The fluid nature and enormity of college basketball makes the question “what does Penn State need to do to make the NCAA Tournament?” one of those curiosities that is better answered after the fact. If the Nittany Lions go dancing then the answer apparently is “that” and if they don’t, the answer is “a bit more than what they did.”
But in any case, winning, that part is established. Winning certainly helps. And on Thursday night the Nittany Lions held off Ohio State for a key 75-71 road win over the Buckeyes for a third-straight victory and a continued 11th-hour push for Penn State’s [17-11, 8-9] NCAA Tournament hopes.
It’s hard, in a game that saw the lead change 20 times and neither team lead by more than six [Penn State at 19-13], to really summarize all of the blow-by-blow dynamics. That said, Penn State once again brought its shooting touch on the road, going 6-for-11 from beyond the arc in the first half and getting enough scoring from enough people that Ohio State’s own offensive competency didn’t result in anything more than a 37-37 halftime tie. Neither team really deserved to be losing at the break, and neither team was. The Nittany Lions would finish having shot 51.9% from the field and and having made 10 shots from range.
But if Penn State was going to win, it was going to need superstar guard Jalen Pickett to find the bottom of the basket. Pickett led the team with three assists in the opening half but was held to just two points on 1-for-3 shooting. 14 points by Seth Lundy [finished with 19] and 11 more from Cam Wynter [finished with 18] made up for it, but there’s not two ways about Penn State basketball in 2023. It wins when Jalen Pickett takes over the game.
Fortunately for the Nittany Lions, Pickett tightened up his shoes and went 7-for-8 in the second half scoring 22 points and asserting himself in a way that has turned polite Big Ten Player of The Year conversations into All-American debates. Whatever recognition Pickett does or does not take home at the end of the year, he will leave Penn State among the best to have worn the blue and white. In some corners of the world Penn State’s list of all-timers might not turn many heads, but anyone who has seen the likes of Lamar Stevens, Tim Fraizer, Talor Battle and DJ Newbill drag their respective teams to victory, knows that the plight of being Penn State’s best player is rarely a forgiving journey and rarely appreciated as much as it should be.
Elsewhere Wynter crafted up a valuable seven points in the second half while Lundy added five more of note but it was once against the Jalen Pickett story. As Ohio State took a 63-61 lead with 7:32 to go, there was only one player Penn State was looking to. And he delivered.
In total over the final 7:15 of regulation Penn State scored 14 points and got all 14 of those points from Pickett. Free throws, a three, jumpers and layups. Pickett did everything Penn State needed him to and with 59 seconds to go a four-point lead was just enough to hold off the Buckeyes.
With games still ahead, the Nittany Lions will continue to try to make their case for an NCAA Tournament bid. It would be fitting in a sense if Penn State’s NCAA drought was snapped by a player who dragged the Nittany Lions to that point not unlike Talor Battle did all those years ago. Both of those Penn State teams were talented in their own right, but as the kids say, Jalen Pickett is him.
