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Nov. 3, 2016
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State men's basketball team hosts Lock Haven in an exhibition contest at 6 p.m. Friday in the Bryce Jordan Center.
STORYLINES
- This the first public exhibition for the Nittany Lions since 2013 vs. Northwood.
- The Lions and Bald Eagles have met 11 times during regular season play with the last meeting coming in 2004.
- Penn State opens the 2016-17 season against Albany at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11 in the BJC. It is the first of three games within the first five days of the season. The Lions will play six games within the first two weeks.
- Five Nittany Lions are poised to see their first action in a Penn State uniform vs. Lock Haven: true freshmen Nazeer Bostick, Tony Carr and Lamar Stevens, as well as redshirt freshman Mike Watkins and junior transfer Terrence Samuel who sat out last season after playing two seasons at UConn.
- Head coach Patrick Chambers named his expected starting lineup Wednesday during media availability, and it includes two freshmen (Carr, Stevens). Junior Payton Banks is currently coming back from a hamstring injury and is considered day-to-day.
PROMO PLANS
- Purcase $5 tickets HERE
- All Penn State students will be admitted FREE with a valid student ID.
- Nittany Lion basketball poster pick up
SCOUTING LOCK HAVEN
- Lock Haven returns two starters from its squad a year ago in Brahieme Jackson, (11.1 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 1.7 spg) and Cole Renninger (4.3 ppg, 1.9 apg, as well as Ra'eese Hunt and Craig Slade who each appeared in 26 games last season. Hunt averaged 9.8 points per game.
- The 2015-16 Bald Eagles went 12-15 overall and 8-14 in the PSAC, earning a spot in their third-consecutive PSAC Tournament.
- The Bald Eagles also added seven freshmen to the team for the upcoming season.
SEASON NOTES
CHAMBERS TAKES ON YEAR SIX
The 2016-17 season marks the sixth year at the helm of the Nittany Lions for head coach Patrick Chambers. The Philly native is coming off one of his best coaching performances in University Park after leading the team to seven Big Ten wins, the most of his career, and 16 overall victories for the third year in a row. The Nittany Lions had not previously reached reached 16 wins in three-consecutive seasons since joining the Big Ten Conference.
#UNLOCKED
The Nittany Lions offered an unprecedented look into their program through a web series called #UNLOCKED, available through the team's social media accounts, as well as GoPSUsports.com / GoPSUnow (search men's basketball). In conjunction with WPSU, the videos feature never before seen access into the Nittany Lion players, coaches, staff and program.
SCORING THREATS
Penn State returns three of its top four scorers from a year ago: Shep Garner (14.8 ppg), Payton Banks (9.4 ppg) and Josh Reaves (6.4 ppg) .
STARTER EXPERIENCE
Five of Penn State's returning letterwinners made at least one appearance in the starting lineup last season, including three who started more than 60 percent of the team's games: Shep Garner (32 starts), Payton Banks (31) and Josh Reaves (20).
TOUGH SLATE
Patrick Chambers and his staff have assembled one of the toughest non-conference slates in program history. The Nittany Lions will face Duke (11/19), Cincinnati or Rhode Island (11/20), George Washington (11/26), Georgia Tech (11/29), Pittsburgh (12/10) and St. John's (12/18).
PHILLY TOUGH
Six players hail from the Philadelphia area on this year's Penn State roster, including four from Roman Catholic High School. Freshmen Nazeer Bostick, Tony Carr and Lamar Stevens joined Shep Garner as PSU players from Roman. Mike Watkins (The Phelps School) and Julian Moore (Germantown Academy) round out the group.
ROMAN CATHOLIC x 4
The four players from Roman Catholic High School in Philadelphia - Shep Garner, Nazeer Bostick, Tony Carr and Lamar Stevens - are believed the only group of four players from the same high school on an active Division I men's basktball roster.
PALESTRA AS HOME COURT
Penn State is taking Big Ten basketball to the City of Brotherly Love, hosting Michigan State in a league matchup Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017 in Philadelphia's historic Palestra. It will count as a home game for the Nittany Lions, who boast six players from the Philly area on this year's roster, in addition to Chambers, a Delaware County native. The game sold out to the public in September.
NEW FACES
In addition to the members of the freshman recruiting class, the Nittany Lions welcomed rookie walk-on Grant Hazle from Houston, Texas this fall. Satchel Pierce, a 7-footer from Virginia Tech, transferred to Happy Valley in the offseason and will sit out the upcoming campaign. Terrence Samuel, a backup guard on UConn's 2014 National Championship team, is coming off his year of sitting out and will be primed for action in 2016-17, joining redshirted freshman Mike Watkins, who was not eligible to compete last season.
NO SENIORS HERE
There is not a single senior on the Nittany Lions' 2016-17 roster. Juniors Shep Garner and Payton Banks are the veterans of the squad, along with UConn transfer Terrence Samuel. Virginia Tech transfer Satchel Pierce also is a junior and will have two years of eligibility remaining beginning next year. Eleven of 15 players on the roster have freshman or sophomore year eligibility, including Pierce.
FREQUENT TRAVELERS
Head coach Patrick Chambers has not shied away from taking his squads away from home in the non-conference. The Lions have five road or neutral games before league play this year, following up six such contests a year ago.
Penn State's trips this season include stops in metro area hotbeds: New York (St. John's/MSG), Newark (Pitt/Prudential Center), Washington (GW/Smith Center), in addition to the Palestra stop to face Michigan State.
LIONS IN THE PROS
Tim Frazier signed a two-year, $4.1-million contract with the NBA's New Orleans Pelicans in July following a stint with them late last season and is currently among the league leaders in assists per game. He is Penn State's first NBA player since Calvin Booth finished a 10-year NBA career in 2009.
All four members of 2016 senior class are currently playing professionally overseas. Jordan Dickerson (Serbia), Devin Foster (Georgia), Donovon Jack (England) and Brandon Taylor (Greece) are all on teams to start the season. They join Nittany Lion legend D.J. Newbill (Belgium) and Sasa Borovnjak (Serbia) as PSU alums in Europe. All of Penn State's seven players currently playing pro earned their undergraduate degrees.
POSEY ENTERED NAISMITH HOF
Cumberland "Cum" Posey, Jr., recognized as the first African-American student-athlete in Penn State history, was inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Friday in Springfield, Massachusetts this summer. Posey enrolled at Penn State in 1909 and played forward on the freshman basketball team (1909-10) and the varsity basketball team (1910-11), while also playing on the freshman baseball team (1910). Although he did not play in enough games to earn a varsity letter as a Nittany Lion, Posey's impact and influence at Penn State goes well beyond the bound of official records.
121st SEASON PENN STATE BASKETBALL
The Nittany Lions embark on the 121st season of basketball at Penn State and their 26th as a member of the Big Ten in 2016-17. The Lions began play in 1897 with a pair of contests vs. Bucknell. Penn State has made 13 postseason appearances in the last 28 years (4 NCAA, 8 NIT, 1 CBI) and a total of 20 (9 NCAA, 10 NIT, 1 CBI) overall.