Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1476228
4 4 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 2 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M MEN'S BASKETBALL C oach Micah Shrewsberry has set a course for his program this offseason. Back for a sec- ond year leading the Penn State men's basketball team, Shrewsberry has as- sembled a roster with the potential to score. So, the Nittany Lions are going to do that. After a debut season in which Penn State finished 318th nationally in team scoring average, managing only 64.6 points per game and a Big Ten-worst 63.3 points against conference op- ponents, Shrewsberry has pointed his new-look Lions toward the basket. Even if, he said, it has come at a cost. " I 'm exc i te d a b o u t o u r g ro u p," Shrewsberry said in July during an open practice at the Bryce Jordan Center. "We've got a long way to go. We're a ter- rible defensive team. We haven't done any defense at all this summer. You guys know that's not who I am. We'll get that corrected. "We're trying to work on our offense. We want to be able to score the ball next year. We're trying to take our time and do that." One reason why the Nittany Lions are taking a different approach is that their roster has undergone major changes. They've lost last year's third- and fourth-leading scorers with the trans- fer of guard Sam Sessoms (to Coppin State) and the graduation of forward John Harrar. Meanwhile, eight new players have arrived this summer. Five of the new- comers are members of a talented 2022 recruiting class: guards Kanye Clary, Jameel Brown and Evan Mahaffey, and forwards Kebba Njie and Demetrius Lil- ley. The other three are graduate trans- fers, with guard Cam Wynter having arrived from Drexel, guard Andrew Funk from Bucknell and forward Michael Henn from Denver. Although there are a few key hold- overs on the roster, notably senior for- ward Seth Lundy and super senior guard Jalen Pickett, the personnel will be mostly different. Shrewsberry expects the team's identity to change along with the roster. "Having more depth gives us an op- portunity to play at a little quicker pace, which should help us," he said. "I was making a point in practice last week, so I went back and looked up stats: Cam Wynter has scored 1,600 points in his career. Andrew Funk has scored 1,200. "I don't care where you're playing, when you score 1,600 points, that's do- ing something. You score 1,200 points, that's doing something. "And now you add those two guys to Jalen Pickett; I think his [career scoring] number is 1,545. You've got three dudes who are scoring like that. Seth Lundy is close to 1,000. "When you have four different guys NAT E BAU E R | NAT E . B AU E R @ O N 3 . C O M Belaboring The Points Can a cadre of proven scorers help Penn State take the next step in Year 2 of the Micah Shrewsberry era? Forward Seth Lundy was Penn State's second-leading scorer and third-leading rebounder as a junior, with averages of 11.9 points and 4.9 boards per game. PHOTO BY THOMAS FRANK CARR