Penn State Basketball: Nittany Lions Sign Another International Player

Penn State men's basketball added another international player to its 2025-26 roster, signing Slovenian forward Sasa Ciani from the transfer portal. Penn State announced the move Saturday as coach Mike Rhoades continues to rebuild the program's roster. Ciani, a 6-9 forward, has two seasons of eligibility remaining.

“We’re excited to get Sasa on campus and welcome him to our Penn State basketball family," Rhoades said of Ciani. "He is a veteran that will give us front court experience, size and versatility. We’re looking forward to the leadership, intense play and toughness that he will bring to our program.” 

Ciani played two seasons of college basketball at Illinois-Chicago and Xavier before transferring to Penn State. At UIC last season, Ciani played in 27 games, starting 21. He averaged 9.9 points and led the team with 7.6 rebounds per game. Ciani ranked second in the Missouri Valley Conference in rebounds per game and shot 53.3 percent from the field. He also recorded 11 double-doubles and scored in double figures 18 times.

As a freshman, Ciani played in 31 games for Xavier, making five starts. He averaged 2.5 points and 2.9 rebounds per game. Ciani made a season-high seven rebounds in a win over St. John's.

Before beginning his U.S. college career, Ciani played professionally in Slovenia's ABA League First Division. He also played for Cedevita Junior of the First Croatian League. Ciani played for the Slovenian national team in the U20 European Championships in 2022 and with the national team in 2023, when he was a teammate of Luka Doncic.

Ciani is the third international player to join Penn State's 2025-26 roster. The Nittany Lions signed Melih Tunca, a 6-5 guard from Turkey who played in the country's top professional league. Rhoades also recruited 7-foot forward Ivan Juric from Croatia. Juric, who played in the Croatian Premier League, competed last season at Sunrise Christian Academy in Kansas.

Penn State turned to the international circuit to replenish a roster that lost five seniors who exhausted their eligibility and three freshmen to the NCAA Transfer Portal. Penn State also lost 7-foot forward Yanic Konan Niederhauser, who became the program's first first-round pick of the modern NBA Draft era. Rhoades recently explained the turn toward international recruiting.

“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.”

Penn State, which went 16-15 last season, begins its third season under Rhoades in November. Penn State's 2025 recruiting class is the highest-ranked in program history and features Kayden Mingo, the Gatorade New York Player of the Year and the No. 39 player nationally according to ESPN. Rhoades said he was looking for two key qualities in players for his next team.

"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.”