Hey y’all, we are back again with another Big Ten Summer Basketball preview! Today we’re going to be looking at the Penn State Nittany Lions, who finished last season with a 12-20 record, going 3-17 in conference. Head coach Mike Rhoades is going to have his work cut out for him again this season with just one player from his rotation returning, Ivan Jurić, a sophomore center from Croatia.
Jurić averaged a solid 10.2 points as a true freshman last season, but was also the team’s leading rebounder at 5.4 per game. He’s a solid building block to flesh out a roster, bringing some guard skills at 7’0” 250 lbs., due to a late growth spurt, but he will need to get stronger if he’s going to improve, due to him not being used to that physicality of basketball in the USA.
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The Nittany Lions are bringing in a good amount of transfer students as well, most notably of whom is probably Brant Byers, a 6’8” forward who averaged 14.2 points per game last season at Miami (OH). Byers is first and foremost a shooter, shooting 39.2% from deep last year on just over 5 attempts per game. His ability to space the floor should open up the offense for the rest of his teammates, while also forcing defenders to overcommit, putting Byers in prime position for a quick little back-cut to the rim for an easy 2.
Another incoming transfer I’m intrigued by is University of Alabama – Huntsville guard Thomas Allard, who averaged just over 14 points per game last season. He was a very “boom-or-bust” type of scorer last year, with multiple games of 20+ points (6), but also a decent amount where he never cracked double digits (7). I think, in the right system, he could be a very solid contributor. Whether or not Penn State is that system, however, remains to be seen.
Oregon will be going on the road to Happy Valley this season, but at time of writing, we do not know when exactly.
As always, ‘Sco Ducks
