Penn State won the inaugural game at the brand-new Bryce Jordan Center with a 76-61 victory over the Minnesota Golden Gophers. The Nittany Lions continued their best start in school history, improving to 12-0 on the 95-96 season in front of a sellout crowd of 14,852, highlighted by legendary football coach Joe Paterno leading the cheers (3:36-mark), (4:19-mark) and (4:49-mark).

That same week, Penn State earned their first Associated Press national ranking in 31 years at #20, the first of a school-record 10-straight weeks Penn State would be ranked in the top-25.

Senior forward Glenn Sekunda led all scorers with 18 points, freshman center Calvin Booth added 14 points, 9 rebounds and 5 blocks and All Big-Ten point guard Dan Earl chipped in 14 points and 4 steals. Bobby Jackson led the Gophers with 17 points.

The Nittany Lions finished the 1995-96 season with a 21-7 record and 12-6 mark in conference play to earn a 2nd-place finish in the Big10.