Former Central hoops standout Tre Bowman commits to Penn State

It looks like Tre Bowman will be playing his college hoops fairly close to home.

The former Central York standout has verbally committed to attend Penn State next fall. Bowman gave the Nittany Lions his verbal on Monday, his father, Terry Bowman, said via email.

The 6-foot-4 shooting guard spent this season playing for the post-graduate team at the St. Thomas More school in Connecticut -- one of the more renowned prep programs in the nation. Bowman started for the team, which features several high-end Division I prospects, and developed into one of its top scorers. Before that, Bowman averaged 21.6 points per game for Central York as a senior in 2008-09.

Bowman was lightly recruited in high school, but his stock seemed to take off the last few months. In addition to offers from several mid-major schools (including La Salle, Quinnipiac, Duquesne and Niagara), St. Thomas More coach Jere Quinn had said in January that Bowman was fielding interest from schools like Boston College, Clemson and Houston.

If he does sign his letter of intent, Bowman would become Penn State's second recruit for the 2010 class, joining Albany, N.Y., guard Taran Buie. The Nittany Lions are coming off a disappointing season in which they finished last in the Big Ten (11-20 overall, 3-15 in the conference).

In January, we ran a more in-depth story about Bowman's progress at St. Thomas More. You can check out that here.

Stay tuned. We'll have a more detailed story on GameTimePA.com later.

UPDATE (2:37 p.m.) -- Just spoke with Quinn, who confirmed Bowman will be getting a full-ride to PSU. He called Penn State Bowman's "dream school," and said that because of Bowman's shooting ability, he thinks the guard can contribute right away for the Nittany Lions. More later...