Penn State basketball loses veteran leader for season with injury

There hasn’t been much good news for Penn State basketball since the calendar flipped to 2025. The difficult trend continued to start the week, as Nittany Lions head coach Mike Rhoades confirmed that senior forward Puff Johnson will miss the remainder of the season with a right-hand injury.

“The number one thing I said in the summer was we got to stay healthy,” Rhoades said Monday. “We all knew that. And losing him really hurts. But other teams lose guys, too, so I’m not making an excuse. But we really miss him.”

Johnson made 17 starts for the Nittany Lions this season before exiting January 15’s contest with Michigan State after six minutes of action. He had missed January 8’s matchup at Illinois after suffering an injury against Indiana at The Palestra earlier that week.

The North Carolina transfer in his second season in Happy Valley had been averaging 10.2 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. However, Johnson’s impact reaches far beyond the stat sheet.

© Chris Eutsler / Basic Blues Nation, 2025.

“I always said he’s the best teammate,” Rhoades continued. “He’s the guy that [has] a sound approach. Physical, big. Makes open threes so you have to play him, you have to guard him. You can’t be gimmicky on your defense with him out there at the four [position]. And when he played the five because he’s big and strong and mature, he did a heck of a job. And that gave us another added bonus with him.

“It’s definitely a tremendous loss. And I think you’re seeing why it was such a tremendous loss right now.”

Penn State basketball has gone 1-8 since Johnson left the lineup, including the team’s current seven-game losing streak. Now sitting at 13-13 with an abysmal 3-12 record in Big Ten play, the Nittany Lions have five games left on the regular season schedule, three of which are against Quad 1 competition.

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