Penn State men’s basketball made its 2023 recruiting class official on Wednesday afternoon as part of National Signing Day, bringing home the No. 24 ranked class in the nation according to 247 Sports and No. 27th class nationally according to ESPN. It marks the first time in program history that the Nittany Lions have signed back-to-back top-30 recruiting classes.
The three-member class includes Carey Booth (Englewood, Colo.), Logan Imes (Zionsville, Ind.) and Shrewberry’s son Braeden.
“We are very excited to welcome three quality young men to our Penn State basketball family,” said Shrewsberry. “First and foremost, these three young men come from great families, have tremendous character, and fit in with what we are building culturally. There will always be a focus on skill and versatility as we continue to build this program and all three of these prospects bring that. They can all dribble, pass and shoot at a high level and have good positional size, which allows us to a lot of different things on both the offensive and defensive ends of the court. I couldn’t be more excited for the future of our program, and we have high hopes for what this class will bring both on and off the court during their time in Happy Valley.”
Booth comes to Penn State ranking inside the ESPN Top 100 at No. 75 and as the No. 15 power forward in his class per 247 Sports. As for Imes, the Indiana native is an ESPN four-star prospect who ranks as the No. 24 combo guard in the 2023 class and No. 6 overall player in the state of Indiana per 247 Sports. Braeden Shrewsberry slots in as an ESPN four-star prospect rated the No. 33 shooting guard in the 2023 class and No. 4 player in the state of Pennsylvania per 247 Sports.
For Penn State it is the continuation of a seemingly pivotal moment for a program that has grasped at what it would like to become for the better part of the last half decade. Shrewsberry appears to have to basketball savvy to coach talent to the point of success, but half the battle is getting that talent on campus. With back-to-back classes earning national attention, Shrewsberry has put Penn State in a position to truly build and develop quality Big Ten talent. While that hasn’t escaped Penn State in the past, accruing multiple years worth of talent is a far more important development than the occasional one-off hauls.
The key to landing them according to Shrewsberry? Don’t shoot your shot too high and go after the players you can actually get.
“I think that’s been the biggest thing and we don’t waste our time recruiting guys that don’t fit us,” Shrewsberry told StateCollege.com in October. “There’s not enough time in the day for me to go recruit the No. 2 dude in the country and he ain’t ever coming here. I gotta find the guys that fit us guys that can play here, guys that have potential to be good here and guys who have potential to help us win. And then we go all in and get those guys.”
As for the pitch itself, Penn State boasts a coaching staff with actual NBA experience. Every program in America wants to sell a player on the dream of National Basketball Association in their future, but sometimes it pays off to have actually been there, and actually done that.
“Once you get them on campus, and now they see ‘OK, here’s the hopes and dreams that this coach is talking about,’ but here’s how we implement it. Here’s how we put it into place. Here’s the plan that we have for you to be really good for you to try and make your goals. I think that convinces people that what he says, they’re really are doing. That’s the biggest thing. I’m not a used car salesman. I’m as genuine as I can be. And I’m gonna talk to those guys in that way. If you have the potential to make it [in the NBA] I’m gonna tell you and now I’m gonna help you get there. I’m gonna show you the plan for how you can get there and how you can do it.”
Time will tell if the product will match the sale, but as the Nittany Lions head towards their second season under Shrewsberry’s watch, it’s hard to deny that things are trending in the right direction. Then again anyone who has spent time around this program knows that seeing is believing. That said, it’s hard to deny the early sights as anything but positive ones.
