The Juwan Staten Experiment

This is an unprecedented development in Nittany Lion hoops. I know I've never seen anything quite like this since I've been following the team the last decade. Penn State, for once, is actually adding a D-1 transfer and he is significantly better than Andrew Ott. In fact, he might be one of the most talented players the Lions ever had.

Meet Juwan Staten:



Mr. Staten, nicknamed 'The Blur', obviously has been blessed with some great athletic gifts. The 5'11" 190 lb PG just wrapped up his freshman season at the University of Dayton where he averaged 8.5 PPG and 5.4 APG in 29.1 MPG. He finished with the 10th highest assist rate in the land (39.8%). For the record, Tim Frazier's was a solid 33.3%, good for 43rd in the country. 

If Juwan committed to Penn State coming out of high school, he would've been by far this program's highest rated recruit ever, or at least since Pete Lisicky and definitely the highest since the rise of internet recruit rankings. He was a sure-fire top-100 prospect, coming in at #79 in RSCI's class of 2010. Taran Buie, the man who unofficially held the aforementioned title, didn't come close to cracking the top 100.

Now at this point you might be saying, come the hell on, what's the catch? If this kid is so good, why was he at Dayton? And then why did he leave and come here?

I've been trying to find all of this out myself when I first heard he was visiting for Blue-White weekend. All I came across was a bunch of rambling bitterness across Dayton message boards. Clearly The Blur and his decision to transfer was a touchy subject to these people. But in my search for the story, I came across a great Dayton basketball blog written by Tom Blackburn called the Blackburn Review. When Staten's transfer became official, I reached out to him to get his take on the controversy. Here's what he had to say:

2011-12 Basketball Scholarship Matrix

Last Updated: 5/2/2011

This is how the 2011-2012 Nittany Lions' scholarship roster shakes down. I will update this throughout the year with the ever-changing turnover of transfers and recruits. The blank cells in the table represent open scholarships available to the respective year.

	2011-2012	2012-2013	2013-2014	2014-2015
1.	C. Woodyard	T. Frazier	B. Oliver	J. Staten
2.	T. Frazier	B. Oliver	J. Marshall	J. Graham
3.	B. Oliver	J. Marshall	S. Borovnjak	P. Alexis
4.	J. Marshall	S. Borovnjak	T. Bowman	P. Ackerman
5.	S. Borovnjak	T. Bowman	M. Glover	T. Lewis
6.	T. Bowman	M. Glover	J. Staten	R. Travis
7.	J. Staten	J. Staten	J. Graham
8.	M. Glover	J. Graham	P. Alexis
9.	J. Graham	P. Alexis	P. Ackerman
10.	P. Alexis	P. Ackerman	T. Lewis
11.	P. Ackerman	T. Lewis	R. Travis
12.	T. Lewis	R. Travis
13.	R. Travis
Key	Senior	Junior	Sophomore	Freshman

NOTES:

• Billy Oliver, according to GoPSUSports, redshirted in 08-09 and medically red-shirted in 09-10. He will have to apply for a 6th year of eligibility in 2013-2014. PSU listed him as freshman eligibility in 2010-2011, so this matrix is under the assumption that he will qualify for a 6th year. 
• Jermaine Marshall red-shirted in 2009-2010. 
• Sasa Borovnjak medically red-shirted in 2010-2011 with a torn ACL. 
• Jonathan Graham red-shirted in 2010-2011. 
• Juwan Staten is a transfer from Dayton who will have to sit out 2011-2012 because of transfer rules.

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