There were a number of notable NBA Draft decisions late on Wednesday that went well for many teams. A lot of players opted to return to their respective college basketball programs for next year, while a couple of free agents (RJ Luis and Jamir Watkins), elected to stay in the draft.
The move by those two doesn’t hurt teams since they had already entered the transfer portal. But for a team like Penn State, which had to wait on its best returning player, they ended up being arguably the biggest losers. Yanic Konan Niederhauser was the team’s top big man from last season, averaging 12.9 ppg and 6.3 rpg on 61% shooting from the field. The athletic forward had a chance to be one of the best players in the Big Ten next season, but instead, his next team will be in the NBA.
The Nittany Lions' loss of Niederhauser is simply massive. The other double-digit scorers (Ace Baldwin, Zach Hicks, and Nicholas Kern) have all moved on, and the transfer portal work this offseason leaves much to be desired. The team didn’t add any veteran frontcourt players, with incoming freshmen (Ivan Juric and Justin Houser) being the only bigs on the 2025-26 roster.
Plus, the reality is that there’s little depth in the transfer portal for frontcourt players who can play at the Big Ten level. And there are definitely not any as good as Niederhauser and his two-way impact. Junior guard Freddie Dillone (9.4 ppg and 1.7 apg) is set to be the top player on the team, but considering they went 6-14 and missed the Big Ten Tournament last season, it’s very hard to envision a path to them being better in 2026.
Some teams lost players to the NBA Draft but have the resources and prestige to replace them in one way or another. Penn State can’t do that, putting them in a spot where their fate for next season may already be sealed.