Men’s Basketball Set for Saturday Noon Game at MarylandMen’s Basketball Set for Saturday Noon Game at Maryland

Men’s Basketball Set for Saturday Noon Game at Maryland

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State men's basketball team plays its third road game in the last four contests Saturday when the Nittany Lions travel to Maryland for a noon tipoff on the Big Ten Network.  
 
FOLLOW ALONG

 
OPENING TIPS

  • Penn State looks to snap a three-game skid Saturday when the Nittany Lions travel to Maryland.
  • The Nittany Lions are coming off a tough 74-79 overtime loss to Wisconsin Wednesday night.
  • Jalen Pickett leads PSU in scoring (17.3 ppg), rebounds (7.8 rpg) and assists (7.0 apg) and is the only player in the country averaging 17/7/7. Seth Lundy (14.7 ppg) and Andrew Funk (12.7 ppg) are also averaging double-digit points.

 
IF PENN STATE BEATS MARYLAND

  • The Nittany Lions would earn their third Quad 1 win of the season.
  • Penn State would snap a three-game losing streak.
  • The Nittany Lions beat the Terrapins for the eighth time in the last 11 meetings.

 
SCOUTING THE TERRAPINS

  • The Terrapins are receiving votes in both the AP and Coaches Polls this week and own a 16-8 overall record and 7-6 mark in conference play.
  • Maryland is 6-0 in Big Ten home games at the XFinity Center and 12-1 overall at home this season.
  • The Terps are coming off a tight 58-63 loss at Michigan State Tuesday night. The loss snapped Maryland's four-game winning streak.
  • Jahmir Young leads Maryland with 16.1 points per game. Donta Scott (12.2 ppg), Hakim Hart (11.2 ppg) and Julian Reese (10.6 ppg) follow.

 
AGAINST MARYLAND

  • Maryland owns a slim 15-14 advantage in the all-time series that dates back to 1938. The series is tied at 6-6 since Maryland joined the Big Ten.
  • Penn State has won seven of the last 10 meetings with the Terps. The Nittany Lions are 2-9 all-time when playing in College Park, Md.
  • Maryland won last season's lone meeting, 67-61, on Feb. 21, 2022. The Nittany Lions were down 13 with 8:40 remaining in regulation and clawed back within four before the Terrapins closed out the game from the charity stripe, going 14-of-18 from the free throw line in the second half.

 
QUALITY WINS

  • Penn State is off to a 14-10 start to the 2022-23 season with a number of strong wins.
  • 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 three Quad 2 wins, including a home victory over Iowa (35 in NET, top 30 home is Quad 1).
  • Penn State is 9-0 in Quad 3/4 games. The Nittany Lions have only lost one game to a team outside of the NET top 75, with that loss coming on the road at Nebraska (103 in NET) on Feb. 5.

 
NATIONAL NUMBERS

  • Penn State and Nittany Lion players rank in the top 25 in the nation in a number of statistical categories as of Feb. 10:
Team Stat Value National Rank
Fewest turnovers/game 8.7 1
Assist-to-turnover ratio 1.68 2
3FG made/game 10.8 5
3FG% 38.4% 17
Effective FG% .554 21
Player Stat Value National Rank
Assist-to-turnover ratio – Jalen Pickett 3.23 4
Assists/game – Jalen Pickett 7.0 4
3FG% - Seth Lundy 45.1% 7
Def. Rebounds/game – Jalen Pickett 6.8 23
3FG made/game – Andrew Funk 3.0 23

 
17/7/7

  • Jalen Pickett is the only player in the country averaging at least 17 points (17.3) per game, seven rebounds (7.8) per game and seven assists (7.0) per game.
  • Only one men's college basketball player in the last 30 years (since 1992-93 season) has finished the season averaging 17/7/7. Michigan State's Denzel Valentine finished the 2015-16 season averaging 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.8 assists per game en route to first team All-America honors and Big Ten Player of the Year accolades.

 
THE MAESTRO

  • Point guard Jalen Pickett is the engine that makes Penn State go. Pickett leads the conference and ranks in the top five nationally in both assists per game (7.0) and assist-to-turnover ratio (3.23) while engineering a Penn State offense that leads the nation in fewest turnovers per game (8.7).
  • 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 18.3 points per game, 8.8 rebounds per game and 6.4 assists per game through 13 conference contests.
  • Pickett 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: Naismith Player of the Year Midseason Team, Wooden Award Late Season Top 20 Watch List, Top 10 candidate for the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award, Oscar Robertson Trophy Midseason Watch List, and Sporting News Midseason All-America Third Team.

 
PICKETT NEARING 2,000

  • Jalen Pickett needs just 34 points to reach the 2,000-career point milestone.
  • Pickett has put together a stellar collegiate career with career marks of 1,966 points, 693 rebounds and 766 assists through three seasons at Siena and two at Penn State.
  • He is the only active Division I player with upwards of 1,900 career points, 600 career rebounds and 700 career assists.

 
ELITE EFFICIENCY FOR LUNDY

  • Senior Seth Lundy is producing at an elite level on both ends of the floor through the first 24 games of the season. The Paulsboro, N.J. native is the only player in the Big Ten and one of just five players in the country that is averaging 10+ points (14.7 ppg) and 6+ rebounds (6.2) per game while shooting more than 55% from two (55.1%), 40% from three (45.1%) and 80% from the free throw line (81.0%).
  • Lundy's having his most consistent year in the Blue & White and has scored in double figures in all but two games this season.

 
1-2 PERIMETER PUNCH

  • Penn State's duo of Andrew Funk and Seth Lundy have provided a lethal 1-2 punch on the perimeter. 
  • Andrew Funk has made a Big Ten-best 3.0 3-pointers per contest at a 40.6 percent clip. Seth Lundy leads the Big Ten and ranks seventh in the nation with a 45.1% 3-point shooting percentage while ranking second in the conference, behind only Funk, with 2.8 triples per game.
  • 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. Lundy drilled eight 3-pointers at Nebraska on Feb. 5. It tied the second most 3-pointers made in a game by a Nittany Lion in program history.

 
UP NEXT

  • The Nittany Lions return home Tuesday to host Illinois at 7 p.m. on ESPNU.