Penn State Hoops guard Jameel Brown enters transfer portal
After just one season with Penn State, freshman guard Jameel Brown has decided to enter the transfer portal.
FB Recruiting Penn State Hoops guard Jameel Brown enters transfer portal
- Thread starter Richie O
- Start date
If we had a game to play this week, it would be concerning. Since we don’t, I wouldn’t worry about it yet.
A lot of these players probably would've entered the portal even if Shrewsbery had stayed; that's just what happens these days in college sports.
Brown for sure would have. Not sure he even considered Penn State when he was a Purdue Commit.
My guess is next season's PSU team will look a lot like this past season's VCU team, for good or bad.
Seems like an easy explanation…he wasn’t as good as the guys ahead of him
I believe Shrew would have hung onto most or all of the 2022 class players had he stayed at PSU. Maybe all of them, if Shrew would have stayed. With all the seniors that excelled this past season and the team playing at a pretty high level the true freshman knew that they wouldn't get much playing time until next season. And going into next season the 2022 class players would have had a great chance to pompete to start or at lest find roles in the rotation. Njie and Maghaffey were poised to start as next season and probably Cleary as well. Brown also had a chance to play lots of minutes next season if he continued to put on muscle. Lilley likely knows he needed a couple of years to work into to being a leg B10 big man, so he might still stay with the new coach.
It will be interesting to see if any of the players already in the portal end up staying once the new coach ends up reaches out to let them where each player might be wanted going forward.
So other than the two players that left first, Dorsey and Johnson, who weren't recruited by Shrew, I believe that the rest would have likely stayed if Shrew stayed.
I just compare it to the football program, which is a top-10 caliber program of which you would think that these kids would want to be a part, and it seems like at least a fourth of that roster enters the portal after every season, so it's easy foresee this happening to the basketball program, which has a long way to go to be a top program.
The 2022 class with 5 freshmen were Shrew's own recruits and there really is no reason for the to want to all bail if Shrew was showing he was buiding a program. Which is what he was doing. PSU couldn't have to win last season by depending on the 2022 class and those 5 likely were told by Shrew that they would have to develop before they earned playing time. The fact that Mahaffey was progressing and becoming a very good player, Njie was starting last season, and Cleary getting better and better and likely headed for being the starting point next season, the 2022 looked to be the nucleus of the next couple of seasons. Having a big basketball class in the second year of a coach really the first year the coach had a chance to recruit a good class, 5 freshmen with really one one of them a project, does not seem to be comparable to the early turnover of freshmen football classes of a long term football coach to me.
And the new coach will likely have to do the same thing that Shrew did - go after mostly incoming transfers to form the nucleus of the team for this coming season while he works to bring in a larger group of freshmen for the 2024 class that he will develop and give more playing time as they develop.
Well, that's sort of what Pitt did this past season, and they ended up almost winning the ACC Regular Season Championship and played in two NCAA Tournament games after being picked as the 14th best ACC team in the preseason. I'm not saying that PSU is going to get that lucky, but it can be done with aggressive use of the portal; in basketball you just need three to four really good players and the rest can be role players.
You're giving players way too much credit if you think that "building a program" is their primary concern...you've got a guy like Brown that came in highly touted and got very little PT, or a guy like Lilley that got even less. Regardless of what we were building, those guys were a serious risk to look elsewhere. And even the guys getting PT could have had plenty of reasons to want to head elsewhere (didn't love PSU, homesick, didn't feel like the coach's style was matching what they wanted, seeing recruiting come in that would hurt their PT, etc).
There are alot of potential portal players he can contact like the Center from St. Francis, PA; a very good power forward from Harvard, another swing forward from Yale, alog with the shooting guards from Notre Dame & Syracuse. These are good players that would probably consider PSU. He will immediately need to speak with Njie, Clary, Lilley, Mahaffey, Cary Booth, and the guard from Indiana to gauge their potential to stay on board and/or still come to PSU. The guy coaches an exciting up tempo, pressure type of bball. Hopefully the young men are willing to listen and be part of the program.
As it currently stands Brown would have been a starter with Clary & Njie. Seems like it would have been worthwhile for him to wait until Rhodes had a chance to talk to him but I suspect others have been in his ear.
Penn State Hoops guard Jameel Brown enters transfer portal
After just one season with Penn State, freshman guard Jameel Brown has decided to enter the transfer portal.pennstate.rivals.com
Could be someone telling him he needs to move on as you said. I expect the new coach will speak with him.
Pitt also tried that approach the previous 4 seasons and they were utter failures each season until this past season.
No long term successful coach has been able to build a team solely via incoming transfers, but PSU's new coach as any new coach will have bigger roster needs his first year than thereafter.
Rhoades may focus on bringing a portion of his team from VCU as well as some portal players that he has relationships with, but if he believes he likes a couple of the current PSU 2022 class players and he can keep them I believe he will.
I don't believe I'm giving them too much credit. Cleary, Mahaffey and Njie played significant roles in helping PSU's hot streak to end the season. And they could be good contributors the next 2+ seasons if Rhoades likes them and can recruit them to stay. Players are smart enough to realize that the grass is not always greener which is why Shrew was able to keep a few holdovers such as Lundy.
Brown was too weak to play a big role in the B10 and by now he knows it. Given that he didn't play much and has some work yet to do to get ready going forward he might not even be asked to say.
I'm not ruling out anything, including a few PSU 2022 class players staying.
Last edited:
I feel like there is some chance that Booth recommits but it's far from certain
VCU has a freshman from pa who was a 4-star recruit and is 6'10". who knows where he ends up
Right now PSU has 3 or 4 players on the roster. Brown was a true freshman who should improve. I can't imagine Rhodes not wanting him to stay.
Yep, I've watched VCU at least a couple of times per season during Rhoades' tenure there. As I believe I've said to you in the past, my youngest son is a UD grad and I follow them and the A10, but mostly just UD. He only puts athletic players on the court, big or small, and that will eliminate many players from the portal.
I'm also hoping Njie, Clary and Mahaffey stay, and possibly the other 2 as well obviously subject to Rhoades' evaluation of where they might fit in in the future.
Should be an interesting next couple of months keeping track of the roster news....
Yep, Brown was a 4 star with offers from Xavier, Purdue and some others. He needs to develop but why not at PSU.
