Lurking behind all of the news related to spring football and the NFL Draft in recent weeks is one of the more pivotal decisions facing the immediate future of Penn State athletics and, more specifically, Penn State men’s basketball.
Is guard Ace Baldwin Jr. returning to State College for one more season? Fans should have that answer soon.
Two different variables ought to make Baldwin’s decision clear in the next 24-48 hours even if he never announces anything himself (in this day and age, don’t count on that). One is the passage of the NBA Draft Early Entry deadline which came and went on April 27. The NBA announced its official list of entrants on Tuesday morning, Baldwin, as expected, was noticeably absent from that group. If Baldwin had entered into the draft process, he would have still been eligible to return to Penn State by June 16, but the deadline for entering in the first place has already come and gone.
The second deadline falls on Wednesday, May 1, the final day of the 15-day transfer portal period for men’s and women’s college basketball. Who is or is not in the transfer portal at any given moment isn’t a piece of information available to the public, but Baldwin’s status as a high-profile player makes it impossible to imagine that he would enter the portal unnoticed by the droves of national reporters with second-hand access to that information.
As for the decision itself, there’s no indication, beyond the absence of an announcement, that Baldwin is in real danger of leaving in the first place. Asked about his intentions following the Big Ten Tournament, Baldwin was — much like teammate Puff Johnson, who opted to return — noncommittal, citing an interest in going over things with his family and coaches. With the college basketball season well in the rearview mirror, if Baldwin was shopping around for a different place to play out his final season of eligibility or an improved NIL package to earn some extra money on the side, it stands to reason he has had all available offers in front of him for a while now.
Baldwin did recently endorse Penn State’s own NIL initiatives on his Instagram page, but later refuted on X (the site previously known as Twitter) that a decision had been made.
Whatever the case might be, Baldwin is up against deadlines he can’t control, and in turn, one final piece of Penn State’s offseason puzzle should be coming into focus soon.
