Penn State, led by Jalen Pickett's triple-double, tops Butler

Micah Shrewsberry admitted his team hadn’t played well at the end of its 68-62 win over Butler on Monday night. Unable to maintain what’d grown to a 16-point advantage with less than five minutes to play, the Nittany Lions saw a 9-0 Butler run, largely from the free throw line, turn a comfortable win into a nervy finish.

Confident that the late-game letdown was attributable to the team still feeling each other out, and playing too loose, Shrewsberry didn’t let it derail his larger takeaway.

Against a Bulldogs team featuring talented scorers and an efficient, challenging big man in Manny Bates, Penn State had passed a crucial early season test. 

“For stretches, I thought we played really well. I thought we really guarded. I thought we got them into the shots we wanted them to take,” Shrewsberry said. “We kept our (defensive) shell intact where we didn’t have to over-rotate too much, which keeps us in great block-out position. For the third game in a row, we out-rebound somebody. 

“I thought our guys, when we needed to, really, really knuckled up, guarded on the other end, and we played off our defense a little bit. Instead of playing off of our offense, I thought we played off of our defense. We got stops, we got the crowd going, and then we made some timely shots when we needed to.”

And they did so without the type of efficient shooting performance from star guard Jalen Pickett that the Nittany Lions have come to rely upon. 

Converting on just 6-of-18 shots, Pickett’s 15 points were his lowest output of the young season. But, in avoiding a single turnover and notching both 10 rebounds and 11 assists, the “off night” resulted in the program’s second-ever triple-double. 

“I got to the middle the first half or parts of it, and after the game, I’m like man, Pickett didn’t play very well,” Shrewsberry said. “Then I look at the box score and I’m like, man, he had a triple-double. That’s the expectation that I have for him.”

What Pickett lacked in shooting percentages he made up for with playmaking, particularly in the crucial moments of the game’s second half. 

Owning a double-digit lead at varying points through a back-and-forth first half, while Butler struggled to make shots from the floor outside of Bates’ points close to the basket, the Nittany Lions found themselves trailing 42-40 at the 13:55 mark in the second half. Sitting Pickett to regroup, the Nittany Lions managed to retake a 1-point advantage by the time of his return. But, in combination with a stretch of 8 points in less than four minutes for Andrew Funk, Pickett helped send the Nittany Lions to a 17-2 run that would transform the game.

Crediting Pickett for the team-wide recalibration in the face of a quickly intensifying moment, Shrewsberry put his graduate senior in the highest echelon. 

“The one thing that he does is, he settled us. When they’re on the run, when you just need a tough bucket, to be able to throw him the ball in the post and him just go score it for you, that’s what really good teams have,” Shrewsberry said. “That’s the Purdue model, that’s the Wisconsin model, that’s Michigan. We don’t have Hunter Dickinson, and we don’t have Zach Edey, but we can throw the ball to somebody in the post with our shooters around him and get the same result. 

“That’s a luxury for us. I’m happy for him that he got the triple-double. I know he probably doesn’t care and he’s more excited about winning, holding serve here at home in our first three games. But I’m sure he’s probably pissed about how he played.”

Remaining unbeaten at this early point in the season, Penn State will venture from the BJC for the first time when it travels to Charleston, S.C. on Tuesday. 

Gearing up for a three-game slate as part of the Charleston Classic, the Nittany Lions will face Furman on Thursday at 11:30 a.m. The result will dictate whether Penn State then sees the winner or loser of the Old Dominion, Virginia Tech matchup on Friday afternoon.