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Penn State hoops lands veteran guard Thomas Allard via transfer

nate-mug-10.12.14by: Nate Bauer04/29/26NateBauerBWI

The roster reconstruction for head coach Mike Rhoades and the Penn State men’s basketball program continues. The latest movement took shape on Wednesday as the Nittany Lions turned to the transfer portal for another addition.

Thomas Allard, a 6-foot-7 guard from DII University of Alabama in Huntsville who earned All-Gulf South Conference second-team honors as a junior last season, has committed to the Nittany Lions, he announced on Instagram. He has one year of college eligibility remaining after spending his first three years at Lincoln Memorial University before playing for the Chargers in 2025-26. 

Last year, Allard started all 32 games for the Chargers, posting 13.7 points and 3.5 assists against 2.0 turnovers over 30.3 minutes per game. He scored a season-high 31 points against Barry last November, and on the year he hit 40.9 percent of his shots from the floor and 32.0 of his 175 attempts from beyond the arc. 

With 10 of the program’s 11 “scholarship” players from last year’s roster moving on this offseason, only rising sophomore big man Ivan Juric carrying over, Allard’s addition is one of seven made so far by Rhoades and his staff via the transfer portal. He’s joined by two international additions, wings Roko Prkacin and Fancois Wibaut, plus Jay Rodgers, Brant Byers, Roberts Blums, and Timothy Oboh. 

Among the stated goals for the Nittany Lions this offseason, Allard represents another experienced addition to the roster. Coming out of a disappointing season in which the Nittany Lions were one of the nation’s youngest, least experienced teams in college basketball, Rhoades has steered the program in the other direction.

“It was a really hard year for me. It was really hard. The world we live in now, you want to give yourself a chance. You want to give your team a chance to be successful. So it’s hard,” said Rhoades. “The reality is when you’re really young in Power Four basketball, you’re at a disadvantage. So we need to address that, and we need to get our young guys bigger, better, and badder and stronger.

“That’s it. You’ve got to be old. You’ve got to be old because everybody else is. The best teams in our league and the best teams in the country are old and experienced. We’ve got to address some of that.”

Where things stand for Penn State

Guards Jay Rodgers, Reggie Grodin, Roberts Blums, Brant Byers, Thomas Allard
Wings Roko Prkačin, François Wibaut, Chris Lotito
Bigs Ivan Juric, Timothy Oboh

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