Penn State landed sharpshooter Brant Byers from Miami-Ohio yesterday, and today the Nittany Lions added more shooting to its roster with the addition of former Davidson guard Roberts Blums.
While Blums did not start for Davidson, he was the Wildcats’ leading
scorer on the year at 12.4 PPG in 22.3 minutes per night. Blums calling card — as alluded to above — is his deep shooting ability. He ripped off 5.9 threes per game, making them at a 40.7% clip. Six three-point attempts in 22 minutes is *a lot* of volume in a short period of time, but when you watch his highlights you can see how he’s capable of doing it. He can shoot off movement and needs very little time to fire it up. Of course there’s the worry of how his shot translates to the Big Ten — he shot 63.6% on 77 free throw attempts which isn’t ideal — but it’s not like the Atlantic 10 is a slapdick conference. Outside of the Mountain West, it’s probably the best “mid-major” conference.
I’ll tell ya what, I kind of dig what Penn State is doing in the portal. I’m still skeptical if Jay Rodgers starting at point guard is the plan, but Blums-Byers-Prkačin-Juric is intriguing from an offensive perspective. Defensively? Yeah, might going upstream without a paddle, but I can get behind the idea of the starting 5.
