By Jeff Rice
You could say Penn State’s basketball veterans use the summer pickup games to stay in shape, to stave off boredom or to try a new move or two.
What they’re really doing, though, is sizing up and building up the new guys.
“We’re just trying to pick apart what they’re doing good, what they’re doing wrong,” junior forward Andrew Jones said.
Four Nittany Lion freshmen are being gently but frequently scrutinzed by their upperclassman peers this summer. Jones’ pet project is Sasa Borovnjak, the 6-foot-9, 230-pound forward from Veritas Christian Academy in Fletcher, N.C.
Borovnjak averaged 26 points and 12 rebounds per game for Veritas as a senior. His likely position at Penn State is power forward, but he’s gone up against Jones — who starts at center for the Nittany Lions but is essentially a power forward— to get an idea of the physical specimens he will see in the Big Ten.
“It’s hard,” said the Serbian- born Borovnjak, who speaks English confidently if not perfectly. “He’s a big guy, and I have to work more and more to get stronger, to be equal with him. He’s taller and stronger. I’m learning from him.” …