Ace Baldwin Jr. and Yanic Konan Niederhauser were running a pick-and-roll. Niederhauser was certain that Baldwin would throw him an alley-oop as he’d done persistently throughout Penn State’s preseason practices. Instead, Baldwin made an acrobatic, no-look pass to the corner that left Niederhauser in awe. He’d never seen anything like it.
“How’d you even know he was there? Like, did somebody tell you?” Niederhauser still wonders.
Plays like these have become common practice for Baldwin, who is amid the best preseason he’s ever had “by far,” head coach Mike Rhoades said on Wednesday. The reigning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year has seemingly become more than a gifted two-way player. Baldwin’s coaches and teammates believe he’s one of the nation’s best overall.
“Sometimes, as you get older, you see things a little clearer and (make) simple decisions,” Rhoades said. “I never had to worry about Ace competing and wanting to win. But what I love about him, he’s taken a professional approach to improving himself and his game. … We got one of the best point guards in the country. I think he’s the best.”
Baldwin is soft spoken and humble. He wants to let his game do the talking. There’s always always a smile on his face, whether in press conferences or on the court, where he’s been known to celebrate by covering his mouth with his left hand, tattooed with a Joker grin.
The odds are against the Nittany Lions. They lack the same sustained success and tradition as powerhouses conference opponents like Purdue and Michigan State, and were ranked No. 17 out of 18 Big Ten teams in the CBS Sports preseason poll. But Baldwin feeds off the doubters. “Second to last I love it,” he tweeted after the poll was released. He aims to prove them wrong.
“It was a great summer,” Baldwin said. “I had a clear mind, and I just was focused on the next season, which is winning, and that’s it.”
Jamal Brunt, Penn State’s associate head coach, never doubted Baldwin’s greatness. Baldwin was the star of Brunt’s alma mater, Baltimore’s St. Frances Academy, but caught his eye even before he reached the high school level. As other coaches passed on Baldwin, Brunt and Rhoades were always there. They knew what they were getting.
It’s been almost a decade since Brunt and Baldwin first met. Brunt can only smile now as he realizes that he was right all along. He saw what others didn’t — that Baldwin was a perfect fit in Rhoades’ high-energy, defensive-minded system, and had the potential to be one of the nation’s best players if he was a part of it.
“As I’ve been around him, he still does something at least once a day that we’re all just like, ‘How did he do it?,’” Brunt said. “Whether it’s a pass full-speed that looks like there’s no window for that ball to get through, or just the perfect timing to leave his man and provide help defensively and somehow come up with a steal that most people can’t even get.”
“He does things on average, at least once a practice, where we’re all just like, ‘Wow.’”
Rhoades has his sights set on the NCAA Tournament in his second year with the Nittany Lions, and that’s quite the jump for a team that finished 16-17 last season. But there’s a plan in place to get there, and it revolves almost exclusively around Baldwin, both as a contributor and a talented figure who’s able to make everyone around him better.
“That’s what you sort of want to see in Year 2 of trying to build a program — that your older guys are taking the culture of work that you’re trying to create, and take it to another level,” Rhoades said. “And I think Ace is leading the way.”
Baldwin is the standard. He’s the player veterans such as Nick Kern Jr., Puff Johnson and Zach Hicks are tasked with keeping up with. He’s the example the team’s five freshmen hope to live up to. Baldwin knows as well as anyone that winning in an expanded Big Ten conference won’t be easy, so trying to score on him is a good challenge to start with.
“It just helps better my game, for real,” Kern said. “Seeing the things he does, picking up on that, having a guard on the best point guards in the country.”
Baldwin laced up his kicks and took to the practice floor on Wednesday. It was time to go to work. Without even thinking, Baldwin was completing picture-perfect alley-oops from beyond the 3-point line, finishing with finesse and hitting deep-range shots. He looks every part of the superstar the Nittany Lions will so desperately need to lead them to postseason glory next March.
“He’s, like, the realest point guard I’ve ever played with,” Niederhauser said.
