Needing size, Nittany Lions find versatility in transfer forward Greg Lee
Between Penn State men’s basketball and transfer forward Greg Lee, no misunderstanding exists about his significance to the program.
Announcing his commitment to head coach Micah Shrewsberry Sunday afternoon following a Thursday/Friday visit to Penn State’s campus, Lee instantly doubled the Nittany Lions’ total number of players checking in at 6-foot-9 or above, joining fifth-year senior John Harrar for the honors.
Listed Tuesday afternoon at 220 pounds in an official capacity on Penn State’s roster, part of a formal welcoming from the program ahead of his summer enrollment, Lee has a keen sense of what his size represents within the Nittany Lions’ needs.
“I’m very versatile, so when it's time to play on the perimeter, I can,” Lee said. “But when the Johnny needs help, I'm going to be down there with him, competing and fighting for everything, boxing out, rebounding.”
In one season at Western Michigan last year, Lee did both of those things well enough to earn an All-MAC honorable mention nod for his performance, averaging 13.0 points and 7.2 rebounds per game in 21 starts with the Broncos.
Targeting Lee, who first announced his return for his senior season with the Broncos in March before ultimately entering the NCAA transfer portal this spring, Shrewsberry described a need and fit that Lee is expected to fill for the Nittany Lions this fall. An immediate boost in size, Penn State’s other size coming from forward Seth Lundy (6-foot-6), wing Caleb Dorsey (6-foot-7), and junior college transfer Jevonnie Scott (6-foot-7), Lee can also stretch the floor with his handle and jump-shooting.
“Greg is going to be a great addition to our program,” said Shrewsberry via press release. “He will provide a veteran presence and add more experience to our front line. His versatility and ability to score the ball in a variety of ways will be really helpful in our system. More importantly, he is a gym rat who will constantly push himself and his teammates to become better.”
Taking in that vision from Shrewsberry at length in his visit to campus last week, Lee said that Penn State’s needs and his style of play meshed.
In the process, he also offered another appetizer for the style of play the Nittany Lions might expect to produce ahead of the 2021-22 season.
“The way Shrewsberry laid out the blueprint, I think I fit perfectly,” he said. “Just the style of play he wants to play is not the traditional Big Ten type of play. He wants to switch it up, so I think I fit perfectly with that. Using my versatility, that matches how he wants to play. So I feel like my game matches with his playing style.”
Crediting Penn State’s resources as a huge piece of his decision to join the program, calling them “next level” both athletically and academically, Lee is determined to make the most of them upon his arrival.
In that vein, he identified the strengths he expects to bring to the floor when the opportunity comes this fall.
“My best assets are just scoring, obviously the mid-range; I didn't show off my three-point plays as much as I wanted to. So just continuing to improve on that and just showcase it,” Lee said. “To able to score all three levels is a mismatch nightmare. For two bigs or on a switch with smaller guards, so just being able to score on all different levels makes it kind of hard to adjust and hard to stop.”
Penn State will be Lee’s third stop in college basketball, having transferred to Western Michigan after spending four seasons at Cal State Bakersfield (including a freshman year redshirt) from 2016-’19.
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