By PAUL GOTHAM
With the 32nd overall pick of the 2023 NBA Draft, the champion Denver Nuggets selected former Aquinas Li’l Irish star, Jalen Pickett.
Pickett, a Consensus All-American at Penn State University, scored 2,207 points over his five-year collegiate career. He became the first player since at least the 1992-93 to average better than 17 points, seven rebounds and six assists per game over the course of an entire season.
This past March, the 6-foot-4 point guard led Penn State to its first Men’s Basketball Division I NCAA Tournament appearance since 2011. The 10th-seeded Nittany Lions opened the Midwest Region with a 76-59 win over No. 7 Texas A&M before falling to No. 2 Texas.
Lauded for his play-making ability, Pickett will have a chance to become the fifth former Section V star to play currently in the NBA joining Thomas Bryant (Bishop Kearney), Isaiah Stewart (McQuaid Jesuit), Anthony Lamb (Greece Athena) and Jeenathan Williams (UPrep).
Pickett scored 19.6 points and grabbed nine rebounds per game during his senior season at Aquinas. He earned All-Tournament team honors as a junior when AQ won the 2016 Section V Class AA title under then head coach Mike Grosodonia. He was named Tournament MVP when Aquinas went on to win the program’s first state title.
He attended the Spire Institute in Ohio after high school.
Pickett started his college career at Siena where he garnered 2020 MAAC Player of the Year as a sophomore when he averaged 15.1 points and 6.0 assists per game.
Denver acquired the second round pick in a trade with Indiana.
Leave a Reply