After four years filled with some of Penn State basketball's most enduring images - both highs and lows - the time has come for Jamelle Cornley to move on.

He finished his career in Happy Valley among the Nittany Lions all-time bests with 1,579 points (4th all-time in program history) and 755 rebounds (4th). This past season, he was named team co-MVP for the third time and earned NIT MVP honors for the Nittany Lions' run to their first NIT Championship at Madison Square Garden in April.

As he wraps up his few remaining credits through an internship at Penn State, Blue White Illustrated sat down with Cornley to talk about his plans for the future and to reflect on his accomplishments and shortcomings during his time in a Nittany Lions' uniform.

Today, catch up with the first part of our lengthy interview with Cornley:

Cornley: What's next is pretty much just rehabbing the shoulder, making sure that I'm able to play at a high level, getting back in shape. I think one of the biggest things for me was that I had played so much during the four years that I never really allowed my body to completely heal. I was always up here during the summer for both sessions, outside of going into my sophomore year.

But, pretty much, I was here and pushed my body as far as I could go. Now I think I'm able to relax and make sure that I'm able to get myself back together and then push forward for my professional career whether that's here in the States or overseas.

Cornley: Yeah, I think so. It's always good to really wake up in the morning and not have to worry about being extremely sore or going to bed the night before and wondering how I'm going to feel tomorrow morning. So, I've been able to really enjoy myself and try to take care of business as far as finishing up my internship and just watching film and other things.

Cornley: Yeah, just the internship. I don't have any classes. I'm at the midway point right now for which I'll be done the first week in August.

Cornley: I don't really know what was going on with the surgery. The only thing I really know is that there was a chipped piece of bone that had been in there since my sophomore year and I know there was some ligament damage. All the other terms are something that I'm not really familiar with but I know that there were several other things.

Cornley: No, because I can remember the last time I did it before this year, I was in practice in our South Gym and I remember getting tangled up with some guys and I went down. That was the last time and after that I just made sure that I got it as strong as possible and unfortunately, it came up again this past year several times and just had reoccurring issues.

Cornley: I was dead-serious about football. If it wasn't for the time frame with the shoulder, I was actually going to do it. I really, really wanted to see and experience a different sport.

With my interest in football, it was really something that I could see myself doing. That experience was something I was really looking forward to. Unfortunately, it wasn't able to happen because I wasn't going to go out there and be half-ready or not be up to par, especially being out and trying to understand a whole different system, a whole different sport, you want to be out there as much as possible.

Cornley: Well, I don't think... it's had highs and lows. I'm talking about extreme measures because at the end of the season, I was receiving a lot of emails to speak here, speak there, to show my face here and certain things. There were places where I had to pick and choose where to go because I also had to finish some schoolwork because I was behind and I'm pretty sure that most of the team was. I tried my hardest to make sure I was able to please everybody else, but at the same time I had to make sure that I put my stuff in perspective and make sure I got my priorities taken care of.

So, that was extremely stressful, receiving email after email, it was great, and I appreciate everybody who sent the emails just talking about the overall year and whatnot, but it came to the point where I was trying to reply back to everybody and couldn't do it. It just got out of hand.

But, then there was a cool period where I was just able to be a college student and I didn't have to worry about basketball as much. Then I had to figure out the agent situation, I had to figure out who I wanted to be surrounded by and who I didn't. Then I had to figure out the best situation for my shoulder and I was debating back and forth whether I wanted to have the shoulder surgery.

My mother was pretty much the one who said, If you don't have the surgery, what happens if you fly out to a team and there's a physical and they say, 'You can't perform.' or they recommend you to have surgery. That made perfect sense. Then I'd be wasting time, so there were a lot of things that needed to take place. Again, there's been highs and lows since then.

Cornley: Man, it was fun. I was able to go out to eat and catch up with people I haven't been able to catch up with, hang out with some of my football friends and fraternity brothers and things like that.

So, I was able to really have some me time. That was something I was never really able to experience. There were times of course in the off-season where you do have some time like that but never on my own schedule and that was something that I think was really fun. But, after a while it kind of got boring.

Cornley: I started my internship May 11 so I went ahead and started then and have just been at it ever since.

