I know Penn State basketball probably isn’t on your minds, what with the football team coming off an inspiring 20-0 win over Minnesota, and a big game against the hated Wolverines this Saturday. But in just a few weeks the Nittany Lions will take to the hardwood (we’ll have some preview posts coming up until then) and just today Penn State secured a basketball commitment, the first of the 2011 class: point guard Trey Burke, ScoutHoops reported today.

Burke is a 5’11, 160 pound guard from Columbus, Ohio (the hometown of former Lion Jamelle Cornley). Scout.com has not yet ranked Burke, but Rivals awards him 3 stars, and rates Burke the #105 player in his class, the #23 point guard.  ESPN, as always, goes above and beyond, grading Burke an 88, and offering the following scouting report:

Trey is a scoring point. He has really raised his game this spring and summer. Trey led his team to the 16 & Under National Championship. He is tough, scrappy and a great competitor. Offensively Burke has a lot of moves and tricks. He has a good floater in the lane and an excellent pull up mid range game. Trey is also a solid jump shooter with range to 20 feet. He is a solid defender that is an excellent ball hawk. He seems to pick unsuspecting ball handlers about once every game. Trey has a solid basketball IQ. His grit, tenacity and competitiveness separate him from others.

There’s really a lot more there, and it’s all good stuff.  I suggest you check it out.

Burke drew interest from some good schools.  Rivals lists 8 written offers, from Butler, Akron, and Stephen F. Austin among other MAC and Horizon League schools, but some big time programs had also shown interest in the guard, with Cincinnati, Notre Dame, West Virginia, and Ohio State, among others, taking a long, hard, look at the youngster, and with another year and a half to go before he shows up on campus, there would be plenty of time for one of those programs to offer him a full scholarship.

Here is a highlight video, and he certainly looks like a very smooth player. I, for one, can’t wait to see him in the blue and white.

It’s interesting that Penn State chose to take another guard in this class, but his scholarship is one of many Penn State  will have to give out for 2011, following the graduations of Talor Battle, Jeff Brooks, David Jackson, Andrew Jones, Andrew Ott, and he joins combo guard Taran Buie (the half-brother of Talor Battle, if you’d forgotten) as future PSU recruits.  Penn State has just one serviceable big man on the roster, and that’s Andrew Jones, who’s already a junior. You’d have liked to see another center come in, but perhaps Ed DeChellis is going to try and push an up-tempo offense to counter the traditional slow-pace of Big Ten teams. It could create some real matchup problems, just like Villanova did when they went with a 4-guard offense a couple years ago.  With a few more scholarship to hand out, though, I wouldn’t worry about the lack of a big man just yet.