Penn State Basketball roster: What’s next for Nittany Lions?
By Evan Smith
The dust has settled from a record seven Nittany Lions that entered the transfer portal following the release of former Penn State Basketball interim head coach Jim Ferry (after the firing of former head coach Pat Chambers).
Who Penn State Basketball Kept:
- Izaiah Brockington: 12.6 points per game, 4.9 rebounds per game, 1.7 assists per game
- Seth Lundy: 10.1 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 0.8 apg
- John Harrar: 8.8 ppg, 8.8 rpg, 1.3 apg
Who Penn State Basketball Lost:
- Myreon Jones: 15.3 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 2.0 apg (to Florida)
- Jamari Wheeler: 6.8 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 4.2 apg (to Ohio State)
- Trent Buttrick: 3.0 ppg, 3.0 rpg, .5 apg (to UMass)
- Pat Kelly: 0.0 ppg, 0.4 rpg, 0.2 apg(to Fordham)
Deep breath, Nits.
Incoming Penn State Basketball head coach Micah Shrewsberry did a nice job here.
Myreon Jones was always going to head down south, and no one was more outspoken against the athletic administration’s treatment of Pat Chambers than Jamari Wheeler (although it will be painful to see him in scarlet and gray when the Buckeyes visit the BJC this season).
Let’s take a look at Penn State Basketball’s 2021-2022 roster as it stands currently…
Guards — Izaiah Brockington, Sam Sessoms, Myles Dread, D.J. Gordon, Daillon Johnson, Kyle McCloskey, Andy Christos
Forwards — John Harrar, Seth Lundy, Abdou Tsimbila, Caleb Dorsey, Elijah Hutchins-Everett (2021 signed recruit)
That’s 12 players, far better than it looked when we had 7 players in the portal, but still not an entire roster. The 2020-2021 roster, as an example, had 16 rostered players. Projecting the starting line-up is relatively simple:
PG — Sam Sessoms
SG — Izaiah Brockington
SF — Myles Dread
PF — Seth Lundy
C — John Harrar
Key Backups: Abdou Tsimbila, um…any of the incoming 2020 class (Dorsey, Gordon, Johnson?)
John Harrar’s return is VITAL, giving the front court some experience. It was basically a bare cabinet before he announced his return. Hopefully he can work with Tsimbila in the same way big John himself worked with Mike Watkins.
The large hole in the roster is the power forward position. Both Lundy and Dread spent time at the four last year but neither are big enough to consistantly guard other power forwards in the Big Ten Conference. Dread especially played admirably on the defensive end but at a (listed) 6’4″, he’s just not tall enough. There’s been hope that Lundy can follow the Lamar Stevens path and turn into an all-conference power forward but even at a (listed) 6-foot-6, and 219 pounds, his fit is much more at the small forward position.
Hopefully, Shrewsberry can hit the Transfer Portal for one (or maybe even two) power forwards; an ideal world would give us two, one more focused on rebounding and defense and then maybe a stretch four that can shoot well from behind the arc.
That would bring Penn State Basketball’s roster to 14.
While it may be tempting to hit the portal for even more players, for recruting class balance, Shrewsberry would be better to try to find two unsigned incoming freshman recruits.
Now that Shrewsbery has for the most part completed his staff and navigated through the seven Nittany Lions in the portal, let’s see what he can do to complete his roster.
No matter what happens next, this has been a nice start for a new head coach taking over what could have been a tumultous situation.