Penn State basketball addition cracks On3 list of top 150 transfers
Penn State Nittany Lions basketball made a splash this April when it received commitments from two transfer portal guards within minutes of each other. One of those guards, Andrew Funk, has carved out a place as one of the top-150 transfers across college basketball this offseason.
Funk came in at No. 127 on the list, released earlier this week. The Bucknell transfer is ranked as the No. 10 combo guard.
Funk was the definition of a volume scorer during his final season with the Bison in 2021-22. He took more than 15 shots per game on his way to averaging 17.6 points.
Just under half of his field-goal attempts came from three-point range, where he shot 36.3 percent.
Speaking to BWI shortly after he committed, Funk described a determination to show he’s more than just a scorer.
“One of the big things for me is that I think coming out of Bucknell, a lot of people are just going to see me going to the Big Ten and they’re gonna think, OK, he’s probably just gonna go there and shoot threes,” Funk said. “But, I think they saw me for my complete game and they want me to do a lot of other things, which I really appreciated.”
Penn State coach Micah Shrewsberry on Andrew Funk, Cam Wynter
Speaking to The Athletic’s Brian Hamilton for a Q&A this week, Penn State coach Micah Shrewsberry offered some early thoughts on Funk and fellow transfer addition Cam Wynter.
Shrewsberry drew a comparison between Funk and longtime Purdue guard Sasha Stefanovic, who has tormented the Nittany Lions in the past.
“I think Andrew Funk is a very underrated passer,” Shrewsberry told The Athletic. “He can play in pick-and-rolls, he can make decisions. Going back to my Purdue days, he’s got a feel of a Sasha Stefanovic to him, the passer that Sasha was, and how I tried to use Sasha in ATO [after time out] situations. Andrew has that same feel. It’s really underrated. It’s not something people see a whole lot. They see him as a shooter.”
Shrewsberry said he doesn’t feel Funk will need to take as many difficult shots playing with Penn State as he did at Bucknell last season.
Similarly, Wynter won’t have to shoulder an outsized load.
In Shrewsberry’s view, Wynter’s ability to handle the ball is key.
“As a team, we needed to have more ball-handling,” Shrewsberry told The Athletic. “I didn’t think we had enough to play the way we wanted to. That’s something Cam gives us. He gives us another guy to play off pick-and-rolls and make decisions.
“He’s got some burst to him. And he can score in different ways. He can get to the midrange and make pull-ups, he can get all the way to the rim, he can make 3s — even though he didn’t shoot it at a great percentage this year.”
