Jalen Pickett Named Sporting News All-American

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pennsylvania – Penn State Men’s Basketball Senior Guard Jalen Pickett was named a second Team All-American by Sporting News Tuesday morning.

Sporting News is one of four outlets used by the NCAA to determine its All-America teams (Associated Press, National Association of Basketball Coaches, United States Basketball Writers Association, and Sporting News).

Pickett is the only two Nittany Lions in program history, along with Jesse Arnelle, to have achieved second-team All-America status or higher. Arnelle received the 1954 first-team All-America honors from the Helms Foundation and the 1955 second-team honors.

Pickett has put together one of the best seasons in Penn State history. He is the only player in the country to average at least 18 points (18.0) per game, seven rebounds per game (7.3), and seven assists (7.0) per game. Only one men’s varsity basketball player has finished the season averaging 18/7/7 in the past 30 years (since the 1992-93 season). 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 the AP National Player of the Year awards.

Pickett ranks in the top 5 nationally for both assists per game (7.0) and assist-to-turnover ratio (3.27) while developing a Penn State offense that has the fewest turnovers third per game (8.8) and 15th in effective field goal percentage (.561).

The six-foot-tall guard played his best in the Big Ten game, 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 5 of the Big Ten in goals scored (fourth), rebound (fifth), assists (first), assist-to-turnover ratio (runner-up), and field goal percentage (fourth) in Big Ten -Play .

The Rochester, NY native’s season highlights include a 41-point game, a 32-point game, 12 20-point games, six double-doubles and a triple-double. He already has a Penn State single-season assists record in 31 games this season and has given up 216 assists so far.

Pickett has garnered significant national attention and is the first Penn State player to ever land on the Wooden Award National Ballot. He is a top five finalist for the Bob Cousy Award, which honors the nation’s top point guard, as well as an Oscar Robertson Trophy Late Season Watchlist honoree.

Pickett has built a historic collegiate career as the only Division I men’s collegiate basketball player in AT LEAST the last 37 years to have 2,000+ career points, 700+ career rebounds and 800+ career assists. Pickett currently has career stats of 2,111 points, 732 rebounds and 814 assists. He only needs 28 points to reach the 1,000 point milestone in a Penn State uniform. He has 972 points, 359 rebounds and 351 assists in just 62 games as the Nittany Lion.

2023 sports news all americans
First team

Zach Edey, Purdue
Trayce Jackson-Davis, Indiana
Jalen Wilson, Kansas
Brandon Miller, Alabama
Drew Timme, Gonzaga

second team

Jaime Jaquez, UCLA
Azoulas tubelis, Arizona
Marcus Sasser, Houston
Jalen PickettPennsylvania State

Tyler Kolek, Marquette

third team

Kris Murray, Iowa
Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky
Kendric Davis, Memphis
Markquis Nowell, State of Kansas
Armando Bacot, North Carolina