Penn State basketball notes: Jalen Pickett's future, Greg Lee's return and more
One item on a very short list of silver linings for Penn State basketball in its lopsided loss to Nebraska Sunday was the return of Greg Lee.
The 6-foot-9 forward played for the first time since February 5 against the Huskers, overcoming an ankle injury.
The lopsided score allowed Micah Shrewsberry to give Lee some more run than he otherwise might have. Lee finished the game with five points in 12 minutes.
“Fortunately for him, he got to play for a longer stretch,” Shrewsberry said. “That’s something he might not have been able to do. If it’s a closer game John [Harrar] is probably playing a lot more minutes and Greg is not getting as many. But he got to play for a longer stretch to help him get back into rhythm, get his wind back and get his timing back.
“I guess if there was a positive from getting your doors blown off, it was probably that.”
Lee wasn’t at 100 percent Sunday, Shrewsberry said.
But he felt good enough after Saturday’s practice to give it a go.
“I think he’s getting stronger and stronger each day,” Shrewsberry said. “We want to continue to work on rhythm and timing and get him back into the same mode. Hopefully, we can get him back to where he was playing before he got injured.”
A Penn State return for Jalen Pickett?
Speaking to the Centre Daily Times, senior Penn State guard Jalen Pickett sounded a positive note over his future.
“I definitely think I’m probably gonna take my fifth year,” Pickett told the CDT. “Hopefully things go right.”
Pickett is the key to Shrewsberry’s pick-and-roll-centric offense, and getting him back for another season would be a major boost.
The former MAAC Player of the Year has started all 26 games for Penn State this season. He averages 37 minutes per game, contributing 12.8 points, 4.2 assists and 4.0 rebounds per contest. He shoots 46.4 percent from the field.
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With a pair of guards in Kanye Clary and Jameel Brown coming in as freshmen next season, Pickett’s experience and guile could prove useful from a mentorship and program-building perspective, too.
Shrewsberry’s John Harrar pitch
Shrewsberry was asked Tuesday to give his All-Big Ten pitch for standout Penn State forward John Harrar.
Harrar leads the conference in total rebounds, with 264, and offensive rebounds, with 94. He is one of two players in the Big Ten currently averaging a double-double. He’ll clash with the other — Illinois’ Kofi Cockburn — on Thursday night.
“I think the other coaches in this league recognize what he’s done over the his career,” Shrewsberry said.
“I wanna say he’s probably the best rebounder in our league, based on maybe percentages, offensively and defensively — one of the best in the country.
“His importance offensively and defensively and how he’s played and what he’s done, I think he should get rewarded for that. I think he will get rewarded for that, just based on his reputation around this league.”
