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Dismissed Penn State guard Kanye Clary makes transfer pick

nate-mug-10.12.14by:Nate Bauer•03/29/24•

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Former Penn State guard Kanye Clary will head to Mississippi State next season after being dismissed from the Nittany lions. (Photo Credit: Matthew O'Haren-USA TODAY Sports)

Penn State basketball’s leading scorer from the 2023-24 season, Kanye Clary, has announced his destination out of the transfer portal. Dismissed from the program on Feb. 18, the result of a coaches’ decision for discipinary reasons, the point guard will play next season at Mississippi State.

He made the announcement via Instagram.

For his career as a Nittany Lion, Clary started 20 of 55 games played, averaging 9.1 points per game over 18.4 minutes while knocking down 45.1 percent of his shots from the floor.

He’ll join a Mississippi State program coming out of a 2023-24 campaign that included a ninth-place finish in the SEC. For the year, the Bulldogs finished 21-14 overall with an 8-10 mark in conference play.

Kanye Clary dismissed from Penn State

The news came of Clary’s dismissal during a Feb. 18 press conference of Penn State head coach Mike Rhoades. Following a weekend loss at Nebraska in which he didn’t make the trip, Clary was announced as no longer with the program.

“Kanye is no longer with the team. Coach’s decision. We’re going to keep moving forward on the guys we got, the task at hand,” said Rhoades. “It came to a point where we’re at that I made the decision as the head coach to move on. I’ll leave it at that.”

Though not providing specifics regarding Clary’s absence for the most recent game, the scoring guard had struggled to regain his footing with the team in the aftermath of a second-half concussion sustained in the final minutes of the Nittany Lions’ 83-74 loss to Minnesota on Jan. 27 at the Bryce Jordan Center.

Then missing Penn State’s road wins at Rutgers and at Indiana, Clary’s return to action against Iowa on Feb. 8 marked a significant drop-off from his prior performances. Scoring eight points over 18 minutes, Clary came off the bench for the first time all season. Then, he followed it with a zero point effort in 14 minutes in a loss at Northwestern on Feb. 11.

“He was out for a while. And then we’re playing different lineups. We’re playing some different lineups and that’s affecting his time in certain scenarios. That’s coach’s decisions and moving things around and all that stuff,” Rhoades said on Feb. 12 at his weekly Penn State press conference. “We need him because he’s a talented player, but we also need him at his best. Some of the lineups we have are working. And that’s what you go with.”

The circumstances would only get worse for Clary at Penn State. Again coming off the bench in a lopsided loss to Michigan State at the BJC on Valentine’s Day, Clary delivered eight points over 23 minutes, including a start for the second half. 

Clary is one of five players with remaining eligibility to hit the transfer portal this offseason for the Nittany Lions, opening four new scholarships ahead of the 2024-25 campaign.

Where things stand for Penn State (9 of 13 scholarships projected filled)

Guards Ace Baldwin, Jahvin Carter, D’Marco Dunn, Dominick Stewart
Wings Nick Kern, Zach Hicks, Puff Johnson, Hudson Ward
Bigs Miles Goodman

Penn State scholarship breakdown by class

Bonus year (2): Ace Baldwin, Puff Johnson
Fourth year (3): Nick Kern, Zach Hicks, D’Marco Dunn
Third year (0): 
Second year (0): 
First year (4): Jahvin Carter, Miles Goodman, Dominick Stewart, Hudson Ward

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