Penn State men’s basketball stacking classes as it adds familiar faces with 2023 group
One of Penn State’s newest signees was around the program as much as you can be. He was at practices and games, always around, always learning.
It helps, of course, that Braeden Shrewsberry is head coach Micah Shrewsberry’s son.
Braeden, Logan Imes and Carey Booth make up the Nittany Lions’ 2023 recruiting class and their signing on Wednesday means Penn State has once again set itself up for the future with a top-30 recruiting class.
That is a first in program history, but could become the norm under Shrewsberry. He built his first class based on relationships and trust, and now his second on the back of a competitive first season. Now he has proof of concept. His team played Monday in its season opener and showed what the program can look like moving forward in the blowout win over Winthrop.
That should make for an easier sell moving forward.
“You have to recruit on faith a little bit,” Shrewsberry said. “Because we didn’t have a lot to show them. We told them how we wanted to play. ... There’s a little bit of blind faith in terms of what you’re selling because they didn’t get to see a lot of it. ... I think they believed in what we were doing. Now the classes moving forward will be able to see a little bit more.”
Eventually those classes should get even better as Shrewsberry remains at the helm. Having the proof of what his team should look like will only make it more enticing for future recruits to join what he is building.
The final goal his staff has should be tempting for future players, too. There is not a long history of winning for Penn State men’s basketball to sell. It is a program that hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament in over a decade and usually that is the bar that needs to be cleared for a successful season.
That seems to be changing, and it’s not the limit of what Shrewsberry, recruiting coordinator Brian Snow and the rest of the staff want to achieve.
“We have to do it again next year,” Snow said. “Or else we’re losing ground to what our goals are — which is to win the Big Ten. We’re not here to be average. We’re not here to just compete. We’re here to win.”
Emphasis on versatility
The knowledge of the game is important, but not as important as the skill and ability on the court. This is not a class of high IQ players who lack talent. It’s a group that has both — the knowledge to play the game at a high level and the ability to beat its opponents with skill and athleticism.
Versatility was an emphasis with the group and it shines through. All three signees have the ability to play with or without the ball in their hands, something the team’s assistant coaches — Mike Farrelly, Adam Fisher and David “Aki” Collins — emphasized while they broke down film for the media Wednesday.
“Versatility is the most important thing,” Shrewsberry said.
The group will fit into the image of what the team displayed Monday against Winthrop as players who have depth to their games. They can impact the game with or without the ball in their hands and are able to thrive in either environment, which isn’t common for high school players.
That level of recruit is usually the type of player who is used to playing with the ball at all times and being the engine that makes the team go. Those players usually have to adjust to playing without the ball as they enter an environment where they probably aren’t the best player on the team right away.
This group should have a much easier transition to the college level thanks to that versatility.
“That’s where you find people really struggle when they go from high school to college,” Shrewsberry said. “They don’t have the ball in their hands all the time. What else do you do? What else do you bring? What else do you add? I think these guys can do that. They’re not necessarily guys that are just ball dominant. They can play without the ball.”
Family ties
Braeden’s presence around campus will make things easier for him on the court when he gets to college, but the off court transition will draw the headlines and for good reason.
He’s earning an opportunity to do something very few get to do in playing college basketball, and joins an even more exclusive group by getting to play for his dad. But this was not a chance that was given to him based on his dad’s status. Micah said his son had to earn the opportunity to get where he is, and it wasn’t something that was going to be given to him.
Prior to Braeden earning that offer, Snow said it became clear that it was a worthwhile decision to extend it.
“A lot of college coaches really spoke highly of Braeden and they were telling me, I know they were telling some of our assistants ... they were saying, ‘you guys have to take him,’” Snow said.
He isn’t the only member of this class with ties to Penn State, however. Booth’s father Calvin is the general manager of the Denver Nuggets and one of the best players to ever play for the Nittany Lions.
There was a connection already between Calvin and Fisher, who got to know Booth when he would come back around the program when Fisher was a manager in the early 2000s. That helped establish a relationship, but it was Shrewsberry’s basketball chops and the relationship that sealed the deal for Carey to sign.
“(Calvin) was interested in making the best basketball decision for his son,” Shrewsberry said. “... I think that’s what their decision came down to is, they thought this was the best fit. For a guy that’s a general manager in the NBA, trying to convince him about basketball or talk to him about basketball, you better be right because he knows the game.”
“You can talk about it being a family, but when you sit here and have dinner, then you see it,” Fisher added. “I think that was the turning point. The basketball, (Shrewsberry) clicked right away. ... I think once they saw the family atmosphere too, that put it all together that this would be the right place.”
Quick Hitters
- Imes and Shrewsberry played together for Indiana Elite during the summer travel circuit.
- Booth is the highest-rated player in the group, coming in as high as the No. 50 player in the country according to On3’s player rankings. He’s a four-star recruit and top 100 player in his class according to all four major services.
- Imes and Shrewsberry are both rated as four-star recruits by ESPN and three-star recruits by On3, Rivals and 247Sports.
