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Penn State Basketball

Penn State Basketball: Breaking Down the 2022-23 Roster (So Far)

Photo by Penn State Athletics: Mike Rhoades

With Miami transfer Favour Aire’s commitment, Penn State basketball and new coach Mike Rhoades have filled 12 of 13 scholarships this coming season.

Of those 12, eight are transfers, three are returners from last season and one is coming in from the 2023 recruiting class. 

Here’s a breakdown of all 12 players.

THE ‘23 COMMIT

BRAGI GUDMUNDSSON

Penn State received a commitment from Icelandic Class of 2023 guard Gudmundsson, he  announced via Instagram Wednesday, May 17. 

Gudmundsson (6-foot-5, 185 pounds) will be 20 in October.

He previously played for Grindavik, a team in the Iceland-Subway league, where he spent four seasons.

Last year, Gudmundsson averaged 10 points per game, shooting more than 34 percent from the field and more than 28 percent from beyond the arc, according to EuroBasket. Gudmundsson also averaged four rebounds and 1.8 assists per game.

Gudmundsson will play with the Icelandic national team this summer. After that, he’ll join coach Rhoades’ first Penn State team as the first non-transfer portal player Rhoades has acquired in his brief tenure.

Penn State’s 2023 recruiting class looked set in stone. Four-star Carey Booth (Brewster Academy) and three-stars Logan Imes (Zionsville, Indiana) and Braeden Shrewsberry (State College) all signed in November. Then, the coach that would bring them to Penn State, Braeden’s father, Micah, left for Notre Dame, and all three of Penn State’s ’23 signees eventually followed the coach.

Gudmundsson is the fourth total guard Penn State has incoming, joining reigning A-10 Player and Defensive Player of the Year Ace Baldwin and fellow guard Nick Kern, who both followed Rhoades from VCU, and RayQuawndis Mitchell, who transferred in from UKMC.

Penn State also has guards Kanye Clary and Jameel Brown returning from last season. Clary never entered the transfer portal. Brown did, but withdrew his name and is returning to Penn State.

DEMETRIUS LILLEY

Lilley (6-foot-10, 230 pounds) is a big-bodied center from the high school NBA legend Kobe Bryant made famous in the late 90s, and at the Kobe Bryant Gymnasium in March 2021, Lilley helped lead Lower Marion to a district title on the back of a 31 point (three 3-pointers) performance.

He committed to Penn State in September of that year. The 6-foot-10, 260-pound forward appeared in five games last season. 

KANYE CLARY

Clary is returning Penn State school for a second season, he tweeted April 13. 

Clary’s return shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

Despite five teammates entering the transfer portal, including classmates Kebba NjieEvan Mahaffey and Jameel Brown, Clary didn’t put his name in.

Before last season, Clary came to Penn State as a three-star recruit from Massanutten Military Academy in Woodstock, Virginia. Clary came off the bench in his first season and provided Penn State depth at point guard behind Pickett. Clary finished Year 1 averaging 3.7 points and 10.4 minutes per game. He scored in double figures four times, posting a season and career-high with 17 in a loss at Maryland Feb. 11.

JAMEEL BROWN

Brown, the sixth highest-rated recruit in Penn State basketball history by 247Sports Composite rankings, withdrew from the transfer portal and returned to Penn State last month. The 6-foot-4, 188-pound guard from Philly appeared in 14 games last season, averaging just 4.6 minutes per those games.

Brown came to Penn State as a highly touted recruit. ESPN had the Philly prospect as a four-star and the No. 24 shooting guard in the country. He came to Penn State after a high school career split across two schools in Haverford and Westtown.

Before committing to Penn State, he de-committed from Purdue.

Brown entered the transfer portal after former head coach Shrewsberry left for Notre Dame.

Shrewsberry was a reason that Brown initially chose Penn State over Purdue, among others, but it now appears that it wasn’t the sole reason.

ACE BALDWIN

Penn State’s first transfer of the 2023 Class was a big one.

Baldwin tweeted his commitment on Easter Sunday evening.

Baldwin, the reigning A-10 Player of the Year, announced that he’d enter the transfer portal Thursday, Mar. 30, the same day Baldwin’s coach at VCU, Rhoades, was introduced as Penn State’s new boss.

Not long after, people started to predict Baldwin would follow Rhoades to Penn State.

Hours after Rhoades’s press conference, a source told Nittany Sports Now that Penn State was targeting Baldwin out of the transfer portal. All four of 247Sports’ Crystal Ball projections had Baldwin picking Penn State, and those predictions proved accurate. As a result, Penn State is getting a guy that should be an excellent replacement for the departing Pickett at point guard.

NICK KERN

Penn State received its second transfer commitment of the 2023 cycle in VCU’s Kern.

