UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State men's basketball star guard Jalen Pickett has been named a second-team Associated Press All-American and the U.S. Basketball Writers Association District II Player of the Year to highlight a Tuesday award haul that also includes National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) first-team All-District 7 and USBWA All-District II honors.
The Associated Press is one of four outlets used by the NCAA to determine its consensus All-America teams (AP, National Association of Basketball Coaches, United States Basketball Writers Association, and Sporting News). The Rochester, N.Y. native earned Sporting News All-America Second Team honors a week ago, while USBWA and NABC All-Americans will be announced tomorrow.
Pickett is Penn State's first All-American in nearly 70 years. Pickett joins Jesse Arnelle as the only two Nittany Lions in program history to earn second-team or higher All-America status. Arnelle, who led the Nittany Lions to a Final Four, collected first-team All-America honors in 1954 from the Helms Foundation and second-team honors in 1955.
Pickett is the first Nittany Lion in program history to earn USBWA District Player of the Year honors, and the first Penn Stater to pick up USBWA and NABC All-District honors since Lamar Stevens in 2020.
Pickett's long and growing list of national accolades also includes landing on the Wooden Award National Ballot, the Oscar Robertson Trophy Late Season Watchlist and being named a Top Five Finalist for the Bob Cousy Award. The Rochester, N.Y. native was also a consensus first-team All-Big Ten selection and earned a spot on the Big Ten All-Tournament team for his role in guiding Penn State to its first conference title game in 12 years.
Pickett's outstanding season has led Penn State to a 22-13 overall record and its first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2011.
Pickett is the only player in the country averaging at least 17 points (17.9) per game, seven rebounds (7.3) per game and six assists (6.7) per game. Only two men's college basketball players in the last 30 years (since 1992-93 season) have finished a season averaging 17/7/6 or better: Michigan State's Denzel Valentine (19.2 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 7.8 apg - 2015-16) and Memphis' Penny Hardaway (22.8 ppg, 8.5 rpg, 6.4 apg - 1992-93).
Pickett ranks in the top 10 nationally in both assists per game (6.7) and assist-to-turnover ratio (3.04) while engineering a Penn State offense that ranks fourth in the nation in fewest turnovers per game (9.0) and 17th in KenPom's adjusted offensive efficiency metric.
The Rochester, N.Y. native's season highlights include a 41-point game, a 32-point game, 13 20-point games, six double-doubles and one triple-double. He has already set a Penn State single-season assists record through 35 games this season, dishing 234 assists to this point.
The six-foot-four guard played his best in Big Ten play, averaging 19.2 points per game, 7.7 rebounds per game and 6.6 assists per game while shooting 55.8% from the field. Pickett finished the conference season in the top five of the Big Ten in scoring (fourth), rebounding (fifth), assists (first), assist-to-turnover ratio (second), and field goal percentage (fourth) in Big Ten games.
Pickett has put together a historic collegiate career as the only Division I men's college basketball player in AT LEAST the last 37 years to have accumulated marks of 2,000+ career points, 700+ career rebounds and 800+ career assists. Pickett currently owns career marks of 2,177 points, 763 rebounds and 832 assists through three seasons at Siena and two at Penn State. Through just 66 games as a Nittany Lion, Pickett has tallied 1,038 points, 390 rebounds and 369 assists.
Pickett and Penn State open the 2023 NCAA Tournament Thursday night in Des Moines, Iowa when the No. 10 seed Nittany Lions take on No. 7 Texas A&M at approximately 9:55 p.m. ET/8:55 p.m. CT on TBS.
