Penn State Heads to #1 Purdue Wednesday NightPenn State Heads to #1 Purdue Wednesday Night
Penn State Athletics

Penn State Heads to #1 Purdue Wednesday Night

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State men's basketball team hits the road for a Wednesday night battle at #1 Purdue. Tipoff is slated for 6:30 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.
 
FOLLOW ALONG

 
OPENING TIPS

  • Penn State opens up a two-game road swing with a trip to Mackey Arena to take on  #1 Purdue Wednesday night.
  • The Nittany Lions are 5-5 in conference play through the first half of the Big Ten season and coming off a dominant 83-61 win over Michigan Sunday.
  • Jalen Pickett leads PSU in scoring (17.6 ppg), rebounds (8.0 rpg) and assists (7.0 apg) and is the only player in the country averaging 17/8/7. Seth Lundy (14.2 ppg) and Andrew Funk (13.2 ppg) are also averaging double-digit points.

 
IF PENN STATE BEATS PURDUE

  • Penn State would defeat the #1 team in the nation for the first time in program history.
  • The Nittany Lions would snag their second road win over a ranked team this season.

 
SCOUTING THE BOILERMAKERS

  • Purdue, the top-ranked team in the nation, owns a glittering 21-1 overall record and 10-1 mark in conference play.
  • The Boilermakers have a three-game lead for first place in the Big Ten standings.
  • Purdue's only loss of the season came back on Jan. 2, a one-point (64-65) home loss to Rutgers.
  • Zach Edey, the leading candidate for National Player of the Year, leads Purdue with 22.1 points and 13.0 rebounds per game. The freshmen guard duo of Fletcher Loyer (12.8 ppg) and Braden Smith (9.5 ppg) follow.

 
AGAINST PURDUE

  • The Nittany Lions and Boilermakers meet for the second time this season Wednesday night, this time inside Mackey Arena.
  • Penn State and Purdue first met on Jan. 8 at The Palestra in Philadelphia, with the Boilermakers earning a 76-63 win. Penn State shot over 46 percent from the field and 50 percent (6-12) from deep in the first half to take a 37-31 halftime lead. The Nittany Lions were ice cold to start the second half while Purdue was red hot, making eight of its first nine shots, as the Boilermakers started the second half on a 19-2 run. Penn State clawed back, but the deficit was too much to overcome.

 
BUILDING THE RESUME

  • Penn State is off to a 14-7 start to the 2022-23 season with a number of strong wins.
  • The Nittany Lions sit 5-5 in conference play after a front-loaded start to Big Ten play. Penn State's two best wins were a pair of dominant Quad 1 victories: a 15-point road win at Illinois (currently 26 in NET rankings) on Dec. 10 and a 19-point thumping of Indiana (currently 20 in NET rankings) on Jan. 11 for the Nittany Lions' largest win over the Hoosiers in program history. The Nittany Lions also own a win over Iowa (36 in NET).
  • Penn State is 10-0 in Quad 3/4 games. The Nittany Lions' only lopsided loss of the season was in its Jan. 24 Quad 1 game at Rutgers (22 in NET) in which the Nittany Lions suffered a 20-point defeat.

 
HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY

  • The Nittany Lions have an opportunity to make history Wednesday as Penn State looks for its first win in program history against the nation's top-ranked team.
  • Penn State is 0-13 all-time against the number one team in the nation. Penn State has come close before. The Nittany Lions took #1 Indiana to double-overtime in an 84-88 loss in 1993, fell by one point (49-50) at #1 Temple in 1988 and dropped a 50-56 game in overtime to #1 North Carolina in 1981.

 
RETURN TO MACKEY

  • Head Coach Micah Shrewsberry returns to Mackey Arena for the first time since serving on Matt Painter's Purdue staff.
  • Shrewsberry served two stints on the Boilermaker sideline, most recently as associate head coach and offensive coordinator during the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons. He was also on Painter's staff as an assistant coach during the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons before serving six seasons as an assistant coach with the Boston Celtics.
  • Penn State video coordinator Grady Eifert also has Boilermaker roots, starting on Purdue's 2019 Elite Eight team before spending the 2020-21 and 2019-20 seasons as a graduate assistant on Painter's staff.

 
ALL EVEN

  • Penn State is 5-5 in the Big Ten through the first 10 games of conference play, just the seventh time in the Nittany Lions' 31 Big Ten seasons that Penn State has sat at .500 or better through the first 10 games of the conference slate.

 
17/8/7

  • Jalen Pickett is the only player in the country averaging at least 17 points (17.6) per game, eight rebounds (8.0) per game and six assists (7.0) per game.
  • Not a single men's college basketball player in at least the last 30 years has finished a season averaging 17/8/7.

 
THE MAESTRO

  • Point guard Jalen Pickett is the engine that makes Penn State go. Pickett leads the conference and ranks in the top 10 nationally in both assists per game (7.0) and assist-to-turnover ratio (3.11). The Rochester, N.Y. native is the only Big Ten player that ranks in the top 10 of the conference statistical standings in scoring (fifth), rebounding (seventh) and assists (first).
  • The six-foot-four guard has played his best in Big Ten play, averaging 19.4 points per game, 9.5 rebounds per game and 6.1 assists per game through 10 conference contests. He's shooting 54.9% from the field, 40.7% percent from 3-point range and 75.8% from the free throw line in conference action.
  • 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.
  • Pickett has picked up quite a bit of national recognition over the last few weeks: Wooden Award Late Season Top 20 Watch List, Oscar Robertson Trophy Midseason Watch List, and Sporting News Midseason All-America Third Team.

 
FIVE 1,000/THREE 1,500

  • The Nittany Lions are one of five teams in the country with five 1,000-point scorers on their 2022-23 roster - Myles Dread (1,025 points), Andrew Funk (1,508 points), Seth Lundy (1,056 points), Jalen Pickett (1,922 points) and Camren Wynter (1,828 points).
  • Penn State is the only team in the country with three 1,500-point scorers on its 2022-23 roster - Andrew Funk, Jalen Pickett and Camren Wynter.
  • 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.

 
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. 31:
Team Stat Value National Rank
Fewest turnovers/game 8.7 1
Assist-to-turnover ratio 1.68 2
3FG made/game 10.7 5
FT% 76.9% 15
3FG% 38.5% 16
Effective FG% .556 20
Player Stat Value National Rank
Assists per game – Jalen Pickett 7.0 4
Assist-to-turnover ratio – Jalen Pickett 3.11 7
3FG made/game – Andrew Funk 3.2 15
Def. Rebounds/game – Jalen Pickett 6.9 22

 
 
THE THREE IS KEY

  • Penn State ranks fifth in the nation with 10.7 3-pointers made per game. The Nittany Lions are shooting the long ball at a 38.5 percent (225-584) clip, a mark that ranks in the top 20 in the nation.
  • Penn State has made double-digit 3-pointers in 12 games this season. The Nittany Lions drilled a program-record 18 triples in two games this season, the season opener against Winthrop on Nov. 7 and in the 19-point rout of Indiana on Jan. 11.
  • Penn State is shooting 42.0 percent from 3-point range while making 11.9 treys per game in its 14 wins this season.

 
BALL SECURITY

  • Penn State leads the nation in fewest turnovers per game (8.7) and ranks second in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.68).
  • 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 183 times through 21 games this season.

 
UP NEXT

  • Penn State remains on the road this weekend for a Sunday afternoon contest at Nebraska. Tipoff is slated for 4:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. CT on the Big Ten Network.

 
The 2022-23 Penn State men's basketball season is presented by Highmark Health.