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BROCKINGTON IN, WHEELER OUT Penn State guard Izaiah Brockington last month announced his intent to return to the Nittany Lions for a third season after previously entering his name in the transfer portal, while guard Jamari Wheeler revealed that he will use his final season of eligibility at Ohio State. Brockington and Wheeler were among seven players to enter their names in the portal following the season, and were the first to announce their intentions. The others were John Harrar, Trent But- trick, Myreon Jones, Patrick Kelly and Seth Lundy. "After much thought and careful con- sideration, I've decided to stay home by committing to play for Coach Micah Shrewsberry while also testing the NBA draft process for feedback on my game," Brockington wrote on Twitter. "Follow- ing my meeting with Coach Shrews- berry, I really believe in the vision he has for this program and feel we can do something special." Brockington has been an important player for the Nittany Lions since his transfer from St. Bonaventure. Last season, he averaged 12.6 points per game to rank second on the team. He also picked up nearly five rebounds per game and averaged a steal per game as well. He will have two seasons for eligibility remaining. Wheeler, Jones and Harrar were also starters for the Nittany Lions this past season, with Lundy starting 15 games as well. Buttrick contributed regularly as the first big man off the bench. Their entries into the portal came just a day after Penn State announced the hir- ing of Shrewsberry, but the relationship between the athletic department and the basketball players had appeared strained long before the university found a per- manent successor to Patrick Chambers. When the Penn State administration accepted Chambers' resignation last October, the players came forward and indicated that they were not given an- swers as to why the athletic department and Chambers had parted ways. "We're still confused and we don't un- derstand how that happened and what went through about it," Wheeler said at Penn State's media day in November. Statistically, the contributions of those transfers may prove difficult to re- place. Jones was Penn State's leading scorer with 15.3 points per game, while Harrar proved to be a revelation in the post. He averaged 3.8 offensive re- bounds per game to go along with 8.8 points. Lundy averaged just over 10 points per game. Wheeler did a bit of everything for Penn State, earning a place on the Big Ten's All-Defensive team. He averaged more than three rebounds and three as- sists per game, and was Penn State's second-best 3-point shooter behind Jones at 36 percent. Buttrick's contributions off the bench were substantial, too, as he averaged three rebounds and three points per game in about 13 minutes of action. NEW ASSISTANT HIRED Miami assistant Adam Fisher became the first coach to join Shrewsberry's new staff at Penn State. A six-year veteran of the Hurri- canes' staff, Fisher was serving as the team's offensive coordinator before leaving to become associate head coach with the Nittany Lions. A Jamison, Pa., native and Penn State graduate, Fisher was part of a staff at Miami that recruited extremely well in recent years, signing 10 Rivals.com four- star prospects since 2016. The Hurri- canes also landed five-star prospect Lonnie Walker from Reading, Pa., in the 2017 class. Miami qualified for the NCAA tourna- ment in each of Fisher's first three sea- sons as an assistant coach but has not made the field of 68 since. The Hurri- canes finished with a 10-17 record this past season. ■ P enn State brought in a veteran assis- tant at both the college and NBA lev- els when it announced last month that Micah Shrewsberry was set to become the 14th head coach in the history of the Nittany Lion men's basketball program. Brian Neubert of GoldandBlack.com, a longtime writer covering Purdue men's basketball for the Rivals.com network, said the Nittany Lions also brought in a true ambassador for the program mov- ing forward. "He's a charismatic guy who people tend to gravitate toward, one of the fun- niest people you'll meet, but also ex- tremely cerebral and level-headed, a calm and steady personality," Neubert told BWI. "I think those things will suit him well at Penn State, which isn't an easy job. "I think he's someone people will be drawn to, whether it's in recruiting, fans watching the program, whoever it may be, and players have always seemed to respond to him especially well. I think he's a bridge-builder, as opposed to being a bridge-burner. He's earned this opportunity on his own accord, but he's also learned from a couple of the wisest coaches I'm aware of in Brad Stevens and Matt Painter, [which] can't hurt." Shrewsberry helped engineer an offen- sive surge during the two stints as a member of the Boilermakers' staff. Neu- Shrewsberry seen as right man for challenging job A N A L Y S I S B Y N A T E B A U E R B A S K E T B A L L N O T E B O O K B Y D A V I D E C K E R T

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