Previously: Tim Frazier, Jermaine Marshall, Jonathan Graham, Ross Travis

Ed: I'm finally wrapping up this series by including the last three scholarship guys who are at the end of the rotation heading into next year. While the hoops content has been a little slow this month, things will pick up with camps/recruiting this summer. I promise.

Sasa Borovnjak

In his first full season in the rotation, Sasa had a pretty good year. He was efficient and had the highest eFG% on the team (56.6%), but most of that was due to his low usage rate. He shot less than only Matt Glover when he was on the floor and averaged less than 3 FGA per game in conference play. However, he was coming off a medical redshirt, and his knee showed no ill-effects after he tore his ACL the first week of practice in 2010. In his best performance of the year, he made all seven of his shots for 15 points against Ole Miss. He's a crafty, offensive-minded player who has great hands and can create some space on the low block, but he's never been very athletic, and the ACL tear didn't help.

Sasa's biggest struggles came on the defensive end, where he had issues defending taller, more athletic bigs. He also had trouble with the right rotations out of zone looks, leaving the team vulnerable to open jumpers. Playing time is still up for grabs at the 5-spot with Graham and Ackerman, but Sasa will need to work on his defense if he hopes to earn more. It was great to see Sasa finally get the chance to contribute, but he needs to fulfill a larger role on offense and improve his defense if he's going to be a factor next season. Grade: C

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Earlier today, the schedule for the 2012 edition of the Big Ten-ACC Challenge was announced, and the powers that be decided to pair together Penn State and Boston College for a second straight year. This time, however, the Eagles will make a return trip to Happy Valley, where PSU will attempt to repeat last year's victory up in Boston. The game will be played on Wednesday November 28th, which is the second and final night of a challenge that will feature marquee matchups such as Ohio State at Duke, UNC at Indiana, and NC State at Michigan, to name a few. All 12 games of the challenge will be broadcast in some way, shape, or form through the Dear Worldwide Leader (ESPN) series of networks.

During the DC leg of the Coaches Caravan tour, Pat Chambers mentioned how the folks in charge of scheduling at PSU were working to set up a home-and-home series with DC-area programs such as Georgetown, George Mason, and Maryland. Consider me disappointed then, when my dreams of a Penn State-Maryland showdown in this year's challenge were dashed. I suppose there's always 2013...

This announcement adds yet another confirmed non-conference game to the 2012-13 basketball schedule, which along with the already announced participation in the Puerto Rico Tipoff Tournament the week before Thanksgiving, home dates with Bucknell, Duquesne, and Penn, as well as a road date with LaSalle at the Palestra, is shaping up to be a semi-appealing OOC slate thus far.

Previously: Tim Frazier, Jermaine Marshall, Jonathan Graham

Ross Travis committed to Ed DeChellis in the fall of 2010. He was one of the more hyped members of the 2011 class and chose PSU over Iowa, Minnesota, and other high major programs. Scouts raved about his athleticism and potential, while the concerns revolved around his health, as he battled through back problems in high school. After his freshman campaign, we've seen his athleticism and look forward to his progress. Hailed by Chambers' as his 'junkyard dog' for his all out effort on the floor, there's no doubt Ross' development will be a key component to the success of future PSU teams.

The Numbers

The Good

Ross was able to play in every game and showed no lingering health issues. He had a late growth spurt in high school which was attributed to his back problems that caused him to miss half of his junior year. His athleticism matched the scouting reports, and it was evident by his rebounding. His individual offensive and defensive rebounding percentages were better than Geary Claxton's underclassmen marks, although Geary saw much more action than Ross did this past year. Regardless, Ross was PSU's best rebounder when he was in the game this season.

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In one of the strangest basketball recruitments in a while, Sheldon Jeter finally made his pledge to Vanderbilt University last night. It was a disappointing end to what looked like a promising story after Jeter made many trips to State College in the past 5 months. We wish Sheldon well and expect he'll do great things at the underrated program, but it's time for PSU fans to move on from what turned into an overblown ordeal.

Sheldon Jeter was never a program-changer. The aura around him took a life of its own thanks to social media, his high school success (leading to the much-publicized state final against Brandon Austin), his patience with the process, and his silence to the media during it all. He was simply the only known target Chambers was pursuing in 2012 since January, and his gaudy high school numbers and incoming offers helped boost the hype.

