Sunday Column: Shrewsberry Slow-Cooking Highly Touted Freshman Class, But it Might be Time to Turn up the Heat

It’s the time of year when many first-year college basketball players hit the freshman wall, that real or imagined phenomenon that is characterized by tired legs, questionable decision-making, and generally a lesser quality of play than the same player showed from November through mid-January.

Penn State’s freshmen haven’t logged nearly enough minutes to hit that freshman wall, which is good for them but not great for the present or future of the program.

The Nittany Lions, 13-7 overall and 4-5 in conference play entering Sunday’s game against Michigan, are very much in the NCAA Tournament mix thanks to one of the most experienced lineups in the entire nation, let alone the Big Ten. Jalen Pickett, Seth Lundy, Myles Dread, Andrew Funk and Cam Wynter have already played in a combined 633 games, and their bodies and their minds have gone through so many reps that any one of them would not be out of place as a fourth assistant coach.

But though production from this core is often enough to power Penn State to victory—particularly when the above group hits an average or above-average number of 3-pointers—it could occasionally use a boost from the younger contingent of Lions that it hasn’t gotten, at least in any substantial dose, to date.

Kebba Njie, Evan Mahaffey, Kanye Clary, Jameel Brown and Demetrius Lilley represented Penn State’s highest-ranked freshman class in program history. To date, they’ve accounted for a total of 13 starts—all of them Njie’s—and a total of 194 points, or 9.7 per game.

Now, is it a bad thing for a first-year player to spend most of his time watching and learning while more veteran teammates see the minutes and handle the prominent roles on the team? Of course not, and the teams who make it to and advance the furthest in the tournament are usually packed with experienced players, whether they were home-grown or transfers. And most coaches will tell you that freshmen do much of their development during practice in year 1, regardless of what is happening on game nights.

For as much heavy lifting as Penn State’s super-seniors are doing, however—each of the five veterans listed above is playing at least 23 minutes per game—there are additional roles there for the taking for the freshmen, and so far they’ve only loosely grasped them or dropped them outright.

Njie is very much a project at this point, and everyone including the 6-foot-10 rookie from Centerville, Ohio, would have admitted that from the start of the season. The Nittany Lions didn’t expect him to be a fully formed player yet, and he’s had his moments, but generally he’s been outmuscled and out-of-place on the defensive end in a Big Ten filled with quality, veteran bigs, and his offensive contributions have been limited to putbacks, lobs, and nervous perimeter ballhandling.

Clary, the lightning-quick point guard, has shown an ability to get where he wants to go against almost any defender but doesn’t seem to be too certain of exactly where that is. He’s shooting 31% from the floor and hasn’t been nearly as effective at getting the Nittany Lions into their offense as Pickett or Wynter. Brown, the highest-rated prospect of the group, has played only 57 minutes over 10 games and has connected on 3 of 15 shots. While Penn State runs out defensive lineups with the 6-7 Lundy or 6-4 Dread guarding the center, the 6-foot-10 Lilley has played 14 minutes and scored four points.

That leaves Mahaffey, who has been the pleasant surprise and most impactful player of the group, averaging 3.5 points and 1.9 rebounds in just under 11 minutes per game, though those numbers rise to 4.7, 2.3, and 13.6 in Big Ten games only. His length, hops, ability to switch, and energy have been assets on defense and he’s one of the few Lions of any age who can create his own shot off the bounce. His role has gradually progressed as the season has gone on and will likely continue to do so, but he’ll need to continue to work on defending without fouling and on figuring out where he fits offensively with the team’s primary scorers.

Is there still time for any or all of these young players to make a greater impact, to carve out larger roles or to simply be more efficient and consistent in the limited roles they currently have? Absolutely, if for no other reasons than to help freshen the legs of the seniors or keep them from getting too comfortable in their own roles. If that doesn’t happen, though, it’s hard to see the 2022-23 Penn State team being the best version of itself, and even harder to have optimism about what happens after the season, when Pickett, Lundy, Funk, Dread, and Wynter all depart.

Micah Shrewsberry and his staff will continue to mine the transfer portal, and they’ll likely add at least one or two players who will play key roles for the 2023-24 group. Maybe they’ll land another all-conference player like Pickett, maybe they’ll land another Jaheam Cornwall. (Landing a quality transfer big man, by the way, would help Njie, incoming signee Carey Booth, and the entire team enormously.) Either way, the current freshmen are going to have to do more heavy lifting next season.

If at least a couple of them don’t make significant strides between now and November, Penn State’s next group of freshmen won’t be the only ones on the team hitting a wall next winter.