Men’s Basketball Hosts #21 Maryland on Senior Day SundayMen’s Basketball Hosts #21 Maryland on Senior Day Sunday
Penn State Athletics

Men’s Basketball Hosts #21 Maryland on Senior Day Sunday

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State men's basketball team will honor its seven-member senior class on Senior Day, presented by the Penn State Alumni Association, when the Nittany Lions take on #21 Maryland Sunday inside the Bryce Jordan Center. The Senior Day ceremony will begin at 11:40 a.m., with tipoff of the regular-season finale set for noon on the Big Ten Network.
 
FOLLOW ALONG

 
OPENING TIPS

  • Penn State looks to close the regular season strong with another Quad 1 opportunity against #21 Maryland.
  • The Nittany Lions have won four of their last five games and are coming off a thrilling 68-65 overtime victory at Northwestern Wednesday night. Camren Wynter hit the game-winning shot in the final second to send PSU home with its fourth Quad 1 win of the season.
  • Jalen Pickett leads PSU in scoring (18.1 ppg), rebounds (7.3 rpg) and assists (7.0 apg) and is the only player in the country averaging 18/7/7. Seth Lundy (14.3 ppg) and Andrew Funk (12.0 ppg) are also averaging double-digit points.

 
SENIOR DAY PRESENTED BY THE PENN STATE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

  • The Nittany Lions will honor seven senior players prior to the start of Sunday's game: Myles Dread, Seth Lundy, Jalen Pickett, Andrew Funk, Camren Wynter, Michael Henn and Ishaan Jagiasi.
  • Myles Dread and Seth Lundy are the longest-tenured Nittany Lions, both having played their entire collegiate careers in a Penn State uniform. The two Penn Staters chose to remain NIttany Lions through turbulent years that included coaching changes, the Covid-19 pandemic and a change in NCAA transfer rules. Both were on the 2019-20 team that was a lock to make the NCAA Tournament prior to the Covid-19 cancellation.
  • This group of seven Nittany Lion seniors features five 1,000-point scorers, three 1,500-point scorers and a 2,000-point scorer. The seven have combined for the following throughout their collegiate careers:
    • 8,676 points
    • 3,036 rebounds
    • 2,103 assists
    • 1,292 three-pointers

 
WHAT'S ON THE LINE

  • There's a whole lot on the line for the Nittany Lions in Sunday's regular-season finale vs. #21 Maryland.
  • The Nittany Lions, currently 9-10 in the Big Ten, have the opportunity to finish at 10-10 in the best top-to-bottom conference in the country. It would mark just the eighth time in Penn State's 31 seasons in the Big Ten that the Nittany Lions have finished the conference season .500 or better. The Nittany Lions have reached 10 or more Big Ten wins on just three prior occasions (19-20 season, 08-09 season and 95-96 season).
  • Penn State would lock up a top-10 seed in next week's Big Ten Tournament, meaning the Nittany Lions would earn a single-bye and open action in Thursday's second round.
  • The Nittany Lions would finish the regular season with a 13-3 record inside the Bryce Jordan Center. Penn State's 13 home wins would be tied for fourth-most since the Nittany Lions moved to the BJC in 1996.
  • Penn State would end the regular season having won five of their last six games.
  • The Nittany Lions have lived life on the NCAA Tournament bubble virtually all season, and are currently projected in either the last four in or first four out groups of every major bracketologist's projections if the season ended today. Another Quad 1 win over Maryland, Penn State's fifth Quad 1 win of the season, would go a long way in putting Penn State in good position ahead of next week's Big Ten Tournament.

 
SCOUTING #21 MARYLAND

  • The Terrapins are 20-10 overall and 11-8 in Big Ten play. Maryland is one of six teams currently tied for second place in the tightly-packed conference standings heading into the final weekend of the regular season.
  • Maryland is 2-8 in true road games this season, including 1-8 in Big Ten road games. The Terps wrapped up the home portion of their schedule at 16-1 overall and 10-0 in conference play.
  • Jahmir Young leads Maryland with 15.9 ppg, while Hakim Hart (11.8 ppg), Donta Scott (11.6 ppg) and Julian Reese (11.4 ppg) follow.

 
AGAINST THE TERRAPINS

  • The Nittany Lions and Terrapins meet for the second time this season, this time in Happy Valley where Penn State owns an 11-2 advantage over the Terps.
  • Penn State has won seven of the last 11 meetings, but Maryland has won each of the last two.
  • The two teams first met on Feb. 11 in College Park as the Terps earned a 74-68 win. Penn State erased an early 11-point deficit to take a brief lead in the second half, but the Terrapins used a 16-5 run in a late seven-minute stretch to pull away. Kanye Clary led five Nittany Lions in double figures with 17 points.

