Big Ten Basketball: Iowa rises, Michigan State falls in updated WTE 2024-25 rankings

With the NBA Draft deadline passed, we now know which players are officially back for this upcoming season, including in Big Ten Basketball. Plus, just about all of the relevant players is out of the transfer portal, giving us a better view of each respective roster.

Here's an updated power rankings of the Big Ten.

18. Penn State Nittany Lions

Most of the work by Penn State was done early on, including dealing with the departures of Kanye Clary and Qudus Wahab. The most important thing is that the Nittany Lions brought back Ace Baldwin Jr., who not only averaged 14.2 ppg and 6.0 apg, but also earned Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year.

Penn State also brings back three key rotation pieces in Nick Kern, Zach Hicks, and D’Marco Dunn, who started a combined 65 games for the team last season. None of them scored more than 8.7 ppg, showing a need for the team to find more capable scorers.

But did they do that? The Nittany Lions landed four transfers but the one with the most production was Yanic Konan Niederhauser, a 6’10 forward from Northern Illinois who averaged 7.3 ppg and 4.4 rpg. Kachi Nzeh (Xavier), Freddie Dilione (Tennessee), and Eli Rice (Nebraska) are power conference guys who had limited roles in their previous spots.

As good as Baldwin himself is, there’s little proven production throughout the rest of the roster. Could there be a breakout star or two? Possibly. But for now, the Nittany Lions have a lot to prove next season.