A Scholarship Breakdown For The Penn State Nittany Lions

The Penn State Nittany Lions are coming off what was mostly a feast-or-famine 16-16 season, with 11 losses being by double figures. Patrick Chambers will enter his sixth season as the coach in Happy Valley with just one CBI appearance during his tenure.

Working in Chambers' favor is the fact that he has a roster loaded with redshirted players and no true seniors. The loss of Brandon Taylor hurts, but Shep Garner has the ability to become the team's leader if he can improve on this past season where he averaged 14.8 points and over 3 rebounds and assists per game.

The junior class, (and most veteran for Penn State) is filled out by Payton Banks, Julian Moore, and Terrence Samuel. Banks was the team's third leader scorer, averaging 9.4 points. Moore average just under 4 points per game while playing over 15 minutes per contest. Samuel will be eligible to play after sitting out a season due to transferring from UConn, where he was a contributing member of the 2014 National Championship team.

The sophomore class is made up of Josh Reaves, Isaiah Washington, Deividas Zemgulis. Reaves was a staple in the Nittany Lions' lineup this past season, playing just under 24 minutes per while averaging 6.4 points. Washington and Zemgulis were both role players, averaging over 12 minutes per game and both averaging a shade under 3 points per game.

Penn State currently has four freshmen committed, and according to ESPN, have the 25th best recruiting class in the country. Chambers and staff has landed three 4-star recruits; point guard Tony "Tone" Carr, and forwards Joe Hampton and Lamar Stevens. The Nittany Lions also have a commitment from 3-star forward Nazeer Bostick.

Interestingly, Carr, Stevens, and Bostick were all high school teammates playing at Roman Catholic in Philadelphia. Expect Carr, an ESPN Top 100 player, to see a lot of playing time as a freshman, being the only true point guard on the listed roster.

Penn State has an open scholarship available and has at least two offers out. One offer is to Ian Sistare, a sub-3-star shooting guard. The other is 3-star power forward Darius Hicks, a 6-foot-7-inch recruit out of Mississippi.

The final scholarship has been taken up by Penn State's latest commitment. Virginia's 7-foot Satchel Pierce made his transfer official earlier this month by committing to Chambers and the Nittany Lions. Pierce will of course have to sit out this next season due to NCAA rules.

If Penn State does secure another commitment this summer, recruiting will certainly become an interesting endeavor for the next year, as Chambers will have no guaranteed scholarships to offer to the class of 2017. But with the talent coming in and the devolving roster, Penn State could become a dark horse to make some noise in conference over the next two seasons.