It was clear that to field a team for the upcoming 2023-24 basketball season, new head coach Mike Rhoades and his staff would have to hit the transfer portal hard. Because of the rules that transfer players can get eligibility to play immediately the next season, adding players in this fashion has allowed programs to rebuild quickly.
Penn State fans saw this first hand last season when their team, full of transfers, made their first NCAA Tournament since 2011. Rhoades is hoping to find that same early success by tapping into the transfer portal.
On Thursday, the Nittany Lions landed their third player out of the portal with the commitment from [autotag]Zach Hicks[/autotag]. Originally at Temple, Hicks entered the portal after head coach Aaron McKie and Temple parted ways in March. Former Penn State assistant coach Adam Fisher was named the new Temple coach.
Hicks’ final list of schools was between Penn State, Temple, Georgetown and UTEP before ultimately committing to the Nittany Lions.
NEWS: Temple transfer Zach Hicks tells me that he has committed to Penn State.https://t.co/2q9yXsqjVv
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) April 20, 2023
Hicks was a three-star recruit from Camden, NJ in the class of 2021. He played in 28 games as a freshman for Temple and started all 32 games for them as a sophomore.
He is a 6’7″ forward who has a career three point shooting percentage of 36.3%. In his sophomore season at Temple he averaged 9.6 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.5 made threes per game.
Hicks has the prototypical “Three and D” type of frame on the wing. He’s a long 6’7″ player who attempts more three point shots than two point shots. He’s averaged just under one steal and block per game on the defensive side so should be able to fit into Rhoades defensive scheme well.
This is a big commitment to get for Penn State who continues to try and rebuild their program. It looks like it will be a busy spring and summer period for the Nittany Lions trying to land players through the transfer portal.
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