Penn State Basketball Continues Recruiting the International Market

According to his EuroCup profile, Tunca played for Turkey's U19 and U20 national teams and helped Turkey to the bronze medal at the 2023 U19 World Cup. Tunca also played for Turkey's U20 national team at the 2024 European Championships.

Tunca is the second international player to join Penn State's 2025-26 roster. Penn State recently signed Ivan Juric, a 7-foot forward from Croatia, to the 2025 recruiting class. Juric played professionally in Croatia before spending last season at Sunrise Christian in Kansas.

Penn State coach Mike Rhoades previewed the potential international recruiting plan after the season, saying the program would get creative in finding players.

“We’re recruiting all over the world," the Penn State coach said in March. "I think [in] the landscape of college athletics and college athletic recruiting, you have to be open to everything: high school kids, the portal and, of course, international. We’ve recruited international before. I have guys on our staff that have done it and have made those many trips all over the world to do that. That’s very important to us.”

The moves are part of Rhoades' efforts to rebuild a roster that underwent signifcant change following last season. The Nittany Lions lost five seniors who had exhausted their eligibility, while three freshmen entered the transfer portal.

Then Yanic Konan Niederhauser, the team's top returning player, declared for the 2025 NBA Draft, earned an invite to the league's scouting combine and chose to remain draft-eligible rather than return to Penn State. Niederhauser is a projected second-round pick in the upcoming draft.

The Nittany Lions went 16-15 last season and 6-14 during a Big Ten campaign in which they lost 11 of 12 games during one stretch. Rhoades said he's looking for two key qualities to compete in the Big Ten.

"We need size and girth,” Rhoades said in March. “The one thing that I had to learn even more is the level of size, one through five. Returning players got to put on a body of armor that could win games in the Big Ten, but we've also got to go out and recruit a body of armor. Guys with size and girth [at] all positions, I think that’s really important.”