 
QUALITY WINS

  • Penn State owns four Quad 1 wins, two of which have been double-digit victories.
  • The Nittany Lions earned a regular-season sweep of Illinois (currently 34 in NET rankings), first beating the Illini 74-59 on Dec. 10 in Champaign. Penn State handed Indiana (currently 29 in NET rankings) its second-largest loss of the season on Jan. 11, an 85-66 thumping for the Nittany Lions' largest win over the Hoosiers in program history. The Nittany Lions picked up their third Quad 1 victory on Feb. 23 with a 75-71 road win at Ohio State (currently 60 in NET rankings). Penn State grabbed its latest Quad 1 win Wednesday night as the Nittany Lions earned a dramatic 68-85 overtime road win at Northwestern (currently 45 in NET rankings).
  • The Nittany Lions also own four Quad 2 wins in home victories over Illinois, Iowa and Michigan, in addition to a neutral site win against Furman.
  • Penn State is 10-1 in Quad 3/4 games, with the lone loss being a home overtime defeat to Wisconsin (currently 77 in NET rankings - top 75 in home games is Quad 2). The Nittany Lions have only lost one game to a team outside of the NET top 90, with that loss coming on the road at Nebraska (93 in NET) on Feb. 5.

 
THE THREE IS KEY

  • Penn State ranks fourth in the nation with 10.8 3-pointers made per game. The Nittany Lions are shooting the long ball at a 39.0 percent (324-831) clip, a mark that ranks ninth in the nation.
  • The 2022-23 Penn State team (30 games played) has already set the program single-season team record for 3-pointers made in a season (currently at 324). The previous school record stood with the 2017-18 team's 294 treys (39 games played, NIT Champions). The Big Ten record for 3-pointers in a season is 365, which was set by Purdue in 2018-19 (36 games, Elite 8) while Penn State head coach Micah Shrewsberry was an assistant coach on Purdue's staff.
  • Penn State has made double-digit 3-pointers in 19 games this season, including a program-record 18 triples in two games.

 
NATIONAL NUMBERS

  • Penn State and Nittany Lion players rank in the top 20 in the nation in a number of statistical categories as of March 3:
Team Stat Value National Rank
Fewest turnovers per game 8.7 3
Assist-to-turnover ratio 1.65 4
3FG made per game 10.8 4
3FG% 39.0% 9
Effective FG% .560 13
Player Stat Value National Rank
Assists per game – Jalen Pickett 7.0 4
Assist-to-turnover ratio – Jalen Pickett 3.32 4
3FG% - Seth Lundy 41.8% 17
FG made – Jalen Pickett 220 18

 
 
18/7/7

  • Jalen Pickett is the only player in the country averaging at least 18 points (18.1) per game, seven rebounds (7.3) 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 18/7/7. 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 AP National Player of the Year accolades.

 
THE MAESTRO

  • Jalen Pickett is the engine that makes Penn State go. He ranks in the top five nationally in both assists per game (7.0) and assist-to-turnover ratio (3.32) while engineering a Penn State offense that ranks third in the nation in fewest turnovers per game (8.7) and 13th in effective field goal percentage (.560).
  • The six-foot-four guard has played his best in Big Ten play, averaging 19.3 points per game, 7.7 rebounds per game and 6.5 assists per game.
  • Pickett's season highlights include a 41-point game, a 32-point game, 12 20-point games, six double-doubles and one triple-double.
  • Pickett is on the Oscar Robertson Trophy Late Season Watch List, Wooden Award Late Season Watch List, Naismith Player of the Year Midseason Team and Bob Cousy Award Top 10 list.

 
WYNTER IS COMING

  • Camren Wynter has kicked it up a notch over the last four games. He's averaging 18.0 ppg, 4.5 rpg and 3.0 apg while shooting 61.4% (27-44) from the field and 76.5% (13-17) from 3-point range over the last four games.
  • Wynter was the hero in Wednesday night's overtime win at Northwestern, hitting the game-winning 3-pointer with less than a second left in overtime to highlight his game-high 24-point performance.

 
THE BIG TEN'S BEST SHOOTING DUO

  • Penn State's duo of Andrew Funk and Seth Lundy have provided a lethal 1-2 punch on the perimeter as they both rank first and second in the Big Ten in 3-pointers made per game and 3FG%.
  • Andrew Funk has made a Big Ten-best 2.90 3-pointers per contest at a 40.5 percent clip. Seth Lundy leads the Big Ten and ranks in the top 20 in the nation with a 41.8% 3-point shooting percentage while ranking second in the conference, behind only Funk, with 2.72 triples per game.

 
ELITE EFFICIENCY FOR LUNDY

  • Senior Seth Lundy is producing at an elite level. Lundy is one of only 17 Division I players to be averaging double-digit points (14.3) and six-plus (6.2) rebounds per game while shooting at least 50% from two (53.3%), 40% from three (41.8%) and 75% from the free throw line (79.3%).
  • Lundy is having his most consistent year in the Blue & White and has scored in double figures in all but four games this season. In addition to his offensive consistency, Lundy serves as one of the team's top defenders and is consistently tasked with guarding the opposing team's best players.

 
UP NEXT

  • Penn State will turn its attention to next week's Big Ten Tournament which runs March 8-12 at the United Center in Chicago. Seeding and matchups will be finalized upon the completion of Sunday's regular-season games around the league.

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