Penn State basketball schedule release: what are the most intriguing matchups?

As the leaves begin to fall in Happy Valley, the schedules begin to fall as well. The Big Ten conference revealed their full 2024-25 basketball schedule for all eighteen teams last week. 

Before breaking down the schedule, let’s preview Mike Rhoades’s second season as head coach of Penn State basketball.

Rhoades enters his second season with expectations and excitement. He brought his own recruits for the first time to Penn State, as he landed four players in the 2024 class. Goodman, a 6-10 center from California, ranked in the top 100 of 247sports’ rankings. Seemingly, Goodman has the best chance to carve a significant role in his freshman season for Penn State. Rhoades also landed 6-7 forward Hudson Ward, and guards Dominick Stewart and Jahvin Carter.

This class sets a foundation of youth for Rhoades’s future teams. However, the transfer portal causes chaos in college basketball, and Penn State witnessed this first hand this spring.

Penn State lost guard Kanye Clary to Mississippi State, guard Jameel Brown to Temple, center Demetrius Lilley to La Salle, and forward Favour Aire to Bryant. To recoup for these portal losses, Rhoades and his staff, spearheaded by associate head coach Jamal Brunt and assistant coaches Brent Scott and Jimmy Martelli, worked thoroughly to acquire valuable players in the portal. They landed former Tennessee guard Freddie Dilione V, former Nebraska guard Eli Rice, former Northern Illinois center Yanic Niederhauser, and former Xaver center Kachi Nzeh. 

Now with Oregon, UCLA, USC, and Washington in the conference, there enters more excitement and competition for the previous fourteen Big Ten teams. A big rule change was announced with this move, now a couple teams will not be eligible for the Big Ten tournament, held in Indianapolis. Now the bottom three teams from the regular season will not be able to compete, mirroring what the ACC is doing with their newly expanded conference. The format will be the following:

• Seeds 1—4: two byes
• Seeds 5—8: one bye
• Seeds 9—15: no bye, play on the first day of tournament
• Teams finishing 16—18: miss tournament

Returning to Penn State’s schedule release, let’s highlight two teams that should be the most intriguing to watch the Nittany Lions battle this season.

Penn State double dips against Rutgers this season, one of three teams they play twice in conference play, the other two being Minnesota and Indiana. Rutgers landed two of the top three recruits in the 2024 class, one of which being Dylan Harper, the brother of former Rutgers star Ron Harper Jr, and the son of former NBA player Ron Harper. Ace Bailey, the other top 3 recruit that head coach Steve Pikiell landed, is a 6-8 wing who will display terrific athleticism and explosiveness when the Nittany Lions clash with him twice this season. 

However, how far can two true freshmen take you? Rutgers has roaring expectations this season from the media, and this is why Rutgers will be a super intriguing team to watch. They lost star center Cliff Omoruyi to Alabama in the transfer portal, which will prove to be a significant loss throughout the season. I believe Penn State will battle Rutgers in both games they play, and predict that they split the two games, with each team winning at their home arena.

Similar to Rutgers, Penn State plays the Mike Woodson led Hoosiers twice this upcoming season. Indiana landed multiple key transfers and retained a lot of their talent from last season. Their starting lineup will be facilitated and run through former Washington State point guard Myles Rice. Rice, who I ranked as the 3rd best starting point guard in the Big Ten for the 2024-25 season, was one of the most coveted portal targets this spring, alongside former Arizona center Oumar Ballo, who also chose to play for Indiana. Rice and Ballo join star forward Malik Reneau, who averaged 15.4 points and 6.0 rebounds per game last season.

Indiana severely underperformed last season, and it almost got Woodson canned at the end of it. The Hoosiers star center Ke’lel Ware entered the 2024 NBA draft, and that will be a big blow for the team. However, 247sports believes the transfer portal additions have surely made up for the departures and then some, as they ranked the Hoosiers 2nd in their way-too-early conference rankings back in May. Indiana has not had much success against Penn State in recent seasons, as the Nittany Lions have taken five of the past seven meetings, but Indiana got the last laugh in the Big Ten tournament. Indiana has not won in the Bryce Jordan Center since 2018, and I believe that Penn State will win the “home” game as they will battle at the Palestra in Philadelphia on January 5th.