Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1486024
D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 2 4 3 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M BASKETBALL T he Penn State men's basketball staff was in the thick of its recruiting ef- forts for the class of 2023 last July when head coach Micah Shrewsberry met with reporters. He was prohibited by NCAA rules from talking about recruits, but he did want to make one point perfectly clear: The team's performance in his debut campaign, while better than many ex- pected, was not going to be the standard for the program moving forward. "We should have optimism in terms of what we're doing. That's what I'm building toward," Shrewsberry said. "At the same time, we haven't accom- plished anything. Playing hard is not accomplishing anything. Going 14-17 is not accomplishing anything. We played close games, but I want to win them. And I want those expectations to be [consistent]. "I'm excited about the optimism. Now, we've got to follow through with it. Getting good players, getting a good recruiting class is a start. Now, we have do something with it, and that's what we're trying to do. "We're trying to stack good class after good class — good basketball players, good people, good students, and people you want to root for." In early November, the Nittany Lions were able to demonstrate Shrewsberry's point. The Nittany Lions welcomed a three-player class featuring four- star forward Carey Booth and three- star guards Logan Imes and Braeden Shrewsberry. The class is listed 54th by On3, but it is much more highly re- garded by other recruiting sites, placing 30th in 247Sports' rankings and 27th in ESPN's. The signing of the 2023 class comes on the heels of a strong recruiting effort in the previous cycle that brought five freshman players to PSU this year, sev- eral of whom are already contributing. Through Penn State's first six games, forward Kebba Njie was averaging 12.2 minutes and had earned one starting as- signment, while guards Kanye Clary, Evan Mahaffey and Jameel Brown were all aver- aging more than six minutes apiece. That class was ranked 16th nationally by ESPN, 21st by 247Sports and 27th by Rivals and was considered one of the program's best collections of talent to come in at once. This year's class, which is not ex- pected to grow during the late sign- ing period next spring, builds on that foundation. Here's a look at the trio that Penn State will be welcoming in 2023: CAREY BOOTH PF | 6-10 | 195 The jewel of the class, Booth is the nation's 50th-ranked prospect according to On3 and carries a four- star rating. He checks in at No. 64 in the On3 Consensus, and none of the major High Hopes Greet Lions' 2023 Recruiting Class NAT E BAU E R | NAT E . B AU E R @ O N 3 . C O M Penn State's three early signees are (left to right) combo guard Logan Imes, shooting guard Braeden Shrewsberry and power forward Carey Booth. Coach Micah Shrewsberry said of the class, "They can all dribble, pass and shoot at a high level and have good positional size." PHOTO COURTESY PENN STATE ATHLETICS