Top Penn State Class of 2023 targets continue climb
Penn State basketball’s quest to stack recruiting classes continues in Micah Shrewsberry’s second full season at the helm. Coming off a five-man haul in the Class of 2022 that included a pair of On3 Top 150 performers in Jameel Brown and Kebba Njie, and four ranked in the Top 200, the Nittany Lions’ sights remain fixated on backing it up.
“I’m excited about the optimism. Now we got to follow through with it. Getting good players, getting a good recruiting class, now do something with it. That’s what we’re trying to do,” Shrewsberry told reporters at Penn State’s open practice last month. “We’re trying to stack good class after good class together of good basketball players, good people, good students, people you want to root for, so there should be an optimism every single year of what can they do next? I don’t mind that. I don’t mind the pressure of putting a little bit of onus on ourselves to do something here. Every single year, let’s see what else we can do. That’s fun.”
With that class now on campus working through the summer access period, Shrewsberry and his coaching staff have spent recent months traversing the country following some of the nation’s top recruiting prospects in the Class of 2023.
And, as evidenced by the latest update of the On3 Class of 2023 rankings, those prospects continue to climb.
Of the five primary targets on Penn State’s recruiting board this summer, none took a step back in the latest rankings. In fact, while legacy recruit Carey Booth, son to former Penn State great and current Denver Nuggets top brass Calvin Booth, kept his previous ranking, three others climbed at least nine-or-more spots in the updated list.
Top Penn State Class of 2023 targets
| Name | Old Ranking | New Ranking |
| DeShawn Harris-Smith | 54 | 45 |
| Carey Booth | 80 | 80 |
| Reid Ducharme | 113 | 85 |
| Amani Hansberry | NR | 87 |
The most recent major news to come out of Penn State’s top targets was something of a setback for the Nittany Lions, though. Announcing a final three on Friday afternoon, Columbus, Ohio forward Devin Royal left Penn State out of the mix despite the Nittany Lions’ status as the first power program to offer a scholarship. His finalists are Ohio State, Michigan State, and Alabama, and he remains at No. 26 overall in the updated rankings.
Penn State’s other uncommitted targets, however, continue to see their collective stock rise.
Following an outstanding Peach Jam finish to his AAU career, DeShawn Harris-Smith bounced back up into the Top 50 in the updated rankings. He helped lead Team Takeover to the final of the event and was named to the tournament’s first team. He finished with an average of 12.3 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game. Harris-Smith is also coming off a weekend visit to Indiana. The 6-foot-5 dynamic guard reported Penn State, Xavier, Villanova, Maryland and Indiana as the programs recruiting him hardest in an update following his trip.
Another big climber in the updated rankings is Reid Ducharme, who continues to have Penn State in a top three that also includes Xavier and Syracuse. Ducharme and BABC teammate TJ Power each had monster Peach Jam performances, including a 42-point effort for Ducharme. He was also an All-Peach Jam first team selection with his 21.6 ppg average.
Not far behind, Amani Hansberry kept with the trend of Penn State standout Nike AAU performances to close out his tournament season. Also a first-team selection with Team Durant, the 6-8 forward shot up to No. 87 in the updated rankings after being previously unranked. He posted 16.1 points and 10.3 rebounds per game.
