DAYTON, Ohio – The 2025-26 Penn State men’s basketball season gets an early start Sunday when the Nittany Lions travel to Dayton for a charity exhibition game in support of adolescent and young adult mental health and suicide prevention. Tipoff from UD Arena is slated for 2 p.m., with the game airing on FanDuel Ohio and streaming live on ESPN+.

FOLLOW ALONG

TV: FanDuel Ohio

VIDEO STREAM: ESPN+

LIVE STATS: StatBroadcast

GAME NOTES: Penn State Notes

BIGGER THAN BASKETBALL

Penn State and Dayton team up for a great cause Sunday when the Nittany Lions and Flyers meet in a charity exhibition game in support of adolescent and young adult mental health and suicide prevention.

All net proceeds from ticket sales will benefit Jay’s Light, the Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation, and mental health initiatives for University of Dayton students. Dayton Coach Anthony Grant and his wife Chris strive to “bring purpose to the pain” from their family’s tragedy by helping mothers, fathers, teens, and young adults find the resources to help. Their daughter, Jay, died in 2022 at the age of 20 as a result of mental illness.

Jay’s Light honors Jayda Grant and champions adolescent and young adult mental health and suicide prevention. The fund supports local community organizations and initiatives that align with the mission of supporting adolescent and young adult mental health.

“Raising awareness, generating conversation and increasing access to mental health services across our country is of the utmost importance. I am honored to share the floor once again with Coach Grant who I have the greatest respect for. Coach Grant’s willingness to share his family’s story to turn their pain into purpose and help others is inspirational and we are appreciative to be a part of this event.” – Penn State head coach Mike Rhoades

TEST RUN

Sunday’s exhibition game won’t count towards official records or statistics, but marks the third-straight season that the Nittany Lions will partake in an open charity exhibition game. Penn State defeated Lafayette, 79-64, a season ago and Robert Morris, 68-58, in 2023-24.

SCOUTING DAYTON

Dayton is coming off a 2024-25 season that saw the Flyers go 23-11 overall and 12-6 in Atlantic 10 play. The 2024-25 Flyers earned an invitation to the NIT, falling in the second round to Chattanooga.

The Flyers were picked to finish third in the A-10 Preseason poll.

Dayton returns just one of its top five scorers from a season ago in Javon Bennett who averaged 11.6 points per game last year. Bennett has been named to the A-10’s Preseason All-Conference First Team and Preseason All-Defensive Team heading into the 2025-26 season.

Sophomore forward Amaël L’Etang was selected to the A-10 Preseason All-Conference Second Team after a strong rookie year in which he averaged 7.1 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.2 assists. Graduate forward Keonte Jones was named to the Preseason All-Conference Third Team.

AGAINST THE FLYERS

While Sunday’s exhibition game won’t count towards either team’s official record, Penn State and Dayton will meet for the first time since 1998.

Penn State and Dayton have only met once before in program history, a 77-74 Nittany Lion road win in the second round of the 1998 NIT. The Nittany Lions advanced to the NIT championship game at Madison Square Garden that season.

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 freshman 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.

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.

CAPTAINS

Penn State has named four team captains ahead of the 2025-26 season. The four captains were elected by both the players and the staff:

Junior forward Saša Ciani

Freshman guard Kayden Mingo

Senior forward Josh Reed

Redshirt sophomore guard Eli Rice

HIGH OCTANE

Penn State’s offense has thrilled under head coach Mike Rhoades as the Nittany Lions have averaged 77.1 points per game through Rhoades’ two combined seasons in Happy Valley.

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 engineered the highest-scoring offense under a first-year head coach at Penn State since 1954-55 as the Nittany Lions averaged 75.1 points per game in his debut season (2023-24).

FIRST-ROUND DRAFT PICK

Mike Rhoades and his staff were responsible for identifying, recruiting and developing Penn State’s first-ever first-round NBA Draft pick in Yanic Konan Niederhauser as the big man was selected with the 30th overall pick of the 2025 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Clippers in June 2025.

Konan Niederhauser led the Big Ten with 2.3 blocks per game during his one season in the Blue & White in 2024-25 and saw a +7.8 points per game and +3.1 rebounds per game increase from his collegiate career averages prior to his time at Penn State.

Konan Niederhauser was the first Nittany Lion to be selected in the first round of the NBA Draft in Penn State history. He was the highest-drafted Nittany Lion in the modern era of the draft and the 16th overall NBA Draft pick from Penn State. Current Denver Nugget Jalen Pickett (2nd round, pick 32, Denver) was the previous highest pick from Penn State in modern Draft history. Konan Niederhauser became the third Penn State player drafted in the last three years, joining Jalen Pickett (2023 to Denver) and Seth Lundy (2023 to Atlanta).

UP NEXT

Penn State hosts Shippensburg in an exhibition game inside the Bryce Jordan Center on Sunday, Oct. 26. Tipoff is slated for 2 p.m. and admission is free for all fans.