Zach Hicks Transferring To Penn State From Temple

Mike Rhoads and co. are continuing to roll.

Just three days after the team received the news that they will be retaining the third of their five scholarship players from the 2022 recruiting class, the team has added another impact player via the transfer portal.

Zach Hick, who had played the previous two seasons for Temple, told Jon Rothstein on Thursday that he was committing to the Nittany Lions.

While Temple, under former Penn State assistant coach Adam Fisher, was a finalist for Hick, he ultimately chose to don the Blue and White.

The decision was made in spite of his parents, who had previously told reporters that they’d prefer he head to Temple or UTEP (one of his other finalists).

Hicks started every game for Temple last season and averaged 32.3 minutes per game, making him the program’s second most-utilized player during the 2022-23 season.

He averaged 9.6 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game in addition to being active on defense.

The Forward joins former VCU players and now official Penn State guards Ace Baldwin and Nick Kern as incoming transfers for the program who will make up the squad’s Junior group.

The announcement leaves the Nittany Lions with seven scholarship spots left they could fill, so they will certainly continue to work.

It wouldn’t be a shock if two of their vacant spots are currently being held for Evan Mahaffey and Kebba Njie, who remain in the portal as part of the soon-to-be Sophomore class but the staff would probably like to see return.

Among external transfer portal targets, the most talked about player for Penn State remains VCU’s Jalen DeLoach, though he has announced his recruitment is “wide open” at this point.

Big man Qudus Wahab is set to visit Penn State this weekend. Other players who have said Penn State was recruiting them (since the hiring of Rhoads) include Niagara’s Noah Thomasson, Kansas State’s Ismael Massoud, UMass’ RJ Luis and Virginia’s Kadin Shedrick, though none of those four have a publicly announced visit to PSU at this time.

For the 2023 recruiting class, the staff has made the final five for Brady Dunlap and could potentially still be looking to win Carey Booth and/or Logan Imes back to the program, though those may be losing battles with their familiarity with Shrewsberry and having not arrived on campus full-time.

Updated Scholarship Chart: