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Sedee Keita reportedly visiting this weekend; Top-100 big man lists Penn State in top six

With one scholarship to give, the Penn State scholarship matrix makes the case for a big man to round out the class.

Looks like the staff is pushing hard for 6-10 Sedee Keita of Putnam Science Academy in Connecticut. And, after being off the radar for a while, the Nits have landed in Keita’s top six:

“The Black Cager” blogger Delgreco Wilson, posting on the Temple board, reports that Keita is scheduled to visit Penn State Saturday, and will be joined by commits Nazeer Bostick, Tony Carr and Lamar Stevens, as well as fellow Philly hoopsters and current Nittany Lions Mike Watkins and Shep Garner:

“He [Keita] is scheduled to visit PSU next week… Lamar, Nazeer, Carr will be there along with Shep and Mike Watkins to make him feel welcomed…

PSU recruits Philly better than everyone right now…

Keita is ranked No. 78 by ESPN.

Another name that’s not been heard in a while tweeted to the surface this week, too:

The 6-9 Ado, from Chattanooga, is ranked No. 68 in the ESPN top 100, No. 74 by Rivals and No. 101 composite by 247. Scout says

“Ado is a defensive master who blocks shots prolifically and appears to relish contact. He stands a solid 6-10, 225 pounds, but more importantly he competes with a voracious attitude. He doesn’t attempt to float on the perimeter or attempt ballhandling trickery that’s currently outside his grasp. While developing offensively, he does show some promise on that end of the court as well.”

Meanwhile, some of Penn State’s other recruits are shaking out following the Stevens commitment. Two wing forwards previously scheduled to visit, Top-50 recruit Mario Kegler and Cleveland’s Willie Jackson, appear to be headed elsewhere. Kegler has canceled his Sept. 26 visit, and Jackson is announcing his college choice tomorrow.

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Lamar Stevens commits to Penn State: With one more to give, already best class ever?

Lamar Stevens, a consensus top-100 forward from Philadelphia, has committed to Penn State, making it an historic Nittany Lion recruiting class.

https://twitter.com/lamarstevens11/status/644960405400502272

The 6-6 Stevens is a teammate at Roman Catholic with two other Penn State commits – point guard Tony Carr and shooting guard Nazeer Bostick. The three, who also played AAU basketball together with Team Final, join Joe Hampton of Hyattsville, MD, a senior at Oak Hill Academy in Virginia.

Based on current recruiting rankings, the four compose the best recruiting class in Penn State history. Only the 1997 recruiting class of Pete Lisicky and Calvin Booth comes close when comparing recruiting rankings. As far as college accomplishment, 2007’s Stanley Pringle, Jeff Brooks and Talor Battle set a pretty good standard.

This group, with two consensus four-star recruits in Carr and Stevens and with Hampton, whom ESPN rates as a four-star and top 100, joins two four-star recruits in this year’s freshman class, Josh Reaves and Mike Watkins.

And Penn State still has one scholarship to give. While basketball chalk would suggest a big man is critical to the class, that may be less important in the era of positionless basketball – or given who is available and willing to commit.

Hampton’s Oak Hill teammate Mario Kegler, a 6-7 forward and consensus top-50 recruit, is scheduled to visit Sept. 26. Sedee Keita, a 6-9 post player at Putnam Academy in Connecticut who has visited Penn State, is still being pursued. ESPN has Keita as the No.78 senior in the country and he’s a 247 composite ranking four-star recruit.

Penn State is also aggressively chasing 2017 center Mohamed Bamba, a top-10 talent who would have seemed a huge reach prior to Penn State’s last two classes. Still a stretch, but less so.

Bamba is at the Westtown School near West Chester, PA, and is from New York. Penn State has two New Yorkers on its current roster – Jordan Dickerson and Terrence Samuel.

Commit 247 Composite 247 ESPN Rivals Scout
and still to visit ….          
Mario Kegler
6-7 F
Jackson, MS

32

Four Star

27

Five Star

32

Four Star

29

Four Star

46

Four Star

Tony Carr
6-3 G
Philadelphia, PA

47

Four Star

80

Four Star

50

Four Star

48

Four Star

37

Four Star

Lamar Stevens
6-6 F
Philadelphia, PA

88

Four Star

85

Four Star

100

Four Star

81

Four Star

68

Four Star

Joe Hampton
6-6 F
Hyattsville, MD

156

Three Star

264

Three Star

98

Four Star

NR

Three Star

NR

Three Star

Nazeer Bostick
6-4 G
Philadelphia, PA

257

Three Star

266

Three Star

NR

Three Star

NR

Three Star

NR

Three Star

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ESPN’s Myron Medcalf: Penn State among top 10 teams expecting bounce-back seasons in 2015-16

ESPN blogger Myron Medcalf:

Penn State: After finishing 18-16 and 4-14 overall last season, Patrick Chambers is now 16-56 in the Big Ten and 56-75 overall after four seasons. And the Nittany Lions lost D.J. Newbill, who averaged 20.7 PPG. But Chambers has a talented recruiting class that will allow the program to spread the load more than it has in recent years. Josh Reaves and Mike Watkins are both four-star recruits who will join Shep Garner, Brandon Taylor and Geno Thorpe [sic – oops!]. The Nittany Lions finished top-50 in adjusted defensive efficiency and lost seven Big Ten games by six points or less. Don’t be surprised if Penn State improves in 2015-16.

