Penn State basketball adds another transfer portal player

For how bleak it was looking for the Penn State basketball program in early April, there has been a full reset on who will be playing in a Nittany Lions uniform this upcoming season.

It was clear that Mike Rhoades would have to hit the transfer portal hard if he and his staff wanted to field a roster in his first season as head coach. Despite many of the underclassmen from last season entering their names into the transfer portal because of the coaching change, he was able to convince two of them to come back to State College. He brought two of his former VCU players with him as well and was able to add players from different programs into the mix as well.

It’s been an important stretch for the basketball program who looked to be heading in the wrong direction after their most successful season in over a decade.

On Tuesday, the roster rebuild continued by getting a commitment from Lafayette graduate transfer Leo O’Boyle.

O’Boyle is a 6’7″ wing who specializes in three point shooting. He’s coming off his career best season where he averaged 11.6 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.2 made threes per game on 45.5% shooting from deep. In 109 career games at Lafayette, he started 87 games and averaged 25.3 minutes per game.

O’Boyle is a Scranton, PA native who will spend his final year of college eligibility playing for the Nittany Lions. He will undoubtedly add experience to a roster that is much younger than the senior laden team that played last year.

So far, the commitments that Rhoades and his staff have gotten shows a couple of things. The first being that he clearly prioritizes the ability to make shots. At least three of the players brought in are known for their ability to hit the deep ball. The second is he truly does value length. Size has been lacking for Penn State in recent years. Rhoades was not going to let that happen on his watch. He had a clear vision of the type of player he wanted on the team.

It’s been a really successful transfer portal period for Rhoades and it doesn’t sound like he’s done yet.

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Story originally appeared on Nittany Lions Wire