Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1378330
COMINGS AND GOINGS O n the men's basketball roster that appears on Penn State's website, a holdover from the final days of the 2020-21 season, the names are all familiar. Myreon Jones tops the list numerically, with Seth Lundy, Myles Dread and Sam Sessoms appearing below. Jamari Wheeler, Izaiah Brockington, Trent But- trick and John Harrar fill out the list of regular contributors, and rounding out the scholarship roster are freshmen Caleb Dorsey, Patrick Kelly, Dallion Johnson, D.J. Gordon and Abdou Tsimbila. In the nearly three full months since Micah Shrewsberry was hired as the Nit- tany Lions' new head coach, the team has transformed radically. Now heading into the summer months, the puzzle has started to fill in consider- ably, though work remains to complete the roster in the coming weeks. Here's a look at all that has transpired so far and what remains to be accomplished as Shrewsberry and his assistant coaching staff prepare for the 2021-22 season: TRANSFERS OUT While an onslaught of NCAA transfer portal submissions greeted Shrewsberry's appointment as head coach – six in all, including Brock- ington, Jones, Lundy, Wheeler, Buttrick and Harrar – their entries didn't neces- sarily equate to transfers out. Within a month of entering the portal, Lundy and Brockington both announced that they were removing their names and would be returning to Penn State. Later, Harrar announced that he, too, would be returning. However, Jones found a new home at Florida, Wheeler decided to use his final season of eligibility at Ohio State, and Buttrick resurfaced at Massachusetts. Those announcements didn't bring an end to the personnel upheaval. Brocking- ton later re-entered the transfer portal and announced that he would be enrolling at Iowa State, while Gordon landed at Fordham within a week of his May 6 deci- sion to enter the portal. And on May 21, Tsimbila became the ninth scholarship player from last season's roster to test the transfer waters. His destination had not been announced as of this writing. Kelly, who played sparingly in his tenure with the Lions, is joining Gordon at Ford- ham. His exit brought the total of outgo- ing transfers to six, with a seventh still possible in Tsimbila. TRANSFERS IN While their personnel losses have been significant, the Lions have also welcomed some newcomers in recent months. On April 22, Jaheam Corn- wall became the first player in the transfer portal to announce a move to Penn State. The first-team All-Big South Conference point guard out of Gardner-Webb has ex- Transfers, both in and out, have reshaped PSU's roster, and there may be more changes ahead M E N ' S B A S K E T B A L L W O M E N ' S B A S K E T B A L L Penn State welcomes two new assistants Penn State has added two new coaches to its women's basketball staff. Sarah Jenkins will serve as associate head coach and recruiting coordinator after spending the past four seasons at Delaware, while Aaron Kallhoff has joined the Lady Lions' staff following a coaching overhaul at LSU. Jenkins, who owns seven years of Di- vision I coaching experience, served as assistant coach and recruiting coordi- nator with the Blue Hens from 2017- 20 before being elevated to the associate head coach position for the 2020-21 season. This past year, she was instrumental in guiding Delaware to its best season in nearly a decade, as the Blue Hens won the Colonial Ath- letic Association regular-season championship, advanced to the WNIT semifinals and finished with a 24-5 overall record. Kallhoff has 18 years of college coach- ing experience, including the past six years with Power Five programs. A 2003 graduate of Bemidgi State, he pri- marily worked with LSU's post players. Penn State's coaching vacancies opened up when Ginny Boggess was hired as head coach at Monmouth and Ashley Earley left to join Shea Ralph's newly assembled staff at Vanderbilt, Earley's alma mater. PSU ADDS TRANSFER Penn State has welcomed its second transfer of the off-season, as center Ali Brigham is set to join the Lady Lions after winning At- lantic 10 All-Rookie honors following her lone season at George Washington. The 6-foot-4 Brigham led the Colo- nials in scoring as a freshman, averag- ing 11.9 points with a 50.4 percent field goal percentage. Her shooting percentage ranked sixth among all Di- vision I freshmen last season, and she also led George Washington with 26 blocks and was third in rebounding, averaging 4.7 boards per game. Brigham is the second transfer to join Penn State in recent months, fol- lowing on the heels of Alli Campbell, a former Pennsylvania Player of the Year from Altoona who began her college career at Notre Dame. ■ |