He is a good prospect that has a high ceiling, but let's not kid ourselves. He wasn't going to have an instant impact as a starter next season at PSU. I definitely wanted him for the long-term and thought he could be a key contributor to the PSU turnaround, but he wasn't the can't-miss Top 100 guy this program has constantly whiffed on. Chambers has already lured in one of those.

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Previously: Tim Frazier, Jermaine Marshall

Jon Graham was expected to be a big part of this team's future after Ed DeChellis claimed he had all-conference potential. Using his redshirt year to put on muscle, Graham matured into a legitimate 6'8" 240 pound post player. But as we saw this season, especially at the start, Graham was very raw and nowhere near the caliber of a starting Big Ten player, let alone all-conference. After a bout with mono sidelined him for a month, Graham starting to make noticeable improvement in February during the dog days of Big Ten season. It was enough to earn him the Most Improved Player award at the hoops banquet.

The Numbers

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Chambers hinted a few months ago on his radio show that Penn State would be participating in the 2012 Puerto Rico Tip-Off in November. The ESPN sponsored event usually has one of the strongest fields of all the preseason exempt tournaments. Through Jeff Goodman at CBS and ESPN's event twitter, it appears the 8-team field has been set.

NC State, Providence, Tennessee, Oklahoma State, Massachusetts, Southern Mississippi, and Akron will join the Lions in Puerto Rico on November 15th, 16th, and 18th. Since NCAA rules allow teams to play a maximum of four games in these exempt events, PSU will likely play one of those 7 teams in the 14 days leading up to the tournament. This year Purdue hosted Western Michigan before heading to Puerto Rico. The times and matchups for the event have yet to be announced, but don't be surprised to see PSU locked up with Southern Miss, DJ Newbill's old school, at some point so ESPN has something to promote (just like the former coach angle with UMass and Oklahoma State).

It might not seem like an intimidating field at first glance, but this could again go down as one of the toughest this season. Providence and NC State don't lose too much in addition to bringing in Top-10 classes, while Oklahoma State returns LeBryan Nash and adds a Top-20 class. Even Tennessee, UMass, and Akron return significant parts from their NIT squads. While it might not a feature a Kentucky, make no mistake. This is a quality field across the board.

*Just a few games to pass along, Chambers said at a booster event in Allenberry that PSU was also scheduled to play Duquesne and Bucknell at home, while taking a trip to Philly to play La Salle at the Palestra next season. Throw in the Big Ten/ACC challenge game and that's a great start to a 13-game non-conference schedule.

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Previously: Tim Frazier

Jermaine Marshall was one of the previous staff's favorites. He committed to Ed DeChellis right after his junior year and was expected to contribute from day one. Unfortunately he tore his patella tendon in his knee during his senior season at Red Land high school and took a redshirt year to get back to 100%. Playing behind Talor Battle and Tim Frazier last year, Marshall didn't get consistent playing time. But there were a few flashes that gave fans reason to be excited for the future.

That's why many were surprised when it was announced in October that Marshall had been suspended indefinitely by Coach Chambers. With so little experience, Marshall was expected to be one of the guys to step up. The exact details behind the suspension never emerged publically, but Marshall stuck it out with Chambers and his program and got things turned around in 2012.

The Numbers

I'm always a fan of players who pick up their production in conference play, but as mentioned, Jermaine got off to a slow start due to missing all of preseason practice. He was absent for the season-opener against Hartford and didn't play more than 20 minutes in the first 7 games.

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Tim Frazier was the only known commodity entering this past season with valuable playing experience, but that didn't mean there weren't questions surrounding his game. Here was a player who constantly frustrated his upperclassmen teammates the previous year with his constant refusal to shoot the basketball. There is something to be said for unselfish players, but there comes a point where it's detrimental to the team. How was a player that was so trigger-shy suppose to lead a team devoid of any proven weapons? We got our answers.

The Numbers

Not listed here is Tim Frazier's season assist rate, which just so happened to be the best in the country at a 45.3 mark. I already took a deeper look into Frazier's assist numbers earlier this season. However, it needs to be reiterated how incredible these numbers are despite being on a team that shot the ball so poorly (38.4% without Frazier).

By the way, Frazier officially accounted for 60.1% of PSU's total FGM on the season whether scoring or assisting. No big deal.

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