Penn State Basketball recruiting: Nittany Lions in Dereck Lively’s Final 7

Five-star recruit Dereck Lively announced on Instragram his final seven schools, with Penn State Basketball making the cut!

The Bellefonte, Pennsylvania native had visited Penn State Basketball recently, with all reports stating the visit went well.

It probably goes without saying this would be the biggest recruit Penn State Basketball has ever signed, and was a key target for former coach Pat Chambers.

Lively’s mother works for Penn State University but has indicated she wants this decision to be entirely her son’s.

Lively plays at the Westtown School and stands at 7’1″, being recruited mostly as a center but could play power forward at the next-next level (talking NBA here, folks).  He is ranked the #20 recruit in the nation by 24/7 sports, the #3 center in the nation and the #1 recruit of Pennsylvania.

A recruit at this level would be an impressive get for Franklin down the street (think Micah Parsons) but is absoutely unheard of for Penn State Basketball.

Due to the departure of Chambers, Penn State Basketball lost it’s entire 2021 recruting class, including hearlded four star recruit Taquan Woodley, Houston Mallette, and Elijah Hutchins-Everett, who then changed his mind and re-committed to Penn State before they hired Shrewsberry.

It goes without saying making the top seven far from guarantees Lively will be a Nittany Lion but it’s a great start for the 2022 recruiting class, especially since Shrewsberry first signee (two star Kanye Clary) didn’t exactly create shockwaves.

This announcement comes on the heels of Christian Fermin (PF, Pocono Summit, PA) announced Penn State made his final five along with Pitt, VCU, St. Joe’s and Temple.