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You Can’t Help But Smile for Jalen Pickett, Seth Lundy

Jalen Pickett and Seth Lundy gave Penn State basketball fans a reason to smile on Thursday. (Image: GoPSUSports.com)

Consider this column a long, likely unnecessary, heavily-biased, roundabout way to say one thing: Good for Jalen Pickett and Seth Lundy.

If you want to stop here, I’m fine with that. That’s the whole point of this piece. 

But if you’ll hang around for a bit longer, I will tell you I’ve got a big grin on my face tonight. A lot of other Penn Staters do.

When nights like tonight happen for athletes like Pickett who went to the Denver Nuggets or Lundy who went to the Atlanta Hawks, you can’t help but smile. And you can’t help to be reminded how awesome sports are, were or can be. 

Pickett and Lundy getting drafted has no real impact on my life or your life (unless you are in their families or on the Atlanta Hawks and Denver Nuggets).

Your life is not changing one bit from these two selections in the NBA Draft. All you’ll actually get from it is a nice serotonin boost. Yet when moments like that happen, you too sitting on the outside looking in get to feel a sense of reward and pride, especially for two key figures in what has been a rough couple of years for Penn State hoops. 

There was something undeniable special about Pickett and Lundy’s careers at Penn State that one day we’re going to look back on as building blocks for what is hopefully next for a basketball program with some stable ground right now. 

It was Pickett who many a night willed Penn State back into games and provided one of the greatest single game performances as he dropped 41 points against Illinois in a very meaningful late season game. No player has ever had an impact quite like the one Pickett had on Penn State’s roster. He went from transfer to All-American, the first one in more than 50 years at Penn State.  He also recorded the second-ever triple-double in school history.

The only other guy to record a triple-double at Penn State was the guy who drafted Pickett: Current Nuggets GM Calvin Booth. 

There’s something to be said about Penn Staters looking out for Penn Staters. Insert world’s largest dues paying alumni base fun fact here. But even if Booth wasn’t a Penn Stater, he certainly picked one hell of a leader in Pickett – who only spent two years wearing the blue and white. Pickett’s leadership on and off the court was what truly shined – and will be a lasting memory of the 2023 Big Ten Tournament and NCAA Tournament trips. 

Then there’s Lundy who essentially watched this basketball program go through hell and back but decided to stick around. In an era of the portal and NIL, he committed to stay through essentially three head coaches and COVID, all to play a central role in getting the team back to the tournament for the first time in 12 years.  

When you see that growth, when you see people succeed like that, when you see someone go through what Lundy and co. went through, it’s hard not to get emotional. It’s hard not to have a sense of pride for them when they play for your team. I’ve never met either of them. But man was my day made by this.

Sure, days can be ruined by sports but there’s something blissful when your day is made by sports. That feeling mixed with the togetherness of fandom is what keeps us coming back. 

And so when success happens to someone like Pickett or Lundy, it’s a wonderful, overwhelming moment that you, as a sports fan, can take in, too. 

That’s why you hang around through everything that Penn State basketball has gone through in the last six months, three years and even longer. 

Moments like hearing Lundy and Pickett’s names make all of this worth it. 

So yes, this was a long roundabout way to say this: Good for you, Seth Lundy and Jalen Pickett.

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Darian Somers
Darian Somers is a 2016 graduate of Penn State and co-host of Stuff Somers Says with Steve. You can email Darian at darian@stuffsomerssays.com. Follow Darian on Twitter @StuffSomersSays.

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