Kern announced his commitment via Twitter late Wednesday night, April 12, and will join VCU teammate Baldwin and former VCU coach Rhodes in Happy

 

Kern (6-foot-6) gives Penn State needed size. He averaged 5.3 points and 2.7 rebounds per game last season, helping VCU to the A-10 regular-season and tournament championships. VCU got a No. 12 seed in the NCAA Tournament and fell to No. 5 St. Mary’s in the first round. 

ZACH HICKS

The Temple transfer announced his commitment to Penn State April 20. 

Hicks was the third player Rhoades and co. have added from the transfer portal and the first one who didn’t play for Rhoades at VCU.

Hicks chose Penn State over Georgetown, Temple and UTEP, among others. Had Hicks stayed at Temple, he would have played for new head coach Adam Fisher, Shrewsberry’s associate head coach in Shrewsberry’s two-year tenure in Happy Valley, which ended last month when he became Notre Dame’s new boss. Instead, Hicks will be playing for Fisher’s alma mater.

Hicks is a pure three-point shooter, which is an ideal fit in assistant to the head coach Joe Crispin’s new offensive system, which involves fast-paced play. Hicks was a three-star recruit out of Camden Catholic in Camden, New Jersey, where he was the number nine prospect in New Jersey, the No. 62 power forward, and the No. 295 player nationally in the Class of 2021, according to 24Sports composite rankings.

At Temple, Hicks averaged 9.6 points and 5.1 rebounds, shooting 35.6% from 3-point land, respectable for a guy that’s 6-foot-7. He started all 32 games for Temple and averaged more than 32 minutes, which speaks well for his durability. Hicks will have two years of eligibility left.

PUFF JOHNSON

North Carolina transfer Donovan “Puff” Johnson has committed to Penn State, he tweeted Wednesday, April 26.

Johnson went on an official visit to Penn State earlier that

After playing three seasons for the Tar Heels, Johnson has two years of eligibility remaining. 

He missed the second half of his freshman season in 2020-21 due to a toe injury.

Johnson won America’s hearts during the 2022 NCAA Championship Game against Kansas. He scored 11 points, grabbed six rebounds off the bench, and played so hard that he threw up on the court. 

This past season, Johnson averaged 4.1 points and 2.7 rebounds in 15.9 minutes over 27 games, making two starts. He shot at a 38.7% clip (36-for-93) and posted a 65.8% mark from the foul line (25-for-38).

LEO O’BOYLE

Penn State basketball officially added O’Boyle, a transfer from Lafayette who announced his commitment via Instagram Tuesday night, May 2, two days later. 


He averaged 11.6 points per game for Lafayette this past season and shot 40.7% from 3.

The Scranton native, who was a star basketball player and quarterback at Scranton prep— and won district titles in each sport— is set to use his last season of eligibility to play at Penn State.

In a statement, Rhoades said the program is “thrilled to have Leo join our Penn State basketball family.”

“His combination of maturity, skill and toughness will impact our program. He is another Pennsylvania product that we are excited to have on board. We can’t wait to get to work with him.”

RAYQUAWNDIS MITCHELL

On Wednesday, May 10, Kansas City transfer RayQuawndis Mitchell committed to Penn State over Arkansas, Oklahoma State, and BYU. 

“I decided that I’m going to Penn State University,” Mitchell told Nittany Sports Now. “I felt like coming into UMKC, finding a family was huge for me. Talking with Coach Rhoades and the rest of the staff at Penn State, it seemed like I had known them for a while the more and more our conversation went on. It just seemed like it’s a very oriented team over there. That’s just something I want to be a part of. I’m just excited to get over there and get to work.”

Mitchell entered the portal May 1 after starring for Kansas City this season and has already decided on his next stop. The 6-foot-5 graduate transfer guard scored 17.3 points per game and hit 82 3-pointers last season for the ‘Roos, establishing himself as one of the top players in the Summit League (Second Team All-Conference). 

QUDUS WAHAB

Penn State added Wahab Thursday, April 27. The Georgetown transfer announced his commitment via Instagram.

Wahab visited Penn State earlier in April, and now, he’s coming.

In a move that’s still unconventional even in this wild age of the transfer portal, Wahab left Georgetown for Maryland after the 2020-21 season, played for the Terps in 2021-22… and then returned to Georgetown for this past campaign, averaging 9.6 points and 7.1 rebounds in 29 games this past season.

FAVOUR AIRE

The Miami transfer committed to Penn State, announcing the decision via Instagram Monday, May 22.

Aire (6-foot-11, 215 pounds) was part of Miami’s first-ever Final Four team this past season.

He appeared in 14 games, scoring a total of nine points and posting nine rebounds.

He didn’t see any action in the NCAA Tournament.

An Ekpoma, Nigeria, native, Aire came to Miami as a four-star recruit after a career at Bishop McNamara High School in District Heights, Maryland. He was the No. 119 overall prospect from the 2022 recruiting class. He entered the transfer portal last month and is heading from Coral Gables to State College.

 

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