Cornley: I'm with Stu Lash and Dan Fagan from Experienced Best. Right now the hardest part when trying to figure out an agent is what's the best situation for you and what's the best situation that these people can put you in.

I've never wanted to say I just want an NBA agent. I don't want that. I want to be realistic because if my career doesn't go as planned, I want to have some type of backup plan and I never said that I wanted to have just a European agent because my ultimate goal is to be in the NBA.

So, I tried to find that line or that agency that was able to have experience in both and be able to have some success. The agency, they've got everybody from Richards from Florida, Noah, Courtney Lee, everybody. So, it's very diverse and also my high school teammate Ron Lewis, so that's pretty much the reason why I went with them.

But, right now, they're just trying to figure out some things for me as far as my first year.

My first year I'll ultimately end up going overseas and then more than likely coming back and this time next year being on a summer league team somewhere.

Cornley: Very difficult. Very difficult because of course you have to congratulate everybody who gets drafted because at one point or another, they've worked hard and they've put themselves in the position to be the best player they can be. And, best of luck to them.

There's a couple of draft picks that I was pretty upset about, sort of in the second round. I was just thinking to myself, 'Really?' I know there's certain players out there I know I could outplay and I know I could outperform. I'm talking within the last two years, the last two years of the draft I've been fairly surprised about some of the guys.

But, it was very difficult for me because I've always watched. I've watched every single pick of the NBA Draft for probably about the last 10 years. I love it, I love to see how pieces fit to certain puzzles.

Cornley: Oh, yeah, that's the only way you can really take it. If you sit around and are bitter about it to the point where you just hang your head and you don't do anything about it... I've always been what I call a stand up guy. I've always been someone who is always willing to take on any type of challenge wherever it may be or whoever it may be.

And if that's going overseas for a couple of months and playing hard and making some money and coming back and proving myself once again, then that's what I'll do. But, it's nothing new to me.

Cornley: Where does it come from?... I guess when you sit back and you watch the game and you watch certain players play the game, I think you're able to really tell who is passionate about the game.

Of course my parents have always made sure that I played hard and if I didn't then they would reiterate to me that there's no point in us coming to support you, there's no point in us driving you around the country. So, I would never want to disappoint them.

But when you watch the game and you watch certain players, I think you're able to really appreciate the game because you're able to see what the game has really done for certain people. And anytime someone takes the game for granted I think is when things happen, injuries, you get cut, you don't make a certain team or whatever the case may be.

So, I just figure if I'm out there, why not give everything you have because that's the game that you love and if you love something, you'll do anything for it.

Cornley: I absolutely love the game of basketball.

Cornley: Yeah, well, the thing is that... for instance, you have players like Tony Gonzalez who loved the game of basketball but he's better at football and really likes to play football. Terrell Owens has been quoted as saying basketball is my first love. So, it's not uncharacteristic for certain players to really love something but go a different direction. It's just what's the best situation at that time and what you've been curious about. So, it was something that I was really curious about.

Cornley: Oh, yeah. I mean, that and you can never... any time you question somebody's work ethic or how hard they play, then you don't need to be playing anything. So, in order for me to prove that not only to everybody but to myself, I had to push through injuries, I had to push through girlfriend problems or problems at home or whatever the case may be because at the end of the day, it's not about being the most physical guy or being the strongest guy, it's about being the mentally strongest person, and that's what I was able to do by just training myself to make sure that I can endure more pain than anybody and then go out and perform at the highest level.

Cornley: That's a good question. I don't know. Ultimately, I think so just because of the drive that I've always had in anything, just trying to be as persistent as possible, but I think doubters are what really can ultimately make somebody into who they are. I don't know. I think ultimately, yes, but overall, that's a tough one.

Cornley: Oh, definitely. That was huge. Making sure that we established our own identity was always in my mind from day one because anytime that you walk around and people discuss Penn State, the first thing that pops into your mind is JoePa and all the legends. That's just the way it's going to be and there's nothing wrong with that.

But, you always want to have some type of conversation when it comes to basketball, so why not start some type of tradition or why not try to establish something that hasn't been done before or was at one point for a nice amount of time and then it fell off? I want people to at least talk about it.