Penn State basketball: Micah Shrewsberry breaks down incoming transfers

First-year Penn State Nittany Lions basketball head coach Micah Shrewsberry resisted the temptation to sign what he called "one-year renegades" as he reconstructed the Nittany Lions' roster during the spring and summer.

That would have been an easy trap-door for Shrewsberry to fall into, considering the circumstances he inherited. Penn State lost seven players to the transfer portal over the offseason, including its top two scorers in Myreon Jones — who landed at Florida — and Izaiah Brockington, now at Iowa State.

"We looked for a specific player, maybe a specific talent, but what we weren't going to do is bring in one-year renegades, guys that were just coming in to build their stats, build their status," Shrewsberry said on Monday. "Winning was a big part of it. If winning wasn't important to you, then you probably weren't going to fit with me."

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The new Penn State staff emerged from the offseason with five new acquisitions. Should this be the roster Shrewsberry takes into the 2021-22 season, five of the 11 scholarship players will be new faces.

It doesn't require a mathematician to understand that the numbers don't quite even out.

Penn State lost seven scholarship players and added five, with no freshman recruiting class to account for the final two scholarships. Still, Shrewsberry feels as though he met his program's needs.

"We added size, which I thought was going to be important for us," Shrewsberry said. "But we didn't just add size just to bring in tall guys. Length, athleticism, guys being able to move was really important in terms of what we wanted to do defensively, but also guys that were pretty skilled as well.

"I feel like we fit those needs. Adding more size pushed some guys down the list a little bit, down the line in terms of position. So you may see some more guys playing on the wing a lot more that maybe haven't done it as much. That puts the onus on them as well to improve their games and get back to how they played coming out of high school, and maybe in their early careers here."

It's noteworthy as well that three of the five transfers Penn State added have only one season of eligibility remaining. Another, Jalen Pickett, is a senior, and would have to activate the fifth season of eligibility granted to all athletes by the NCAA due to the pandemic in order to remain on the Nittany Lions' roster next season.

That carries significance as it leaves Shrewsberry with considerable roster flexibility for next season as well. At a minimum, Penn State will enter next season with six open scholarships. That number could rise all the way to nine depending on how many players stay around for that fifth season.

One of those scholarships will be filled by point guard Kanye Clary, a Class of 2022 prospect who is verbally committed to Penn State. All signs point toward the Nittany Lions signing a large freshman class in 2022, but even if that's the case, Shrewsberry should have plenty of scholarship freedom to be active in the transfer portal again next season.

With a focus on the present, however, Shrewsberry feels as though his program is capable of winning in 2021-22. He'll lead a roster full of experience, bolstered by those five veteran transfer adds.

"Jalen Pickett's IQ is ridiculous," Penn State guard Myles Dread said. "He just plays the game with such pace and makes the right reads. Greg Lee, he's a great athlete. He can shoot the ball and dribble it. He's very big and strong. Jevonnie Scott, he's very big and strong, can rebound. He's a great athlete, can make plays. Jaheam can shoot the cover off the ball. Like, he can really, really shoot the ball. He makes plays at the point guard position. It's awesome to see. I'm excited."

Shrewsberry pointed out Tuesday that the recruiting process for many of these players was less than conventional.

"There's that we recruited, that we brought here, who will play for us that I never got a chance to meet," Shrewsberry said. "Only on the phone, maybe on Zoom or through text messages."

Consequently, Shrewsberry and his coaching staff entered the summer workout period — which ends this week— with two primary goals.

First, they needed to lay the groundwork for their ideas and their culture. Secondly, they simply needed to get to know everyone.

They accomplished that in a variety of ways, including a pickup wiffleball game between the coaching staff and the players.

"That's always fun," John Harrar said. "It's a different way to compete, getting to know each other."

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