Early this afternoon, the Big Ten held its 2025 Basketball Media Day in Rosemont, Ill. inside the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. Penn State was the first team interviewed, and Head Coach Mike Rhoades and players Eli Rice and Josh Reed had the honor of representing Nittany Nation.
The first question Coach Rhoades was asked was who was going to fill the shoes of graduated Ace Baldwin, Jr. and who was going to be the leader on the floor. Rhoades did not hesitate with his answer. He responded simply, “Kayden Mingo.” See Rhoades’ response below.
Rhoades continued about Mingo. “The first role of leadership I always feel is that you have to take care of your own stuff, and he does that at a high level. Secondly, you have to be a great teammate and being a leader, you have to bring people with you, and very quickly in June when he showed up on campus, along with Eli and Josh and Sasa, those guys are great teammates and helped the new guys, even though Kayden was one of them. Another thing about Kayden and Josh Reed and Eli is that those guys are good communicators. When you have those types of guys that are good communicators and taking care of their business, they’re going to come to the front once it comes to leadership.”
Rhoades was then asked what style of play to expect from the young Nittany Lion squad. He stated his team was going to pick people up full court, because that helps create more possessions. Rhoades continued, “Kayden Mingo can pick up the ball. Melih Tunca from Turkey is going to be a really good presser. Freddie Dilione can really press the ball… you saw that last year. We have to create extra possessions. We have to create offense because of our defense and we’re going to recruit like that every year.”
Rhoades was then asked what player is his “X Factor,” a player who is even better than originally thought. Rhoades responded, “Freshmen from Croatia, Ivan Juric……7-footer, he’s very good, he’s very talented. You can tell he has played with older guys his whole life. Really good feel. He has Big Ten size. He’s over 240 lbs. but he can step out and make threes, and we’re really excited to have him.”
When asked what was the biggest things he learned in his first two years in the Big Ten about coaching in this league, Rhoades responded, “These coaches just aren’t good, they’re awesome. They make deep runs in the NCAA Tournament. They’ve played different styles. But it’s the caliber of play. The depth, the talent on the best teams in the league are game changers, and that’s something we have to keep addressing at Penn State all the time.”
When asked about playing in Big Ten venues, Rhoades replied, “Experience is your greatest teacher. We have the youngest team in the Big Ten and one of the youngest teams in the country. We’re going to go in there and fight like crazy in these venues, but what a great experience to…it’s only going to make us better, but you want to go in there and find a way to sneak them because there’s nothing better than a road win, especially in the Big Ten.”
Rhoades wrapped up the interview by saying, “When you get on the court for the jump ball, nobody ever asks how old you are. They want to know if you can play or not. Our job is to put our players out there and give them a chance to win.”
Penn State will play in their first exhibition game in Dayton, OH against the Dayton Flyers on Sunday, October 19 at 2:00 PM. Nittany Sports Now will be at the game live to bring you all the action.
