Blue White Illustrated

Lions replenish frontcourt with four-player class P atrick Chambers couldn't contain his excitement. The proud host of four newly signed prospects for the Class of 2019, Penn State's head coach said he believed strongly in the potential ahead for Patrick Kelly, Seth Lundy, Justin McKoy and Abdou Tsimbila. Welcom- ing their national letters of intent as part of the fall early signing period that ran for a week, starting Nov. 14, Chambers said the incoming class will meet the program's anticipated needs when the new players arrive next year in advance of the 2019-20 season. "I am fired up," Chambers said. "I really think we went out as a staff and focused in on some of the needs that we're going to have for our fu- ture." Because the team's 2018 class was meant to address needs in the back- court, the coaches have focused al- most entirely on landing forwards during the current recruiting cycle. Wing Josh Reaves is in the midst of his final season at Penn State, and it's possible that juniors Mike Watkins and Lamar Stevens will forgo their final year of eligibility to begin profes- sional careers. Their exits would cre- ate some holes in the frontcourt, which is why it's significant that all four of the Nittany Lions' recent signees are 6-foot-6 or taller and 200 pounds or heavier. Noting that Lundy and McKoy could both see action at shooting guard, wing or small forward, Chambers said they will bring versatility to the lineup. Lundy is the highest-rated player in the class. Standing 6-6, 200 pounds, he was the Philadelphia Daily News Player of the Year and a first-team All-State selection last season, as he guided Roman Catholic to a PIAA championship. A Rivals.com four-star prospect, Lundy is ranked 118th na- tionally among all players in the Class of 2019 and is the 25th-ranked small forward. McKoy and Kelly bring different skill sets to the floor, but both are three- star prospects who will be counted on to give the Nittany Lions a lift on both ends of the hardwood. The 6-8, 225- pound McKoy is from Raleigh, N.C., while the 6-9, 210-pound Kelly is from Lynchburg, Va. Tsimbila, who also has received a three-star rating from Rivals, is orig- inally from Cameroon but has spent the past two years at St. Maria Goretti in Hagerstown, Md. The 6-8, 220-pound prospect will play center for the Nittany Lions. Said Cham- bers, "He can really run the floor, block shots, he can shoot it out to 15 feet." The coaching staff is hopeful that its 2019 class will complement the cur- rent group of freshmen and propel the program forward over the next few seasons. "I think our guards are really set. I think we have fantastic guards for years to come," Chambers said. "I think we went out and really looked at our roster, kind of forecast our fu- ture and said, 'This is what we need to be consistent and sustainable.' And all four kids do really well aca- demically. They're all great kids. I think we really hit a home run with this class." –N.B. activities but did not see game action. He made his season debut against 13th- ranked Virginia Tech at the BJC on Nov. 27, coming off the bench in the Nittany Lions' 63-62 victory. Watkins appeared subdued in the game but still produced seven rebounds, two blocks and two points in 21 minutes of action. Chambers, pleased with Watkins' first on-court con- tribution of the season, did his best to temper the expectations that the 6-foot- 9 center had raised during his sophomore season, in which he averaged 12.1 points and 8.9 rebounds per game. "Obviously, rebounding has been a little bit of an Achilles heel [for the team this year], and Mike played 20 or 21 minutes and had seven rebounds. His ability to protect the rim really helped us in the second half," Chambers said. "But you could see he's got a long way to go to be in shape and [display] the habits we need to form for Mike to be who he was toward the end of last year. But again, I think he's helped our team and their confidence." Three games later, in the Lions' victory against Colgate, Watkins made his most convincing demonstration of the point. Having supplanted Harrar as the team's starting center for the game, Watkins stuffed the stat sheet with 18 points and 16 rebounds in only 23 minutes of action. More important, he made his biggest im- pact with the game's outcome in doubt in the second half, scoring 12 of his points and grabbing eight of his rebounds, in- cluding a clutch 4-of-6 shooting per- formance at the free throw line. Reaves, who has been close to Watkins both on and off the court since their ar- rival at Penn State as freshmen in 2015, not only delivered the assist on the dunk but also saw it as a precursor to what the big man can do for the Nittany Lions the rest of this season. "I pulled him aside at the timeout after that and said, 'I'm going to get you going, you just have to keep it going.' We're just going to keep this run going and we're going to pull it together, and we did," Reaves said. "That's Mike. That's the Mike we all know. That's the Mike we've seen in the past. He just needs to trust himself, and everything is going to be fine." ■

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