Tuesday, Penn State men’s basketball had its annual summer media availability. It featured two press conferences along with a live workout open to the media. Coach Mike Rhoades and players Freddie Dilione V and Eli Rice first spoke to the media. The common theme among the three of them was team bonding, communication, and just working on getting better at this time of year. So it’s no surprise the program’s offseason theme is “Build and Bond.”
Rhoades is also pleased with the physical shape his players have come in with this year. Probably this year more than any other year ‘Build And Bond’ rings true due to all the new, young faces on the squad. There are currently nine new players and Rhoades said they’re looking to add more.
After the press conferences, the live workout began. Rhoades and his staff first took his players through the full court press. He then broke them down into half-court passing drills where a player would eventually attack the rim with coach Brent Scott hitting them with a padded bag as they went up for the shot.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Rhoades also worked on inbound drills. One word that really stood out in all these drills was “physicality.” Rhoades mentioned this in his press conference as well. The Big Ten is a physical conference in all sports, so to compete, teams will have to develop a culture of physicality.
NSN was there to capture all of it.
