Previous Installments: 2004 Class
With a multitude of scholarships available because the transfer train was still rolling at the time, the staff brought in a 6 man recruiting class in 2005.
2005 Class
- Jamelle Cornley (Columbus, OH) - Undersized (only knock), but an absolute warrior. Tremendous leader, who fought through so many injuries and setbacks. Not really much more you can say. Too bad he was only 6’4″, but then again he probably wouldn’t have been a Lion if he was taller.
Career – 122 GP (110 GS) 33.2 MPG 12.9 PPG 6.2 RPG
Grade – A-
Signing Period – Fall 2004 - David ‘Mooch’ Jackson (Gaithersburg, MD) - Junior College transfer, who chose PSU over Auburn. Mooch had a decent stint here, but nothing special. He was brought in as a combo guard at a time where PSU was desperate for a playmaker at PG. He started 51 games here but wasn’t an impact player, proving that he was a Big Ten bench player at best.
Career – 60 GP (51 GS) 27.0 MPG 6.7 PPG 2.6 APG 3.1 RPG
Grade – C
Signing Period – Spring 2005 - Maxwell Dubois (Fort Lauderdale, FL) - Max was recruited as an explosive SG. He suffered a few injuries and never contributed much of anything in his 2 years here. He eventually transferred at the end of the 2006-2007 season, claiming ‘the coaches don’t have plans for me’. Hard to say that this wasn’t a wasted scholarship.
Career – 8 GP (0 GS) 3.5 MPG 1.9 PPG
Grade – F
Signing Period – Spring 2005 - Milos Bogetic (Podgorica, Montenegro) - The first of three true European players in this class. Milos offered great comedy on the court, but not much else. When you transfer because you’re terrified of workouts in the weightroom, you do not deserve any kind of athletic scholarship.
Career – 60 GP (6 GS) 14.8 MPG 3.9 PPG 2.7 RPG”
Grade – F
Signing Period – Spring 2005 - Joonas Suotamo (Espoo, Finland) - Suotamo came from Finland. He was 6’11″ and a film major. And he scored 22 points in 3 years. I know nothing else about the man.
Career – 34 GP (0 GS) 4.7 MPG 0.6 PPG
Grade – F
Signing Period – Spring 2005 - Nikola Obradovic (Belgrade, Serbia) - Obradovic also came from Belgrade, Serbia. He supposedly had a really good 3 point shot in practice. I know even less about this guy than Suotamo.
Career – 23 GP (0 GS) 2.5 MPG 0.3 PPG
Grade – F
Signing Period – Spring 2005
This is easily their worst class, and I’m sure the coaches would admit it. James Johnson bolted for George Mason in June 2005 right after this class was signed (Dan Earl was hired as the replacement). One can speculate that the failure of this class could be a reason why. The 3 European players contributed nothing back to the program. I hope they graduated and are using their Penn State degrees, so at least something good came of the situation. The 5 spring signings shows desperation from striking out in the early period. Poor Jamelle has to be associated with this disastrous class. This recruiting period is reason #1 why it took DeChellis 6 years to put up a winning season.
- 2005 GPA - 0.95
- Cumulate GPA – 1.67
- Signees – 1 Fall, 5 Spring
- Location – 3 from Europe, 1 from OH, 1 from MD, 1 from FL
