Signing day has not arrived yet for the class of ‘23, but it’s been evident for a while now that Micah Shrewsberry has finished recruiting the current senior class. After signing three top-200 prospects over the course of this recruiting cycle, there don’t appear to be any more known targets being pursued by the staff.
So we can start to set our sights on the class of 2024, where there has been a lot of activity since the summer grassroots season ended.
Current Reported Offers
Familiar Names & Territory
There is always a lot of basketball talent in the Philadelphia and DMV area, but this year is even stronger than normal, which is a great opportunity for the Penn State staff, and they’ve put out a lot of offers in those areas again this year.
It’s been a bit of a mixed bag in these areas in the recent past. The staff signed 2 Philly prospects and snagged Kanye Clary out of Virginia in ‘22, but did not win any of the recruiting battles in these areas in ‘23. Amani Hansberry, Deshawn Harris-Smith, and Jahanthan Lamothe were all highly-rated DMV targets that had PSU in their list of finalists but they all ended up at other Big Ten programs.
The other areas being targeted should look pretty similar to the past two cycles: a handful of New England targets, a couple in Ohio, and then a few randomly scattered names along the rest of the east coast.
Then there’s Pittsburgh, which is a bit of a new area for this staff. That’s where the 6’10” top-100 prospect Royce Parham resides, whose mother is the all-time leading shot blocker for the women’s basketball team at Penn State. After landing PSU legacy-prospect Carey Booth in the class of ‘23, this looks like a great opportunity to add another in the very next class. This of course comes just a year after missing out on two other legacy recruits in Dereck Lively (Duke) and Otega Oweh (Oklahoma).
Setting Sights Even Higher?
The one thing that stands out to me early in this class is that the rankings of these targets are much higher and the players are more established nationally than the targets in ‘22 and ‘23 were at a similar time. It seemed that Shrewsberry’s staff got in “early” on a lot of their targets the last two years, only to see the offer lists grow and the rankings increase on nearly every target they offered.
It’s a testament to the staff’s ability to identify talent ahead of their competition, but it’s unclear what the role of this strategy has been in landing recruits over the last two years.
This year, however, nearly every offer the staff has made is to a prospect who already has an impressive offer sheet and national ranking. And in many cases, it seems like these targets have already ruled out Penn State in lieu of what look like “better” offers to more prestigious basketball schools.
So we can already start trimming this list down a bit and start getting an idea of which targets are being targeted the hardest.
The Unlikely
Every name on that list above is somebody that’s been reported to have an offer from Penn State, but we can easily eliminate a few of these targets.
Neumann Goretti’s Rob Wright, for instance, has already verbaled to Baylor as of early last month.
Next, we can cross off Bryson Tucker, the former teammate of Amani Hansberry at Mount St. Joseph. The recent IMG Academy transfer is a 5-star recruit at this point, with offers from Nova, Duke, Kansas, Indiana, and basically any other place he wants. Great player, but he’s already out of reach.
There are two Tylers on the list, and I think both can safely be taken off at this point. Tyler McKinley out of Cincinnatti played up with the 17’s this summer for All Ohio Red alongside Devin Royal, so I got to see quite a bit of him. He’s a really promising big man, but so promising that he’s climbed into the top 50 and gotten the attention of the “big boys”. He’s also given a number of interviews mentioning the schools he’s most interested in and PSU is not being mentioned, and I don’t believe the coaches went to see him play during the most recent evaluation period (or it just was not reported). It just feels like this recruitment has gone nowhere so far, and would be tough to get back in.
Tyler Betsey is the 2nd Tyler on the list, and initially, this seemed like one we would have a chance in, but it didn’t take long for his recruitment to blow up and the offers come pouring in. He’s recently mentioned the programs prioritizing him the most, and Penn State was not a school that he mentioned, but the staff was in to see him back in the middle of September so they may not consider this one out of reach yet, but my feeling is he’s not likely looking at PSU.
Next, we have Malachi Palmer, another Harrisburg-area kid who went out to Arizona to play, like Chance Westry before him, but he will return to the East coast to play for Mt. Zion Prep in Baltimore this coming high school season. Like some other recent PA kids who have had some national notoriety before they even reach their sophomore season, Penn State has offered but seemingly was never seriously considered. Palmer recently took an unofficial to Villanova and has a ton of other great offers like Kansas, Maryland, Texas Tech, and more.
