Penn State basketball has reached out to a 6-foot-9 forward who’s in the transfer portal from a Power Five school.
Grant Newell, who’s in the transfer portal from Cal, told Jamie Shaw of On3Sports that Penn State’s amongst the schools that have contacted him.
He’s also heard from places such as Arizona State, Colorado State, DePaul, East Carolina, New Mexico, Rice, St. Louis, St. Mary’s, Tulsa, UAV, VCU, Wyoming and Wichita State.
Interestingly enough, two of those programs— Rice and VCU— were run by Mike Rhoades before he took over at Penn State. Newell played at Cal for two seasons, with his freshman campaign being his best. Newell averaged eight points, just under four rebounds and around 27 minutes on his way to making honorable mention for the Pac-12 All-Freshman team.
This past season, Newell regressed statistically.
His PPG fell off from 8 to 5.5, and his rebounds per game regressed slightly as well, going from 3.9 to 3.5.
But Newell was durable for Cal, playing in all 63 of the team’s games.
Considering Cal went 3-29 in his first season and 13-19 in his second, it’s safe to say Newell didn’t have a ton of help.
Before Cal, Newell was a three-star prospect who played at Chicago’s Whitney Young High School.
He also played a post-graduate season at Florida’s famous IMG Academy. He’s in no relation to basketball legend Pete Newell, who Cal’s court is named after.
Penn State would be wise to do some adjusting in the front court this offseason, and maybe the transfer portal is the place to do it. Qudus Wahab, a 6-foot-11 force who averaged around 10 points and eight rebounds per game is out of eligibility.
If Penn State can get somebody to replicate or exceed Wahab’s projection, that would bode well for Year 2 of the Rhoades era.
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