Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1507572
O C T O B E R 2 0 2 3 4 5 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M "In the beginning, it was a little tough because I was at a different school, so it was different philosophy, different principles," Hicks said. "At Temple, we didn't really press and stuff like that. Coach [Rhoades] is press-trap, get up and down. So, I had to make an adjust- ment like everybody else." Ultimately, Hicks has found a home at Penn State with his fresh start. Having two more seasons of eligibility remain- ing, he's eager to add more elements to his game — scoring off the dribble, attacking a close-out and putting the ball on the hardwood. He flashed his potential during Penn State's foreign tour, hitting 5 of 7 three- point attempts and finishing with 19 points in the victory over the University of Victoria. The flow that Rhoades-coached teams typically display suits the player he would like to become. "One of the things about Coach Rhoades' offense that I know, be- cause Temple played VCU last year, is that he's a freewheeling guy," Hicks said. "Get up and down and just play free offensively. "I think it's going to help me do what I do well, which is shoot, but also expand my game in other ways — off the bounce, driving to the rim, stuff I didn't get to show in my arsenal at Temple. I just want to work on it and show it during the season." RayQuawndis Mitchell | G | Gr. Throughout Penn State's mad dash to build a roster, finding the right fit was paramount. For Rhoades, the process required a thorough study of both the trans- fer portal and traditional recruiting avenues. In many cases, that meant tak- ing a second crack at players he had tried unsuccessfully to sign while at VCU, but it also meant listening to the recommendations of people he knew and trusted in the hope of finding players who weren't already on his radar screen. Mitchell fell into the latter cat- egory. A 6-5, 205-pound guard from Blaine, Minn., he had started out at Idaho before leaving for Otero (Colo.) Junior College in 2019 and then moving on to the University of Illinois Chicago. Last season, Mitchell was at the Uni- versity of Missouri-Kansas City. He started 32 games for the Roos, finish- ing with a team-high 17.3 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 1.6 assists over 35.5 min- utes per game and winning second- team All-Summit League honors. Though Mitchell did it all for UMKC, the team won only 11 games, and the veteran guard hit the portal again. Rhoades found out about him through word of mouth. "Talking to people, people told me about him," Rhoades said. "I got really, really excited about him. I spent a lot of time on the phone with him. "We had other guys on our staff take a deep dive on him, watching tape, calling other people, people in the league that played against him. We asked schools for their scouting report on Ray Q and stuff like that. You go back, you find their history. There are a lot of things on the internet, you can find people's his- tory. And we did that in this as well." Mitchell opted in May to spend his bonus season of eligibility at Penn State and is settling into a new role. He has yielded the point guard duties to Ace Baldwin and will be playing off the ball quite a bit more than in recent seasons. The move has accentuated some of his strengths. "Being on the wing, I think that could be good for not just me, but all of us because [Baldwin] is great in the open court at creating for other people, not just himself," Mitchell said. "I think all of us play- ing off each other like that could be big in the Big Ten. "My strengths are getting down- hill, creating, not just for myself but for other players. Being able to get a bucket when needed, knocking down open shots, and playing off the ball as well. I try and get after people on defense, too. Just being a playmaker." Mitchell knocked down 32.0 per- cent of his three-point attempts last season (77 of 241) and is work- ing to improve those numbers for the coming Penn State campaign. "I feel like my shooting is getting a lot better, especially now," he said during the summer. "I've been do- ing a lot of shooting since I've been here at Penn State. Every day, I've been shooting about three times a day. I'm excited to just keep doing that work and seeing where it takes us." ■ Guard RayQuawndis Mitchell was a second-team All-Summit League choice last season after averaging 17.3 points for the University of Missouri- Kansas City. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL