UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State men's basketball team looks to continue its home court success Sunday at noon when the Nittany Lions host Michigan in Penn State's annual THON game inside the Bryce Jordan Center.
FOLLOW ALONG
- TICKETS: Tickets
- PROMOTIONS: THON game – Free THON t-shirt for first 1,700 students | Suits & Sneakers
- TV: Big Ten Network – Kevin Kugler (pxp) & Shon Morris (analyst)
- RADIO: Penn State Sports Network – Steve Jones & Dick Jerardi
- NATIONAL RADIO: SiriusXM Ch. 382 | SXM App Ch. 972
- LIVE STATS: Live Stats | StatBroadcast
- GAME NOTES: Penn State Notes
OPENING TIPS
- Penn State looks to continue its home court success Sunday when the Nittany Lions host Michigan in Penn State's annual THON game.
- The Nittany Lions are 10-1 when playing inside the Bryce Jordan Center this season. Penn State sits 13-7 overall and 4-5 in Big Ten play.
- Jalen Pickett leads PSU in scoring (17.3 ppg), rebounds (8.0 rpg) and assists (6.9 apg) and is the only player in the country averaging 17/8/6. Seth Lundy (13.7 ppg) and Andrew Funk (13.0 ppg) are also averaging double-digit points.
IF PENN STATE BEATS MICHIGAN
- Penn State would improve to 11-1 inside the Bryce Jordan Center this season.
- The Nittany Lions would even their conference record at 5-5 and match their season win total from a season ago with 14 wins.
FOR THE KIDS
- Sunday's game against Michigan is Penn State's annual THON game. The student section will don colorful THON shirts and in-game activities will be based around raising awareness for the largest student-run philanthropy in the world.
- The Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, or THON, is a year-long effort which raises funds and awareness for the fight against childhood cancer. With the support of students from all across the commonwealth of Pennsylvania and supporters all around the world, we continue to make great strides towards finding a cure for all childhood cancers. Our efforts culminate with a 46-hour, no-sitting, no-sleeping dance marathon in February. This year's dance marathon is set for Feb. 17-19 in the Bryce Jordan Center.
- THON has raised more than $204 million for the Four Diamonds Fund since it began in the 1970s.
SUITS & SNEAKERS
- Coaches vs. Cancer Suits And Sneakers Week is a nationwide event that unites basketball coaches across the country for a common cause – saving lives from cancer.
- Coaches and their staff across the nation wear sneakers with their suits during games to raise awareness, helping to save lives by raising funds and encouraging people to educate themselves about cancer prevention, screening, and early detection.
SCOUTING MICHIGAN
- The Wolverines are 11-9 overall and 5-4 in conference play.
- Michigan is 1-3 in true road games this season and looking for their first road win since a 90-75 victory at Minnesota in the conference opener on Dec. 8.
- The Wolverines are coming off a close 70-75 home loss to #1 Purdue Thursday night.
- Hunter Dickinson leads Michigan with 18.3 points and 8.9 rebounds per game. Jett Howard (14.6 ppg) and Kobe Bufkin (12.3 ppg) follow.
AGAINST THE WOLVERINES
- The Nittany Lions and Wolverines meet for the second time in 25 days Sunday inside the Bryce Jordan Center.
- The Wolverines earned a 79-69 win in the season's first meeting on Jan. 4 in Ann Arbor. It was a game of runs, as three separate scoring spurts of 11 or more points defined the second half. Penn State was able to construct two of the three 11-point runs as the Nittany Lions battled back from a 14-point deficit in the final eight minutes to pull within three before Michigan closed the game from the charity stripe in the final minute.
- Jalen Pickett led Penn State with a game-high 26 points and nine rebounds, while Seth Lundy followed with 16 points and five boards.
ROUND TWO
- Penn State faces the same opponent for the first time this season Sunday afternoon when the Nittany Lions and Wolverines meet for the second time this month.
- Head Coach Micah Shrewsberry and the Nittany Lions had quite a bit of success bouncing back against repeat opponents last season. Of the five Big Ten opponents that Penn State opened a home-and-home series with a loss last year, the Nittany Lions went on to win the second game of the regular-season series three times (Michigan State, Iowa and Minnesota) in addition to defeating Ohio State in the Big Ten Tournament in the third meeting of the 2021-22 season.
HOME COOKIN'
- Penn State is 10-1 when playing inside the Bryce Jordan Center this season. The Nittany Lions only loss in Happy Valley this season was the Big Ten opener against Michigan State (58-67) on Dec. 7.
- The Nittany Lions are averaging 77.9 points per game inside the Bryce Jordan Center while shooting 48.7% from the field and 41.2% from 3-point range.
BUILDING THE RESUME
- Penn State is off to a 13-7 start to the 2022-23 season with a number of strong wins.
- The Nittany Lions sit 4-5 in conference play after a front-loaded start to Big Ten play. Penn State has already faced eight of the top nine in the Big Ten standings through its first nine games, while taking on one of the bottom four teams just once.
