Buzzworthy: What Penn State will be talking about at Big Ten media day
Penn State head coach Mike Rhoades will be joined by three players Tuesday in Minneapolis for Big Ten basketball media day. The unofficial tip-off to the 2023-24 season, the Nittany Lions will feature a radically new look from the team that reached the Round of 32 in last year’s NCAA Tournament.
They brought in 10 new players to a roster that was already slated to lose six due to graduation last offseason. Among them, the reigning A10 Player and Defensive Player of the Year arrived in Ace Baldwin.
Joined by teammate Nick Kern, plus a host of former four-stars including Puff Johnson and D’Marco Dunn from North Carolina, Favour Aire from Miami, Qudus Wahab from Georgetown, and Zach Hicks from Temple, the Nittany Lions are stocked with potential. Whether it can be realized this season is a question Rhoades and his staff are determined to answer affirmatively in the weeks and months ahead.
Ahead of the event, a media preseason poll presented by The Athletic on Monday indicates a consensus of doubts. Though Baldwin was selected among its voters as the Transfer of the Year in the Big Ten, the Nittany Lions were selected to finish 13th in the poll.
With two full weeks of practices in the books, and Baldwin, Johnson, and Kanye Clary set to join Rhoades on Tuesday, we’re checking in on the program again. Here is some of the buzz we’re hearing from the Bryce Jordan Center and the points of conversation likely to be discussed by the group this week.
Setting a foundation
This is a broad place to start, but it feels like one that is most likely to come up in Minneapolis this week. That being, Penn State has worked diligently to establish a practice environment that is tougher and more competitive than games.
And, importantly, the Nittany Lion staff has been pleased by what they’ve seen from the group to that end.
The atmosphere in practices through the first two weeks has been intense. Scores are kept for everything. Winners and losers are tracked for every drill, every competitive period.
A potential challenging point for a group of players largely cultivated from the transfer portal, Penn State’s attention to merging the right personalities has, so far, paid off. Always a concern for attitudes and personalities when so much is at stake in dwindling windows of eligibility, what’s emerged is a group that has bought in and has been good teammates to each other, on and off the court.
That the Nittany Lions have been able to create that vibe while simultaneously going after each other in scrimmages and practice is a particular point of early encouragement from the program.
A summer surprise
Covered at the end of the first week, Kanye Clary’s strong summer has been an important part of the picture for who and what the Nittany Lions will be this season.
Among the returning players carrying over from last year to this, though, he isn’t alone in impressing. Demetrius Lilley was told upon Rhoades’ arrival to get in shape before returning to the program in the summer. He did, losing 20-plus pounds by the time the Nittany Lions got back together in June. That process has continued through the summer to the point that he’s legitimately going to play a role this season.
He gets what Penn State is doing defensively, which is a huge piece of the puzzle for Rhoades and his staff. And with a body that has pushed through the challenges of playing out of shape, to now being able to contribute, that combination is going to put him in a position to make an impact.
Staying big
Qudus Wahab has been an offense-first player through his career and that dynamic hasn’t changed at Penn State. So, while he knows how to play and is the type of veteran presence the Nittany Lions need out there at center, the Nittany Lions are urging a more aggressive approach to rebounding and on the defensive end of the floor.
Favour Aire, meanwhile, is something of a young gazelle. He’s got excellent athleticism, can run all day, and is very active. He’s just extremely raw, so the on-floor recognition still has a ways to go. The opposite of a situation where he won’t play because of it, though, the path to production for Aire is through the accumulation of reps, so the expectation is to find playing time to help accelerate that development process.
Hammering defense
Rhoades arrived from VCU this offseason as a coach specializing in defense and wearing it as a defining characteristic of his Rams program. That Baldwin, his star point guard, was also the A10 Defensive Player of the Year is a window into the mentality that drives his teams.
So it should come as no surprise that this offseason has been about establishing defensive principles as a priority. They’ve worked to build habits and create a consistently high standard up and down the lineup.
The good news for Penn State is that the team and individual defensive performances have evolved dramatically from where they were when things got cooking in earnest in the summer. The less good news is that the room for growth between now and when these Nittany Lions take on the Big Ten schedule is similarly dramatic.
Buzzworthy
The impression made by Hicks this offseason has been extremely positive. A talented shooter at Temple, Hicks made the call to join the Nittany Lions thanks to a commitment to helping him showcase more of his offensive game off the dribble and beyond. Through working with Penn State’s staff this offseason, Hicks has continued to expand his offensive game (and continues to hit shots from beyond the arc).
But, importantly, he’s also made progress on the defensive end. Putting him against players off position, that has left Hicks to learn how to handle Baldwin, Clary, and Dunn in addition to the forwards and wings he would typically be expected to face.
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