Lost in the Romeo Langford hype, Penn State quietly adds two significant recruits

While Indiana was neck deep in pomp and circumstance this week, celebrating the commitment of Romeo Langford, you know, the Abraham Lincoln of college basketball, Pat Chambers, per the usual, flew under-the-radar as his Nittany Lions landed two less-heralded but significant nonetheless commitments of its own in Myreon Jones and Izaiah Brockington.

And while neither player was the name many in State College were hoping for - cough JOE CREMO cough, Jones and Brockington provide both short-and-longterm intrigue for the Nittany Lions.

-Myreon Jones

Barring any additional transfers or carefrontations, the three-star combo guard from Georgia becomes the fourth and final member of Penn State’s 2018 recruiting class.

That recruiting class, by the way, features four guards and no player over 6-foot-7 as Pat Chambers continues to stockpile backcourt pieces like they’re Necco Wafers post discontinuation announcement.

While on its face it seems strange to invest so heavily in one position group, prioritizing landing the most talented players you can, positional variance be damned, is far smarter than reaching for a tall dude just because conventional wisdom says you need to.

Players turning pro and transferring tend to sort these things out, with the cream ultimately rising to the top.

And in Myreon Jones, Chambers is getting a player with the skills necessary to be the best of the 2018 bunch.

A former Memphis commit who decommitted from the Tigers following the departure of Tubby Smith, Jones averaged 19 points, 4.7 rebounds and 4.3 assists in his final season at Lincoln Academy.

Measuring in at 6-foot-3 and 170 lbs, he’ll have some developing to do before he’s ready to contribute in the Big Ten. Because of this, he has remained a bit of an enigma among recruiting services, with Rivals ranking Jones as the 38th best player at his position, while 247 Sports slots him in as the 81st best overall prospect in the country.

With a jump shot the looks an awful lot like Tony Carr’s and a frame similar to former Nittany Lions Isaiah Washington, what becomes of Jones over the next four years is anyone’s guess.

But looking through the countless number of highlight packages on YouTube, it isn’t hard to see why Chambers and company decided to take an educated gamble on their latest commit.

-Izaiah Brockington

Brockington, a former star at Northeast Philadelphia’s Archbishop Ryan High School, represents another feather in Pat Chambers’ southeastern Pennsylvania recruiting hat, albeit with a more roundabout path than most.

Despite a high school career that saw him score over 1,200 points, the 6-foot-4 guard had a rather underwhelming recruitment, ultimately signing a letter of intent with NJIT. However after a change of heart, Brockington was granted his release before ever stepping foot on campus and, after flirting with the idea of prep school, found his way to western New York by joining the Bonnies.

Now, after a freshmen campaign that saw Brockington’s playing time diminish as the season wore on, Penn State is hoping that the transfer, who will sit one and play three, has finally found a home in State College.

There’s a lot to like about Brockington’s game, as he showed flashes of the player he could be last year with an 18 point outing against Maryland-Eastern Shore and a 20 point game against TCU.

And while he won’t provide a potential option to replace Tony Carr’s minutes in 2018-’19, he’ll be counted on to contribute to a Penn State team that’ll lose the services of senior Josh Reaves, and potentially juniors Lamar Stevens and Mike Watkins, after this upcoming season.