Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1503568
A U G U S T 2 0 2 3 15 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M By The Numbers 2 Penn State basketball play- ers were selected in the second round of the NBA Draft on June 22. Guard JALEN PICKETT went to the league champion Denver Nuggets with the 32nd overall pick, while for- ward Seth Lundy went to the Atlanta Hawks with the 46th choice in the two- round draft. Their selections marked the first time in program history that two Penn Staters were chosen in the same NBA Draft. 2 : 0 2 . 4 4 Rachel Gear- ing's time in the 800-meter race at the NCAA East Prelims on May 25 in Jacksonville, Fla. A graduate student from Cleveland, Ga., Gearing broke Danae Rivers' outdoor school record in the event. Rivers had turned in a time 2:02.53 at the Virginia Challenge in 2017. Gearing went on to finish 15th in the event at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Running in hot, muggy weather in Austin, Texas, she fin- ished in 2:03.51 in the June 9 race, earning second-team All-America honors. 3 Penn State football players were in- cluded on Athlon Sports' first-team All-Big Ten defense for the 2023 season. The editors of the annual preseason magazine named junior defensive end Chop Robinson, sophomore linebacker Abdul Carter and junior cornerback Kalen King to their 12-player first- team squad. Ohio State was the only other team with three selections. PSU had just one player on the magazine's first-team offensive unit, with junior tackle Olu- muyiwa Fashanu receiving the honor. Ohio State and Michigan had five players apiece on Ath- lon's 13-player offensive squad. 4 t h Penn State's spot in the final Inside Lacrosse Divi- sion I poll. The Nittany Lion laxers were un- ranked heading into the season but ended up finishing 11-5, win- ning the Big Ten regular-season title with a 4-1 mark and reaching the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament. 5 Current or former Penn State wrestlers who qualified for the U.S. Men's Freestyle World Team at the Final X event on June 10 in Newark, N.J. Nick Lee (65 kilograms), Zain Retherford (70 kg) and David Taylor (86 kg) won their respective weight classes. Taylor defeated current senior Aaron Brooks twice, 6-0 and 5-4, in the best-of-three final to claim a spot on the U.S. team that will compete at the Senior World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, in September. By finishing second, Brooks made the team as an alternate, as did Jason Nolf. A three-time NCAA champ during his ten- ure at Penn State, Nolf fell to Nittany Lion Wrestling Club teammate Kyle Dake, 6-0, 3-0, in the final. $ 1 . 6 3 m i l l i o n Brent Pry's salary in 2021, his final year as defensive coordinator at Penn State. Pry's salary was released in June as part of a state-mandated right-to-know report detailing the university's high- est earners. During the 2021-22 fiscal year, Pry was PSU's third-highest-paid employee, trailing head football coach James Franklin ($6.17 million) and Penn State Health CEO Steve Massini ($2.1 million). According to USA Today, Pry was the eighth-highest-paid assistant coach in college football in 2021, coming in just behind then-Georgia defensive coordina- tor Dan Lanning, who was seventh with $1.7 million in earnings. The highest-paid assistant coach in the country that year was then-Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables ($2.5 million). Pry left Penn State after the 2021 reg- ular season to become head coach at Virginia Tech. He was paid $4 million in his first year with the Hokies. 6 t h Penn State's spot in ESPN's Future Power Rankings for defense. The rankings are aimed at pre- dicting teams' performance not just for the 2023 season but for the next three seasons, taking into account current rosters and incoming recruits. PSU is "set up to push for its first Big Ten championship since 2016, and much of the optimism around Happy Valley stems from who returns on de- fense," writes ESPN's Adam Rittenberg. "Coor- dinator Manny Diaz had a solid first season and is back despite generating some interest for head- coaching vacancies." R i t t e n b e r g a l s o looked into his crystal ball to see where the na- tion's offenses, and spe- cifically its quarterbacks, stack up over the next three years. PSU came in 12th in his offensive rankings and 15th in his survey of the na- tion's best quarterback situations. PHOTO BY DANIEL ALTHOUSE