Blue White Illustrated

T he two marquee prospects in Penn State's Class of 2018, shooting guard Myles Dread and combo guard Rasir Bolton, entered their first season in the program under no pressure to do it all. Head coach Patrick Chambers made sure of that, electing to put a heavier bur- den on senior wing Josh Reaves, fourth- year center Mike Watkins and junior forward Lamar Stevens. Even second- year players Jamari Wheeler and John Harrar, both of whom played expanded roles in the Nittany Lions' run to the Big Ten tournament semifinal round and NIT championship as true freshmen, were asked to take on more responsibility. By doing so, Chambers thought, the burden that heralded classmates Stevens and Tony Carr had been asked to carry two years ago could be lifted this time around. "It's unfortunate that we had to rely on freshmen to learn how to win in the Big Ten, to score the basketball, to defend, to do everything. It just wasn't fair," Cham- bers said. "But it helped us in their soph- omore years and… that's the beauty of having these five guys who have played quality minutes. Now the freshmen can really play. They have great leaders, and the pressure is not on them to produce. The pressure is going to be more on Lamar, more on Mike, more on Josh." Apparently, Dread and Bolton took the message to heart. Even before the Nittany Lions tipped off their 2018-19 campaign, the pair had al- ready produced monster performances in off-season workouts, preseason prac- tices, intrasquad matchups, a scrimmage win against Temple and an exhibition win at No. 13 West Virginia. There were whis- pers that Dread had scored 26 points in a highly competitive team scrimmage, and Bolton followed his lead, sending home a double-digit performance against the Owls before wrapping the preseason with 15 points, two rebounds, four assists and no turnovers in 31 minutes of action at the point in the game against the Moun- taineers. Not to be outdone, Dread knocked down 5 of 10 3-pointers en route to a 23-point, five-rebound afternoon in the Nittany Lions' 84-82 buzzer-beating exhibition win. Stevens, who had 20 points and 11 re- bounds against West Virginia, was asked whether he had been as surprised as the media and fans had been by the early in- dicators of success coming from the pro- gram's fresh-faced contributors. Flatly, Stevens said, he wasn't. "Ever since they both got here, they've been really low-profile, low-mainte- nance type of guys," he said. "They just came in here and worked their ass off every day, honestly, and it's shown. They've both been working hard, pushing each other, so it honestly wasn't a sur- prise for me to see them come out so pre- pared, so poised, because they worked for it." They each began their Penn State ca- reers with the right mindset, too, having displayed their potential during out- standing high school careers. Dread shined at Gonzaga College High, where he won Gatorade Player of the Year honors for Washington, D.C., while Bolton earned Rivals.com three-star status and helped lift Massanutten Military Acad- emy in Virginia to the National Prep Tournament Elite Eight. Upon signing with Penn State, both players acknowledged their hunger to compete and prove themselves at the next level. So they dug in early, progressing quickly through some of the challenges that accompany that first taste of the freedoms and responsibilities of college life. Emerging with a willingness to work and, maybe more important, to learn from teammates, trainers and coaches, a process that might have seemed daunting to some proved to be just another sur- mountable obstacle. "The game is a lot faster and guys are a lot stronger," Dread said. "I like that the people are more competitive. In high school, you may have three or four guys on the team who are playing at this level, but in college, everybody is playing at this level and everybody is trying to make it to the next level. You have that same com- petitive drive every single day, and we push each other to get better." Stevens said the newcomers' competi- tive drive has been bolstered by factors that go beyond mere ability. Unrated by Rivals.com among the top 150 prospects in the country for the Class of 2018, Bolton checked in as the No. 37 point guard for the year. Similarly, Dread committed to the Nittany Lions in June 2016 as a three-star shooting guard prospect. By the conclusion of his senior year, the 6-foot-4, 215-pounder finally cracked the Rivals150, ranked 144th na- tionally as the No. 38 shooting guard in the country. One of the players' most vocal support- ers, Stevens has appeared both personally offended and secretly delighted by the underdog status that had been accorded his largely underappreciated new team- mates. M E N ' S B A S K E T B A L L QUICK STUDIES Freshman guards Myles Dread and Rasir Bolton show they're ready to make an early impact | BOLTON DREAD

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