Loughborough Riders are delighted to confirm the addition of American Bryan Penn-Johnson for the 2024-25 NBL Division One season.

Penn-Johnson signs with the Riders, and will compete with the team while completing his studies at the University.  

The 7’1” big man joins from California Polytechnic State University, having played 32 games in his senior year with the Mustangs. 

Penn-Johnson, well known for featuring on Netflix’s “Last Chance U” while suiting up for East Los Angeles College, played his first two seasons in the NCAA D1 for the University of Washington.

In his first year with the program, Penn-Johnson won the Pac-12 championship with the Huskies before transferring for LSU as a junior. 

After spending the 2020-21 season with LSU, Penn-Johnson transferred to East Los Angeles College. At ELAC, Penn-Johnson started in 15 of his 29 appearances, averaging 8.4 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game while shooting 66.7% from the field in front of the Netflix cameras. 

His best career game came against Los Angeles Trade-Technical College when the big man scored 23 points on 10-for-11 shooting while grabbing 12 boards.

Penn-Johnson was a four star recruit out of High School, the top-ranked player in the state of Utah before committing to the Washington Huskies.

He now signs to the 14-man Loughborough roster as one of four new additions to Will Maynard’s side. Joining him is American Mike Joiner and British pair Liam Campbell and Cameron Nyarko. 

Among the 10 returners to Loughborough’s NBL Division One outfit are Victor Ndoukou, Seth Wylie, Justin Hedley, Milo Gordon and Ben Woog, who have featured on Leicester Riders professional roster over past seasons. 

Also returning to the University are successes of the Charnwood College basketball development programme Oscar Curran, Edward Onyia and Ollie Bishop. 

Curran gears up for the upcoming season having won EABL Final MVP at the end of 2023-24, and joins Loughborough as an undergrad. Bishop, a 6’9” British forward, takes the step up into Division One following a successful summer with GB Under 16s, while Onya, who also suited up for his country playing for GB Under 20s, will play for both Charnwood and Loughborough this season. 

The full 2024-25 roster is below:

Seth Wylie
Dan Hadley
Milo Gordon 
Justin Hedley 
Panos Karras 
Ben Woog
Victor Ndoukou
Oliver Bishop 
Oscar Curran 
Edward Onyia 
Bryan Penn-Johnson
Mike Joiner
Liam Campbell
Cameron Nyarko