Jalen Pickett, staying present, recognizes path to goals

Jalen Pickett took in the question from Penn State’s radio color commentator, Dick Jerardi, following the Nittany Lions’ 76-69 win at Minnesota late on Saturday night. Staring down four final games of the regular season, knowing an NCAA Tournament berth is of paramount importance, Jerardi asked what it would take for Pickett’s group to get there.

The temptation is easy enough. Plotting out resumes and the wins needed, or not, to work out a path into March Madness is what fans and college basketball programs are doing all over the country right now.

But Pickett, in his final season of action at Penn State, resisted.

“I’m trying to block all that out,” Pickett said. “Just the next game. I’m gonna go back and take a day off and just watch Ohio State. We’re trying to go 1-0 each day and we’re just gonna see where we are at the end.”

Next opportunity

Granted an extended respite of a Thursday evening trip to face the Buckeyes (6:30 p.m., FS1), that next opportunity has arrived for Pickett and the Nittany Lions. 

And, it’s coming on the heels of one of the most productive two-game stretches in either college or NBA history. Sparked by 41 points, 8 assists, and 2 rebounds in Penn State’s win over Illinois, Pickett followed it with 32 points, 8 assists, and 9 rebounds at Minnesota. Combined, his 73 points, 65 percent shooting from the floor, and 52.9 percent from deep landed Pickett his second Big Ten Player of the Week recognition. Further, for the first time in his career, he was picked as the national player of the week by a slew of media outlets and awarding bodies in the game.

Joining Blue White Illustrated for the Penn State Hoops Show earlier this week, Pickett pointed to a combination of factors for the outburst. Taking his opportunities, getting more open looks and shots, and then taking them with confidence propelled the performances forward, Pickett said. That, plus reading defenses that have chosen to come under screens for his perimeter shots, and teammates sending more looks down themselves, helped create the conditions for what matters most now: winning.

“I think it was just time now where you gotta basically stop talking about it and start doing it,” Pickett said. “We’ve had a lot of mistakes that we’ve learned from and we’re just kind of correcting them now. We got to start putting that to use. Stop talking about what we’re going to do and just go out there and have fun, try and get back to having fun and winning games.”

Jalen Pickett finds the formula

Coming out of a four-game slide that threw the Nittany Lions’ postseason plans into a tailspin, Pickett said the group has managed to find that spark in the past two games. 

Returning to a style in which the Nittany Lions were “making threes, playing fast, making shots, and winning games,” they’ll again look to do so Thursday against a Buckeye program facing its share of struggles. Now dropping 13 of their last 14 games, including three gaudy blowout losses most recently, the matchup represents an opportunity not to achieve goals, necessarily, but rather keep the possibility of them alive.

Acknowledging that the NCAA Tournament is all he’s “ever dreamed of” while playing his college basketball, it’s the first important step toward reaching what Pickett is confident this team is capable of delivering.

“We can definitely get there. We’re good enough to get there. I have 100 percent confidence in my team and our coaching staff that we can,” Pickett said. “We feel like we can compete with anybody in the country. This next four games for us coming up and this Big Ten Tournament, we feel like we got enough in the locker room to make something happen and be special. 

“The time is starting to dwindle down, but I still got high hopes and I’m hoping it comes true. That’s the last thing I want to do at Penn State.”