Source: Top 10 teams expecting bounce-back seasons in 2015-16 season – Men’s College Basketball Blog – ESPN

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Ouch! Dylan Painter to Villanova

Congratulations to Painter, who told COBL that Villanova was his dream school:

“I guess it’s always been kind of my dream school, and over the last couple months, me and Coach Wright have had a great bond,” Painter told CoBL exclusively on Tuesday night. “He’s always been honest to me, just about their plan for me; they laid out a really good plan for me.”

Penn State has two open scholarships for this recruiting class. Delgreco Wilson (phillyhoops4ever), who has his ear to the ground in Philadelphia, wrote on a St. Joseph’s board last night that the word on the street was Painter to ‘Nova, consensus top-100 Lamar Stevens to Penn State. He was right about Painter….

The biggest Penn State recruiting news following the summer evaluation periods remains that consensus top-50 Mario Kegler has an official visit scheduled to Penn State September 26.

Stevens and Kegler would be a monster haul, but the chalk probably calls for a low-post defender in the mix.

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Camp Hill Trinity’s Sean Good gets offer

No immediate commitments from the big recruiting weekend, but some news emerged: Camp Hill Trinity’s Sean Good was offered by the Penn State staff.

PennLive added some color to the report:

Penn State head coach Patrick Chambers extended the offer to the 6-11 Good while he and his parents were tucked away in the Beaver Stadium stands.

“It was really surprising,” Good recalled, referring to a memorable outing that included Penn State’s 27-14 victory over Buffalo. “Half the day had gone by, but it was really fun. All of a sudden he came up and said it, that they were offering a full scholarship. … All of us were like in shock. We were all so happy.

“It was pretty overwhelming, yeah.”

PennLive also confirmed that that Hershey’s Dylan Painter, Philly’s Lamar Stevens and Parma Hill, Ohio’s Dwayne Cohill were also on campus.

Painter didn’t tip his hand to Adam Zagoria:

“I’ve been there many times so I didn’t really see anything new but I just really enjoyed spending time with the staff and players,” Painter said on Sunday. “The atmosphere at the football game was great. And they said I could play the 4 or the 5 and they would like me to stretch the floor and play inside.”

Painter recently visited Villanova officially and is also considering Xavier, St. Joe’s, Rhode Island, N.C. State and George Washington, he said.

He’s uncertain what his next move will be.

“I’m just going to talk with my parents about what is next,” he said. “Either taking another visit or focusing on the schools I have now.”

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Weekend recruiting update

Lamar Stevens is in town:

https://twitter.com/LamarStevens11/status/642476229598289920

No word yet about who else is on campus, but Dwayne Anderson tweeted:

https://twitter.com/waynethepres/status/642529088238919680

Burying the lede

Big news dropped about the weekend of Sept. 26:

Kegler is a teammate of Penn State commit Joe Hampton at Oak Hill Academy in Virginia, where frosh Josh Reaves went to school. He’s highly ranked and highly sought after:

mario-kegler

Said to be most interested in Arizona State, UConn, Indiana, Maryland and Mississippi State, he has 22 schools, including 17 Power Five conference schools.

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Huge recruiting weekend ahead

Philadelphia’s Lamar Stevens ’16 and Hershey’s Dylan Painter ’16 will make official visits this weekend, and Camp Hill’s Sean Good ’18 will make an unofficial visit.

Stevens and Painter, AAU teammates with Penn State commits Tony Carr and Nazeer Bostick, would make an already outstanding recruiting class the clear best in school history. Penn State also had a commitment from Oak Hill Academy’s Joe Hampton.

Stevens has said he is down to Penn State, Marquette, Indiana, Temple, Pitt, Villanova, SMU and Maryland. City of Basketball Love reported the Stevens official visit today:

“Penn State, I’ve seen, but I want to see what they have to say, what’s changed over time and how they see me in their program,” said Stevens, who has already made an unofficial visit to the school. “And I want to see how I could fit in each program I visit. I want to meet with some of the new players on each campus and see how I could blend in if I went to any of the schools.”

Painter has listed Penn State, Villanova, George Washington, NC State, Xavier, St. Joseph’s and Rhode island. Painter talked about his Penn State visit with 247sports yesterday:

“I’ve seen the campus and mostly everything. The one thing I haven’t really done is spend time with the staff and players for an extensive time,” he said. “I need to see how comfortable I am around them.”

The 6-10 Good has been on campus before, and had a great summer that attracted other power conference schools.

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ZagsBlog: Dylan Painter still undecided

6-10 Dylan Painter of Hershey is still on the board. He visited Villanova Tuesday and Wednesday.

Dylan PainterAfterward, he spoke with Adam Zagoria (who used that nice photo on the right to illustrate the story):

As for Penn State, it’s about an hour and a half from his home, as is Villanova.

“I really like Coach [Pat] Chambers,” Painter said. “I think he’s a really cool guy. Non-basketball-wise, I like the school itself. I’ve been going there for years even before I started playing basketball.”

Painter made it into the Scout Top 100 released yesterday.

Source: Dylan Painter Enjoys Villanova Visit, Talks Recruiting | ZagsBlog.com