Penn State Signee D.J. Gordon Not Surprised with Nittany Lions Rise
D.J. Gordon can still remember the incredulous squints and skeptical scowls he received after announcing his commitment to Penn State back in October.
“People just didn’t understand why I picked them,” Gordon recalled. “They were saying it’s a football school and they weren’t good and things like that. I knew different.”
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Gordon, a senior shooting guard at First Love (Pittsburgh, Penn.), picked the Nittany Lions over Iowa, Minnesota and Pittsburgh, and with roughly two weeks left in the regular season, he’s relishing the last laugh.
Penn State opened the week at No. 9 in the top 25, tying a record for the program’s highest ranking since 1996. The Nittany Lions fell to Illinois 62-56 on Tuesday and face Indiana on Sunday.
“I don’t hear from those people anymore,” Gordon said with a laugh. “The silence says it all.”
Gordon knows how this will sound, but from witnessing the cohesiveness of the team and coaches to the tunnel-vision focus on and off the court, he’s adamant that he saw Penn State’s rise coming.
“I noticed it on my visits,” Gordon said. “You could tell that they were locked in and on the same page. I expected this, seriously.”
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This season, Gordon is averaging 21 points and eight rebounds a game for the Knights and admitted that Penn State’s stellar season adds pressure for he and the other three recruits in the 2020 class for next season.
“But I love that,” Gordon said. “There will be a lot of competition in practice next season and that’s only gonna make us a stronger team. We’re having a great season and that probably surprises everyone but the people in the locker room and our class. We knew what we were capable of. Now the focus is to keep it all going.”