- Penn State's two best wins were a pair of dominant Quad 1 victories: a 15-point road win at Illinois (currently 28 in NET rankings) on Dec. 10 and a 19-point thumping of Indiana (currently 21 in NET rankings) on Jan. 11 for the Nittany Lions' largest win over the Hoosiers in program history.
- Penn State only bad loss was in its most recent game Tuesday night at Rutgers (20 in NET) in which the Nittany Lions suffered a lopsided 20-point decision. The Nittany Lions suffered a two-point neutral-site defeat to Virginia Tech (55 in NET) and a double-overtime road loss at Clemson (56 in NET) in non-conference play. All five of Penn State's conference losses have come against teams that currently sit in the top eight of the conference standings.
NATIONAL NUMBERS
- Penn State and Nittany Lion players rank in the top 25 in the nation in a number of statistical categories as of Jan. 27:
| Team Stat | Value | National Rank |
| Fewest turnovers per game | 8.7 | 1 |
| Assist-to-turnover ratio | 1.65 | 3 |
| 3FG made/game | 10.6 | 5 |
| FT% | 76.8% | 19 |
| 3FG% | 38.3% | 23 |
| Effective FG% | .551 | 25 |
| Player Stat | Value | National Rank |
| Assists/game – Jalen Pickett | 6.9 | 4 |
| Assist-to-turnover ratio – Jalen Pickett | 3.21 | 6 |
| 3FG made/game – Andrew Funk | 3.2 | 18 |
| Def. rebounds/game – Jalen Pickett | 6.9 | 22 |
BALL SECURITY
- Penn State leads the nation in fewest turnovers per game (8.7) and ranks third in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.65).
- Penn State's current program record for fewest turnovers in a season is 285 and was set by the 2020-21 team in the Covid-19 shortened season (25 games). The Nittany Lions have turned the ball over just 174 times through 20 games this season.
17/8/6
- Jalen Pickett is the only player in the country averaging at least 17 points (17.3) per game, eight rebounds (8.0) per game and six assists (6.9) per game.
- Only one men's college basketball player in the last 30 years (since 1992-93 season) has finished the season averaging 17/8/6. Memphis' Penny Hardaway finished the 1992-93 season averaging 22.8 points, 8.5 rebounds and 6.4 assists per game in an All-American season before going on to be the No. 3 pick in the 1993 draft and a four-time NBA All-Star.
THE MAESTRO
- Jalen Pickett was named to both the midseason watch list for the Oscar Robertson Trophy and Sporting News Midseason All-America Third Team last week. The point guard ranks fourth in the nation in assists per game (6.9) and sixth in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.21).
- The Rochester, N.Y. native is the only Big Ten player that ranks in the top 10 of the conference statistical standings in scoring (seventh), rebounding (seventh) and assists (first).
- Pickett owns eight 20-plus point games this season, four of which have come in Big Ten play. He is currently averaging 18.8 ppg, 9.7 rpg, and 5.9 apg while shooting 54.3% from the field in conference play.
- The 6-4 guard has six double-doubles this season and put together the second triple-double and first points-rebounds-assists triple-double in Penn State history Nov. 14 against Butler with his 15 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists. Penn State's only other triple-double came in 1998 when all-time great Calvin Booth tallied 19 points, 10 rebounds and 10 blocks against Dayton in an NIT game.
FIVE 1,000 POINT SCORERS
- The Nittany Lions are one of five teams in the country with five 1,000-point scorers on their 2022-23 roster - Myles Dread (1,022 points), Andrew Funk (1,489 points), Seth Lundy (1,034 points), Jalen Pickett (1,897 points) and Camren Wynter (1,826 points).
- Missouri, Notre Dame, San Diego and UAB are the only four other teams that have five or more active 1,000-point scorers on their 2022-23 rosters.
- Seth Lundy was the most recent Nittany Lion to reach the mark, becoming the 39th all-time member of Penn State's 1,000 career point club on Jan. 11 against Indiana. Myles Dread accomplished the feat one week earlier on Jan. 4 in Penn State's road game at Michigan.
LETHAL PERIMETER PUNCH
- Penn State's trio of Andrew Funk, Seth Lundy and Myles Dread have provided a lethal 1-2-3 punch on the perimeter as all three are shooting over 40% from deep with at least 39 made 3-pointers.
- Andrew Funk has made a Big Ten-best 3.2 3-pointers per contest at a 41.7 percent clip. Seth Lundy is shooting 42.5 percent from behind the arc while draining 2.4 treys per game. Myles Dread (2.0 3-pointers/game) is converting his looks from deep at a 40.2 percent clip.
- Funk and Lundy became the first Big Ten duo in the last 20 seasons with seven made 3-pointers in the same game in Penn State's Jan. 11 win over Indiana. The pair both shot 7-for-12 from deep en route to the 19-point Penn State victory.
UP NEXT
- The Nittany Lions are on the road for their next two games, beginning with a Wednesday night trip to Mackey Arena to take on #1 Purdue at 6:30 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.
The 2022-23 Penn State men's basketball season is presented by Highmark Health.