Penn State men’s basketball adds top-100 legacy recruit to 2023 class
Carey Booth still plays one-on-one with his dad, but it isn’t much of a contest. The No. 76 basketball recruit in the country, according to the 247Sports Composite player rankings, has a major advantage at this point.
“He used to be able to beat me,” Booth said with a laugh to the Centre Daily Times. “He hasn’t beat me since probably my sophomore year. Ever since then it’s not even close. It used to be more interesting talking trash because the game was closer. Now I don’t really even saying anything because it’s just not even close.”
Of course, that’s more notable because of who is dad is. Calvin Booth played in the NBA for 10 years and was the No. 35 overall pick after playing at Penn State from 1995-1999, where he averaged 15.3 points, 8.7 rebounds and 3.5 blocks per game as a senior and won Big Ten defensive player of the year as a junior.
Now his son will be attending the same school.
Carey, who will play his senior season for Brewster Academy in New Hampshire, committed to Penn State men’s basketball Wednesday evening and said the choice came down to coaching — and specifically head coach Micah Shrewsberry.
“Obviously Penn State didn’t have the best basketball tradition when it came to winning, but I feel like Coach Shrewsberry can change that,” Carey told the CDT. “He’s worked with guys like Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum and he won at Butler with Gordon Hayward. I feel like he can really do something different with Penn State.”
Some may attribute this to the younger Booth following in his dad’s footsteps, but there’s more to his decision than that. While Calvin — who is currently the general manager of the Denver Nuggets — helped his son where he could, especially with evaluating coaches, he allowed him to make his own decision.
Carey took in the information his dad gave him, but ultimately made the call based on where he thought he would most succeed and who was recruiting him the hardest. And while he originally planned to take more visits, his dad told him to make the call once he knew where he wanted to go.
“I just really knew that Shrewsberry was really good at Xs and Os,” Carey said. “He had a plan. He knew what he wanted to do. When I went there, they had a bunch of stuff about my dad obviously, but they made it clear [the recruitment] was because of me and not just because of him. ... [Calvin] let it be my thing, until I let him know where I wanted to go. He reinforced what I already thought. He never pushed me a certain direction.”
The younger Booth is a 6-foot-9, 190-pound power forward boasted 15 other offers, and chose Penn State over Texas, Ohio State, Vanderbilt and Stanford. He’s joining a class that already includes three-star guards Braeden Shrewsberry — Micah’s son — and Logan Imes.
The latest commit previously played for Cherry Creek High School in Colorado, where he averaged 10.6 points and 7.7 rebounds per game as a junior, according to MaxPreps.
Booth said he’s been playing basketball since a young age, but didn’t really blossom until high school. He has plenty of skill, athleticism and length but emphasized his energy when he takes the court.
“I just want to impact the game, impact winning,” he said. “I try to have the best combination of energy and athleticism when I’m on the court. I also stretch the floor, so I can shoot, and get teammates involved and bring more energy to the game.”
His addition to the class boosts it up from No. 25 in the country to a tie for No. 8, according to the 247Sports Composite team rankings. It now ranks third in the Big Ten, behind only Michigan State and Ohio State.
The group’s — which is Shrewsberry’s second since taking over in March 2021 — current ranking would be the highest-rated class in Penn State men’s basketball history, overtaking last year’s class.
This story was originally published August 24, 2022 at 7:05 PM.
