Committany Nation Basketball Edition: July Evaluation Period Ends

Ending With A Bang

Like the two periods before it, Pat Chambers and the Penn State Nittany Lions have been busy in the AAU circuit evaluating talent. What makes this period different from the other two however, is the fact that two of Chambers’ three scholarship openings have already been filled. Chambers took the opportunity to do double-duty this time around, spending some time watching newly committed Rasir Bolton compete in the Adidas Summer Championship with Team Loaded, while longtime commit Myles Dread competed with Team Takeover in Nike’s The Eight. Both teams ended up winning the championship at their respective events, so both of Chambers’ commits will come out of their AAU careers as champions.

Bolton and Dread might lack that elusive fourth star (as per composite rankings), but no one can deny that Chambers has found two players that are not only winners, but have been around the big stage and know what it takes to build a winning team.

Let’s have Myles put it in his own words:*

In Other News

As expected, Jake Forrester released his top 8 last Friday, and Penn State was not in it. That means the prospect of a big in this class may be all but gone, with many of the reported players Penn State is currently pursuing being of the guard/wing variety. After all, guys like Dwayne Cohill are still very much on the table for Penn State, but many of those may come down to them choosing to go somewhere else.

Also, as Bolton himself showed, things can change overnight, but at this point don’t be surprised if Chambers decided to keep the extra scholarship awhile longer.

Anyway, here’s a sampling of where Chambers was spotted this past weekend.

New Offers

Penn State’s offer sheet for 2019 and 2020 is starting to fill out pretty well, with two new reported offers on the books for each recruiting year.

Zion Bethea is a 2020 guard prospect with offers from Georgetown, Rutgers, Minnesota, and UMass.

Penn State seems to be the first high major offer for Tre Mitchell, a 2019 forward prospect out of Elizabeth, PA. Chambers may be trying to get in on the action early with Mitchell. We shall see.

That’s it for today, and for the July period. We’ll keep you updated as things develop in the next few months. Penn State will go to its foreign tour next week, so expect a quiet August barring a surprise commitment.

*Mr. Dread is half-right. Stars do matter, but mainly on the aggregate.