Penn State Basketball Head Coach Mike Rhoades has landed a massive commit from the transfer portal.

The Nittany Lions are picking up Ace Baldwin Jr. from Rhoades’ former team VCU.

Baldwin was the 2022-23 Atlantic 10 player of the year and led the Rams with 12.7 points per game, 5.8 assist per game, and 2.2 steals per game.

The 6-foot guard was a key player to VCU winning the A-10 and making the NCAA Tournament. Baldwin still has 2 years of eligibility remaining and will help transition Penn State Basketball until Rhoades gets the recruiting underway.

This is a huge get for Rhoades as it will hopefully start the trend of more potential commits from the portal.

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How Mike Rhoades Can Rebuild Penn State Basketball

Penn State’s roster was decimated after Micah Shrewsberry left,  with 7 players graduating and the 3 incoming recruits all asking for their release from their letters of intent.

On top of that freshman Evan Mahaffey and Jameel Brown have entered the transfer portal.

This leaves Penn State with 3 returning scholarship players from last year’s team.

Rhoades will need to get to work to try and retain Mahaffey and Brown and pick up some more former players from VCU. Key targets will be former 4-star players Alphonzo Billups (#103) and Christian Fermin (#116). The latter is more notable as Fermin is from Pocono Summit, PA.

While this commitment is a small step in filling out a roster for next season, it should give hope to Penn State fans that Rhoades can put together a competitive team in year one. The first-year coach will have to continue to try and grab some players from his former team as well as looking around at other potential Power Conference transfers.

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