Penn State hoops makes first offseason roster additions, tapping international market

In the wake of Penn State’s challenging 2025-26 regular season, head coach Mike Rhoades made an acknowledgment. For a Nittany Lions team that struggled to compete through most of the Big Ten schedule, finishing with just three wins against 18 conference losses, the shape of the future crystallized.

Against a landscape that had proven difficult to navigate with a Penn State roster lopsided in its youth and inexperience, changes were coming.

“I do think you see the league is older and bigger. That’s something we have to address,” said Rhoades. “One way you address it is the guys that come back are a year older, more experienced, another year in the offseason of getting bigger and stronger. That helps you get older. And I think that’s the key for us going forward.”

The other?

Turning to player acquisition, the Nittany Lions will work to identify talent boasting the qualities of Penn State’s Big Ten peers. Bigger, stronger and older elsewhere, Rhoades and his staff will look to bring the same to Happy Valley.

On Sunday, that process began in earnest with the reported signings of international players Roko Prkačin and François Wibaut, as first reported by Jonathan Givony. In addition to those pick-ups, Penn State will also retain freshman center Ivan Juric.

Blue White Illustrated has confirmed the acquisitions.

Prkačin, 23, hails from Zagreb, Croatia, where he has played professionally since 2019. First appearing with Cibona in the Adriatic League, he declared for the 2021 NBA Draft before withdrawing and returning to professional basketball with Girona. He now plays with Nanterre 92 of France’s LNB Pro A.

A product of France, Wibaut, meanwhile, is 21 and played this season for Rouen Métropole Basket. A small forward listed at 6-foot-6 by FIBA, Wibaut averaged 9.1 points, 4 rebounds and 1.7 assists over seven games.

With the additions, Penn State has started the process of offsetting expected transfer portal departures when it opens April 7. Already set to lose senior forward Josh Reed, the only Nittany Lion this past season to exhaust his eligibility, the program will also be without Freddie Dilione, who is expected to enter the transfer portal.

Others expected to join Dilione, as reported by Blue White Illustrated this month, are Dominick Stewart and Eli Rice.

Lamenting the nature of Penn State’s season – his third at the helm – Rhoades pointed to a future in which age and experience become a greater presence for the Nittany Lions.

“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, 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.”

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