Video Breakdown: Penn State basketball lands more length and athleticism
Penn State put another brick in the wall of building the roster for next winter with North Carolina big-man Puff Johnson. New head coach Mike Rhoades adds his fourth player through the transfer portal on Wednesday afternoon with Johnson.
To get a better sense of what the Nittany Lions are getting with Johnson, check out our video breakdown with insider Nate Bauer and host Thomas Frank Carr. Subscribe to Blue White Illustrated on YouTube so you don’t miss any content!
Penn State gets former prized prospect with Johnson
“He’s 6-8 200-pounds. He can play multiple positions. He’s like that wing-hybrid kind of deal,” Bauer explains
In 2020 Johnson was a high four-star player and a 95.22 overall player in the class according to the composite of the three major rankings. The Pittsburgh native was the 62nd overall player in the class and the 16th overall player at his position. Despite that, things didn’t go how he would have liked with the Tar Heels. However, he is still an athletic high-ceiling addition to the Penn State roster.
Yeah, very much so. I’m not going to sit here and project starting-not starting. I think that there are a lot of dominoes that still need to fall. But yeah, he rebounds the ball. He had 2.7 rebounds per game over the last two years.”
More room to grow?
Despite his size and physical tools, the impact was never consistent, but Bauer thinks he still was a big part of the last two seasons for North Carolina.
“So I think it just depends on the situation that you see him in. Right. Because sometimes the impact doesn’t seem to be all that great. But if you look back at some of his highlights and some of the performances that he had in his career at North Carolina, he came through. Up to and including, I believe it was in the national championship game that North Carolina was in a couple of years ago,” Bauer explained.
T-Frank is shocked at the amount of size and length that Rhoades has amassed in only a few weeks for Penn State. While they still lack a true big man, the overall roster is getting taller.
“I find this to be a little bit shocking, having watched Penn State for about a decade now, that they’re going to have three players at 6-8,6-7, and 6-6 out there. So they actually have basketball length out on the court, it’s not going to be a bunch of [short] guys and then maybe one dude who’s 6-7 and has length.”
Penn State still has more work to do to build an entire team for next season, with only seven players committed to the roster.