Lastly, as much as it pains me to remove this last name because I love this kid’s size, Peyton Marshall seems unlikely to seriously consider PSU at this time. The 7-foot, 300 lb big man has been another fast-rising junior in the class of ‘24, with his recruitment really taking off in the last 2 months. I think he’s going to be really fun to watch at the next level, but there are no signs he would be doing that at Penn State, and I only expect his recruitment to get even more competitive over the next 6 months.
The Real Targets
Removing those 6 names leaves us with just 12 known offers for 2024, and not surprisingly it’s basically the 12 lowest-ranked guys on the list. But don’t be surprised if a good portion of these 12 players continue to rise like most of PSU’s targets in the last two classes.
I don’t know specifically what Shrewsberry is looking for in this class in terms of positions and skillsets, but here is how I think we can roughly break them out at this time:
Guards:
Jalil Bethea, Daquan Davis, Dwayne Pierce, Kayvaughn Mulready
Wings:
Royce Parham, Klairus Amir, Caleb Williams, Sir Mohammed, Jadyn Harris
Bigs:
Matt Gilhool, Raleigh Burgess, Thomas Sorber
I could probably take this a step further and remove about half of these names as well but it might be better to talk about the ones I think we’re going to pursue the most aggressively.
Royce Parham is the must-get of the group. Despite being 6’10” (and reportedly still growing), I think he projects more as a wing type of player. I watched a good bit of him this summer and he’s not much of a back-to-the-basket player, he’s comfortable on the perimeter and seems to prefer playing facing the basket. I would be shocked if he didn’t model his game after Kevin Durant, but then again, who doesn’t these days? This will be a battle, as Parham has a ton of interest from high-profile programs, but I think PSU is in a good spot here as of early October.
After that, I think the big men will be huge priorities. I think Raleigh Burgess seems like a long shot, but I’ve kept him on here for now because it doesn’t seem impossible yet. But I believe the staff is really prioritizing Gilhool and Sorber, and they would be lucky to get either one.
Matt Gilhool has a really mature skill set, a true stretch 4/5. He’s shown a soft outside shot and has great length that he understands how to use around the rim. He could end up like the 2024 version of JP Estrella.
Thomas Sorber is more of a traditional big man, he’s got the back-to-the-basket game and is very strong already for his age. He would not look overwhelmed in the low blocks in the Big Ten, even from day one. He also looks comfortable with the ball in his hands from what I’ve seen, which would be important in Shrewberry’s system. The coaching staff has been very active in recruiting both of these kids and I think we should expect to see visits from both of them eventually.
Looking at the guards, you have four unique players that each offer something desirable. Bethea is a lanky 6’4” sniper who can also create his own shot.
Davis is more of a traditional point guard, with great quickness and toughness, he can score in bunches and seems to relish playing defense, and he’s constantly pushing the pace of the game.
Pierce is a big-bodied kid, he looks incredibly strong and can get anywhere he wants with the dribble. He can really score it but lets the game come to him.
And Mulready might be considered more of a wing when it’s all said and done, but he’s an explosive athlete who plays above the rim and can also shoot it from deep.
The staff has shown a great deal of interest in all 4 of these kids, and a few have been on campus for unofficial visits already, so we’re absolutely in play on all four.
Out of all the other wings, I don’t like PSU’s chances with any of them right now. They’ve all got a ton of attention on the national level and a ton of offers, and I don’t get the impression that any of them are really interested in Penn State just yet.
There’s still a lot of time, this is a very early reading of where things stand and my ‘analysis’ here is just me putting together a lot of rumors and interview snippets with a bit of common sense. But my impression right now is that the priority list goes like this:
Parham
Gilhool/Sorber
Bethea/Davis/Pierce
Wrapping Up
I plan to do some individual posts for each of these 6 as of right now. I have a bunch of videos of most of them from over the summer I just haven’t gotten to edit. Stay tuned for that.
I will not be shocked to see more offers go out in this class, but I think we’ll get all 6 of these kids on campus for officials, and landing 2 or 3 of them would continue the momentum this staff has going.