tickets are once again mobile tickets. Fans can access Penn State Athletics mobile ticket guide here. Make sure to have the updated Nittany Lions App downloaded on your phone to easily access and manage your mobile tickets. Download the app on the App Store and Google Play.
- CLEAR BAG POLICY: The Bryce Jordan Center has a clear bag policy. Bags that are clear plastic, vinyl or PVB and are 12" x 6" x 12" or smaller are permitted. Small clutches or wristlets that are 4" x 6" x 1" are also permissible, as well as one-gallon clear plastic freezer bags. All clear bags and patrons are subject to metal detection and/or bag inspection upon entering the venue. Bag policy details can be found here.
FOLLOW ALONG
- TICKETS: Tickets
- VIDEO: B1G+
- RADIO: Penn State Sports Network – Steve Jones & Dick Jerardi
- NATIONAL RADIO: SiriusXM Ch. 372 & SXM App. Ch. 372
- LIVE STATS: StatBroadcast
- GAME NOTES: Penn State Notes | Fairfield Game Notes
TIPPING OFF
- The Nittany Lions officially tip off their 130th varsity season and 30th season inside the Bryce Jordan Center Monday night when Penn State hosts Fairfield in the 2025-26 season opener.
- Penn State played two preseason exhibition games, taking down Shippensburg (86-67) at home on Oct. 26 and falling to Dayton (62-78) on the road on Oct. 19.
- Redshirt junior Freddie Dilione V led the Nittany Lions through the two combined preseason contests with 18.5 points per game and a 50.0 FG%. Redshirt sophomore Eli Rice averaged 13.0 ppg behind a 40.0 3FG%. Freshman Kayden Mingo impressed with 12.5 ppg and 5.5 assists per game. Freshman Ivan Jurić averaged a team-best 7.5 rebounds per game in addition to his 7.5 ppg.
SCOUTING FAIRFIELD
- Fairfield is coming off a 2024-25 season that saw the Stags go 12-20 overall and 8-12 in MAAC play. The Stags ended their season in the first round of the MAAC Tournament.
- Fairfield played an exhibition game at VCU on Oct. 26, falling to the Rams 64-82 last Sunday in Richmond. Brandon Benjamin led Fairfield with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Cam Estevez (11 points) and Declan Wucherpfennig (10 points, 8 rebounds) also finished in double figures.
- Braden Sparks is Fairfield's top returning scorer from last season, when he averaged 9.5 points per game fueled by a team-leading 47 three-pointers.
- Nine members of Fairfield's 18-man roster were also a part of the 2024-25 Stags. The Stags welcome back 34.9% of their scoring, 37.9% of their rebounding and 34.9% of the total minutes played by last season's club.
AGAINST THE STAGS
- Penn State and Fairfield meet for just the third time in program history and for the first time since 2010.
- The Nittany Lions and Stags last met on Nov. 19, 2010, a 64-49 Penn State win inside the Bryce Jordan Center. The only other meeting between the two programs came on Feb. 28, 1976, with the Nittany Lions earning a 76-68 win inside New York City's famed Madison Square Garden.
YEAR THREE
- The Nittany Lions enter their third season under Peter and Ann Tombros Endowed Head Coach Mike Rhoades in 2025-26. Rhoades has laid a strong foundation during his first two seasons and welcomes back key returnees, a top-30 recruiting class and experienced international players for the 2025-26 season.
- Rhoades orchestrated the highest-scoring offense in Penn State history in 2024-25 as the Nittany Lions set a single-season program record with 79.1 points per game during his second season at the helm. He and his staff engineered the identification and development of Penn State's first-ever first-round NBA Draft pick in Yanic Konan Niederhauser, who was selected with the 30th overall pick of the 2025 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Clippers.
NEW-LOOK NITTANY LIONS
- The new-look Nittany Lions feature 10 new players this season.
- Penn State returns just 14.6 percent of points, 11.0 percent of rebounds, 12.5 percent of assists and 15.5 percent of minutes played from last season in its three returners - Freddie Dilione V, Eli Rice and Dominick Stewart.
- The Nittany Lion roster is the 10th-most inexperienced roster in Division I per Bart Torvik's experience metric. The Penn State roster features one senior, two juniors, two sophomores and eight freshmen.
TALENTED YOUTH
- Penn State's eight-man freshman class is comprised of both talent and experience as the group is a combination of a top-30 recruiting class and international players that come to Happy Valley for their first years of NCAA eligibility after playing professionally overseas.
- Freshman guard Kayden Mingo headlines the class as Mingo came to Penn State as a consensus top-40 prospect and the highest-ranked recruit in program history. Fellow rookies Mason Blackwood, Justin Houser, Ivan Jurić and Reggie Grodin were all recruited directly out of high school and comprise Penn State's highly-ranked class.
- Tibor Mirtič and Melih Tunca join the freshmen group for their first seasons of NCAA eligibility after playing professionally overseas in their respective home countries of Slovenia and Turkey. Mirtič played the 2024-25 season for Krka Novo Mesto in Slovenia's top professional league, while Tunca was with Turk Telekom in the Turkish Basketball Super League, the top professional league in Turkey. Both players also own years of FIBA Euro Championship experience.
ESPN TOP 50 IMPACT NEWCOMER
- Freshman Kayden Mingo was named an ESPN Top 50 Impact Newcomer in late October. Mingo, the highest-rated recruit in Penn State history, averaged 12.5 points and 5.5 assists per game with a 47.6 FG% through the Nittany Lions' two combined exhibition games in October.
- Highly-touted Mingo was ranked as the 34 recruit nationally per 247Sports & No. 39 recruit nationally per ESPN. He was named the 2025 New York Gatorade Player of the Year following standout senior season at Long Island Lutheran.
BACK IN BLUE & WHITE
- Freddie Dilione V is Penn State's only returning starter from the 2024-25 campaign. Dilione V started 28 of 31 games a season ago, averaging 9.4 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game in an average of 24.6 minutes per contest.
- Dominick Stewart returns for his sophomore season following a highly-productive offseason. Stewart is expected to play a larger role this year following a freshman campaign that saw him appear in 24 games.
- Eli Rice enters his second season in the Blue & White fully healthy following a redshirt year due to a season-long injury. Rice played his freshman year at Nebraska before coming to Penn State ahead of the 2024-25 season.
EXPERIENCED TRANSFERS
- Josh Reed and Saša Ciani transferred in to Penn State during the spring and bring valuable college basketball experience to the roster.
- Reed saw action in 97 games through first three collegiate seasons at Cincinnati as one of the Bearcats' top defenders and key role players.
- Ciani played his first two collegiate seasons at UIC (2024-25) and Xavier (2023-24), seeing action in 58 games while making 26 starts. He is coming off a 2024-25 season at UIC in which he averaged 9.9 points and a team-best 7.6 rebounds per game while shooting 53.3 percent from the field. Ciani played professionally in his native country of Slovenia prior to his NCAA career.
UP NEXT
- The Nittany Lions travel to New Haven on Saturday, Nov. 8 for a 1 p.m. tipoff in Connecticut. The game will stream on NEC Front Row.