Big Ten Basketball: Projecting each team’s key player production for 2021-22

Penn State – Jalen Pickett and Seth Lundy

Decrease in production: Jalen Pickett

One does not have to write a 5,021-word article in order to be considered qualified to state Jalen Pickett will not be duplicating the 13 points, six rebounds, and almost five assists that helped him be named to the All-MAAC Team as a junior. Oddly enough, his junior season was his least productive at Siena, and that trend will continue this season.

Thanks in part to eight players transferring, including their two top scorers, Coach Micah Shrewsberry’s starting line-up will have Pickett pairing up with Gardner-Webb transfer Jaheam Cornwall. With career lows in field goal percentage, points scored, and assists,  getting acquainted with new teammates and a new system could produce similar results.

Increase in production: Seth Lundy

Last season the Nittany Lions went with a starting line-up that consisted of 6’9 John Harrar, 6’1 Jamari Wheeler, 6’4 Izaiah Brockington, 6’4 Myles Dread, and either 6’3 Myreon Jones or 6’6 Seth Lundy as the defacto power-forward. Jones and Lundy – for all intents and purposes – split the playing time regardless of who started last season, this season will not be more of the same.

The New Jersey native was in the starting line-up for 15 of the first sixteen games averaging 26 minutes and 11 points and four rebounds. In the final nine games in which he came off the bench for fewer than 20 minutes per game, he averaged fewer than nine points. At 6’6 Lundy assures himself a starting spot if they play as ‘small’ as they did last season, if Western Michigan transfer Greg Lee plays power forward at 6’9, Lundy can slide into the small forward position.

The only question that remains is not how many minutes the Nittany Lions’ top returning scorer will get, but rather, will Dread push Pickett to the bench while Lundy continues to start.