Penn State’s revamped roster made a good first impression in the team’s season opener on Monday.
Now, the Nittany Lions hope their second test will be passed just as well when they face Chattanooga on Thursday evening in University Park, Pa.
During the offseason, Penn State remade its roster with 11 new players, many of whom came from around the world to give the Nittany Lions quite an international flavor.
The most noteworthy international transfer was Roko Prkacin, a Croatian who played professionally last season in France.
Prkacin scored 28 points Monday in a 97-57 season-opening win over Canisius.
“He has really good hands and really good feet,” Penn State coach Mike Rhoades said of Prkacin. “He (can) find different ways to score. You saw that with some of his footwork and moves. He’s really good in transition and in the open court as well. He’s going to get better and better.”
Rhoades said he hopes the infusion of players from overseas can help a glaring problem from last season.
“Last year, we had to play certain guys well over 30 minutes, and it just wore everyone down,” he said. “We need the bench. I’ve always usually called it our army. We want to build an army so everybody’s ready to impact the game and impact winning.”
Penn State hopes to get another win on Thursday, against Chattanooga and a familiar face.
The Mocs are coached by Dan Earl, a former point guard at Penn State who will return to his alma mater following his team’s 84-70 loss at No. 11 Louisville in its season opener on Monday.
Chattanooga had seven players who played in their first college game.
“I thought they all played relatively calm for the most part,” Earl said. “They were truly figuring things out on the fly out there, and there are definitely things we need to work on. But it was a positive performance from a lot of the guys.”