Penn State’s image doesn’t worry recruit:
“For a guy with as theatrical sounding a name as Maxwell Dubois, you would expect a flamboyant presence.
“But Penn State’s newest recruit of what is now a five-man class presents a facade that’s all business.
“Here’s a kid from Hollywood, Fla., between Fort Lauderdale and Miami, who has enlisted willingly with the figurative and literal Siberia of college basketball. A place with four straight last-place finishes on its ledger, no sun in its winter sky and no high-rises — aquamarine, coral or otherwise — on its skyline.
” ‘I’m fine with the weather,’ Dubois said by phone from Florida. ‘I was born in Brooklyn.’
” Although he was in the Sunshine State by age 5. And the year upon year of losing?
” ‘I understand that,’ he said. ‘The beginning of something good always starts off bad. It had no effect on me. I’m there to make the team better.’
“No sizable city within 90 miles?
” ‘I’m not really going up there for pleasure. I’m going up to get an education and play ball.’
“From all indications, play ball Dubois will. At 6-3 and a skinny 175 but with superior athleticism and skills, he figures to fit in nicely with Ed DeChellis’ ostensible overhaul of the program from feeble to full-throttle. …”