Coming off of a road loss to Michigan State which snapped a four-game win streak earlier in the week, Maryland (16-8, 7-6) will look to get back in the win column Saturday when they host Penn State (14-10, 5-8).
The Terps enter Saturday afternoon's game versus the Nittany Lions a perfect 6-0 at home in league play. On the flip side, Penn State limps into their meeting with Maryland having lost three straight overall and five straight on the road.
The Terps have faced their fare share of top big men in recent weeks, like Indiana's Trayce Jackson-Davis and Purdue's Zach Edey. But on Saturday, Maryland will face one of the nation's elite guards in Penn State's Jalen Pickett. The senior guard was named to the Naismith Player of the Year Midseason Team on Thursday and leads his team in scoring (17.8 ppg), rebounds (7.8 rpg), assists (7.0 apg) and steals (1.0 spg). His ability to not only score, but consistently find open teammates can make him an extremely tough matchup.
"Make him work, but he's a hard guy to double because he's a guard and he'll dribble out of it," Maryland head coach Kevin Willard said of Pickett on Friday. "I think you've just got to play one-on-one and hope for the best."
The Terps enter Saturday's game also led by their senior point guard Jahmir Young, who has also been one of the top guards in the Big Ten. In fact, just two points separate Pickett (18.3 ppg) and Young (18.2 ppg), who rank fifth and seventh in scoring during league play. Young, who transferred to Maryland from Charlotte in the offseason, also currently ranks third in steals (1.9 spg) in league play.
"I'm being biased, I think he's as good a guard as there is in the country right now," said Willard of Young. "I don't see anybody doing what he's doing for a team offensively and defensively. I thought he was going to be a very good player, but he has worked extremely hard. He has studied film. He's put the time and effort in. So this isn't like a lucky thing, this is a young man that's been very determined to make it and he's worked extremely hard to get what he's playing for."
For Maryland, the key to slowing down Penn State Saturday will likely depend on the Terps' ability to defend the three-point shot. The Nittany Lions enter their game with the Terps ranked 18th nationally in three-point percentage (38.4%) and attempt as many three-point shots as almost any team in the country.
Penn State senior wing Seth Lundy comes into Saturday's game as the top three-point shooter in the Big Ten, shooting a league-leading 45.5 percent from beyond the arc while also leading the league in made threes. Fellow senior wing Andrew Funk is the only other player in the Big Ten shooting over 40 percent from beyond the arc, while he's tied with Lundy for the most made threes in league play.
"I would say Lundy and Funk, you look at those two numbers, Lundy has hit 40 [percent] in conference, Funk has hit 40 [percent] in conference, you know what they're going to do," said Willard. "But I think that goes back and tells you how good Jalen Pickett is. The fact that everybody knows what Funk and Lundy are going to do, and yet they are still getting and shooting those percentages tells you just how good Pickett is. You know, that was something that really hurt us against Michigan State, we had too many blown assignments and we gave open threes. We really have to do a better job of focusing on that tomorrow."
The Terps and Nittany Lions are set to tipoff Saturday at Noon ET with the game set to be broadcast on BTN.
