In Reply to: Updated Penn State roster preview posted by mh on July 10, 2026 at 16:51:31
There may be a problem. We currently have 13 scholarship players on the roster, and under the 5 for 5 rule, all of them can return next season.
If they all want to return, and we want to retain them, we have two problems. 1) There isn't much playing time available. 2) Retaining players will take a lot of NIL money, which won't leave much for freshmen.
Of course, we could choose to not retain some of the players, and replace them with freshmen. But is that really what we want to do? Do we really want to say goodbye to older, experienced players who know how Mick wants them to play?
If we could get an instant-impact freshman or transfer, we might want to do that, but as we have seen with Blackwood, and Yesufu, those recruitments are far from a sure thing.
There are a couple of quality player in the class of 2027 that we are supposed to be doing very well with. But will there be room for them.
A lot of this will depend on how the season goes. We will get a chance to decide who is playing well and who we want to keep.
BTW, we are not the only team that will have to face this. Unless someone has red-shirted, just about every player on a roster will be eligible to return for another season. Very few current players are going to exhaust their eligibility.
This is not going to be a good year to be a high-school senior looking for a ride and NIL money to play D1 basketball.