Penn State Sports Magazine
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S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 47 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M job, and any initial impressions he might have had wouldn't have been all that relevant anyway. That's because key players Jamari Wheeler, Izaiah Brock- ington and Myreon Jones all departed via the transfer portal in the offseason, while Shrewsberry and his staff wel- comed a host of transfers in Jalen Pick- ett (guard, Siena), Jaheam Cornwall (guard, Gardner-Webb) and Greg Lee (forward, Western Michigan), among others. Shrewsberry got his first opportu- nity to work with Penn State's revamped roster on the hardwood earlier this summer. One of his goals was to let an identity form naturally. "I didn't want to come in and neces- sarily say, this is who you are. I wanted to see it up close and personal, on the floor," he said. "I also wanted to see how they responded to me, how they responded to the things that we did. So, I wanted to make them a little bit un- comfortable in terms of what they did. I wanted to teach them some new things, maybe some things they hadn't done before, stuff that maybe we're doing at the NBA level that I wanted to test them on to see if they could do it, or to see if they couldn't do it, but to see how quickly they can pick it up." Shrewsberry came away from the team's developmental period feeling as though his primary message has reso- nated internally. That message? Win, and win now. For Harrar, who entered the transfer portal only to eventually pull his name out and return to the Nittany Lions for a fifth and final season, the work that he and his teammates have done this summer has created a sense of op- timism. Penn State's roster features a handful of veteran players who were key contributors on an NCAA tournament- worthy team in 2020, and it also boasts a number of transfers who have won at their previous stops. Harrar said the team's collective experience has already shown itself to be a strength. "I don't think there's one person in our locker room right now who doesn't know what it takes to win," he said. "There are more guys in practice who can hold each other accountable. We all can learn from each other." Echoing that sentiment, Dread re- jected the notion that Penn State would need time to acclimate to its new coach- ing staff before it could hope to find on- court success. With a roster that consists of four graduates, three seniors, two ju- niors and three sophomores, the Lions don't buy the suggestion that they're inevitably headed for a rebuilding year. Shrewsberry doesn't buy it, either, but his optimism comes with a catch. He said that while Penn State is working to create the conditions for immediate success, the program as a whole still needs to take the steps necessary to actually achieve it. "If you look at the nucleus of guys who have come back, they've done significant things in this conference," Shrewsberry said. "Now they have to do it on an ev- eryday basis. They can't lean on some- body else to carry the load. They have to do it, and that's a big part of it, but we also brought in some good pieces to help them do that and to lighten the load." ■ Penn State men's basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry resisted the temp- tation to sign what he called "one-year renegades" as he reconstructed the Nittany Lions' roster during the spring and summer. That would have been an easy trapdoor for Shrews- berry to fall into, considering the circumstances he inherited. Penn State lost seven players to the transfer portal over the offseason, including its top two scorers in Myreon Jones and Izaiah Brockington. "We looked for a specific player, maybe a specific tal- ent, but what we weren't going to do is bring in one-year renegades, guys who were just coming in to build their stats, build their status," Shrewsberry said. The new Penn State staff emerged from the offseason with five new acquisitions: forwards Greg Lee, Jalanni White and Jevonnie Scott; and guards Jaheam Cornwall and Jalen Pickett. Should this be the roster Shrewsberry takes into the 2021-22 season, five of the 11 scholarship players will be new faces. With no freshman recruiting class to account for, Penn State seems unlikely to fill its final two available scholar- ships. Still, Shrewsberry said he believes he brought in what was needed. "I feel like we fit those needs," he said. "Adding more size pushed some guys down the list a little bit, down the line in terms of position. So, you may see some more guys playing on the wing a lot more who maybe haven't done it as much." It's noteworthy that three of the five transfers Penn State added have only one season of eligibility remaining. Additionally, Pickett is a senior and would have to activate the fifth season of eligibility granted to all athletes by the NCAA due to the pandemic in order to remain on the Nittany Lions' roster next season. That's significant, as it leaves Shrewsberry with consid- erable roster flexibility. At minimum, Penn State should have six open scholarships for next season. That number could rise all the way to nine depending on how many players stay for that fifth season. One of those scholarships will be filled by point guard Kanye Clary, a Class of 2022 commit. Penn State will likely sign a large freshman class in 2022, but even if that's the case, Shrewsberry should have plenty of freedom to be active in the transfer portal again next season. With a focus on the present, however, Shrewsberry said he believes his team is capable of winning in 2021- 22. He'll lead a roster full of experience, bolstered by those five veteran transfer additions. "Jalen Pickett's IQ is ridiculous," Penn State guard Myles Dread said. "He just plays the game with such pace and makes the right reads. Greg Lee, he's a great athlete. He can shoot the ball and dribble it. He's very big and strong. Jevonnie Scott, he's very big and strong, can rebound. He's a great athlete, can make plays. Jaheam can shoot the cover off the ball. Like, he can really, really shoot the ball. He makes plays at the point guard position. It's awesome to see. I'm excited." — David Eckert Jalen Pickett, a 6-4, 202-pound senior guard formerly with Siena, is one of five players on Penn State's roster to arrive during the offseason via the NCAA transfer portal. PHOTO COURTESY PENN STATE ATHLETICS Coaching Staff Sees Incoming Transfers Helping Meet Needs