Penn State Basketball: Guard Jameel Brown will return to the Nittany Lions

The Penn State basketball community received some great news on Monday afternoon as Freshman guard Jameel Brown announced that he will return to the Nittany Lions for the 2023-2024 season.

This news comes after he chose to enter the transfer portal on March 29th. Brown just finished his freshman season with the Penn State basketball team where he averaged .9 points per game and 1 rebound per game. Brown was a 4-star recruit according to ESPN, and he has yet to make his impact with the Penn State basketball program. Last season, there were many talented guards ahead of him in the rotation, this season I would expect Brown to have a much larger role.

There were rumors that Brown would possibly follow former Penn State basketball assistant Adam Fisher to Temple, as he was recently hired to be their next head coach. But, we can now put all of those rumors to rest.

Chalk this up as another victory for recently-hired head coach Mike Rhoades. The former VCU head coach was hired back on March 29th. Since then he has added former VCU players Ace Baldwin Jr and Nick Kern from the transfer portal. He has also retained freshman guard Kanye Clary, who never officially entered the transfer portal but reiterated that he will return to PSU on April 13th.

The team is still not completed but the roster is starting to build its foundational core which is truly exciting.

With Brown and Clary returning to Penn State basketball, you have to imagine that gives coach Rhoades more ammunition to attempt to retain Evan Mahaffey who is still in the transfer portal currently.

Of course, players are going to want to be around others that they are familiar with. Clary and Brown spent all of last season together. Now, they can make a strong pitch to maintain more of the roster together.