Can Jalen Pickett Will Penn State to the NCAA Tournament?
Following Penn State's 76-69 win over Minnesota on Saturday night, Lions coach Micah Shrewsberry laid bare the late-season impact of All-America point guard Jalen Pickett.
"He's putting us on his back, and he's carrying us right now," Shrewsberry said in Minneapolis.
Pickett, whom many call the nation's best point guard, is demonstrating his alpha presence at the right time. The senior is on a two-game heater almost unrivaled in college and NBA circles. If he continues, Penn State might begin looking toward the NCAA Tournament again.
Pickett scored 32 points against Minnesota to following his Penn State career-high 41 in a home win over Illinois last week. He became the first Penn State player with back-to-back 30-point games since Joe Crispin in 2000. He already was the first Lion to record a 40-point game since 1961.
Further, Pickett has produced 73 points, 11 rebounds and 16 assists in wins over Illinois and Minnesota, earning multiple national player-of-the-week honors, including one from ESPN's Jeff Borzello. He also achieved a rare feat at any level.
According to OptaSTATS, over the last 25 seasons, Pickett is one of three players in Division I basketball or the NBA with 70+ points, 15+ assists, 10+ rebounds, a 65-percent field-goal rate and a 90-percent free-throw rate during a two-game span.
The other two were LeBron James (2017) and Stephon Curry (2022). Carrying the Lions, indeed.
With consecutive wins, Penn State (16-11, 7-9 Big Ten) is clawing back into NCAA contention. The Lions have four regular-season games remaining, including two on the road at Ohio State and Northwestern.
A 3-1 record in that stretch (the Lions also host Rutgers and Maryland, to which they lost road games), would get them to 10-10 in the Big Ten with at least three road victories. Then, a first-round Big Ten tournament win might be enough to send Penn State to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2011.
If the Lions get there, Pickett will be a significant reason why. He has delivered a star turn this season, as the nation's only player to average 18 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists per game. In fact, just one college basketball player has finished a season with that stat-line average in the past 30 years (Michigan State's Denzel Valentine in 2015-16).
Pickett ranks fourth nationally in assists per game (7) and is one of two players (with Indiana's Trayce Jackson-Davis) to rank among the Big Ten's top 10 in scoring, rebounds and assists per game. Moreover, Pickett ranks fifth nationally in assists-to-turnover ratio (3.2).
Pickett should be a serious candidate for Big Ten and national player-of-the year awards, primarily because he engineers an offense that relies so heavily on outside shooting.
The Lions lead the Big Ten, and rank 10th nationally, in 3-point attempts per game (27.9). Yet Pickett drives that style with his ability to move the ball, back defenders in the lane and shoot turnaround jumpers and contribute his own 3-pointers. He has made nine over the past two games.
This represents a stretch of basketball Penn State hasn't really seen since Jesse Arnelle in 1954. Arnelle became Penn State's first (and only) first-team All-American, earning the nod from the Helms Foundation. Arnelle was an honorable-mention AP All-American, the highest finish of any Penn State player in the history of that team.
Arnelle averaged 21.1 points and 11.9 rebounds during that season and was named to the 1954 Final Four all-tournament team. In terms of true All-America seasons, no Penn State player has come closer to matching Arnelle's feats than Pickett this year.
What's more, Pickett is leaving a legacy. On Saturday, Pickett grabbed his 700th career rebound dating to his time at Siena. In that moment, he became the first player in Division I men's basketball to record 2,000 points, 700 rebounds and 700 assists.
Pickett deserves a turn in the NCAA Tournament to take his game to the national stage. The Lions have four huge regular-season games left to get him there. First up: Penn State visits Ohio State on Thursday. Tip-off is at 6:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
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