Penn State Basketball History: First Ever Pair of Nittany Lions Drafted Into NBA

Penn State has not traditionally been known as a basketball school.

The football powerhouse has not heard their names called for the NCAA tournament much, but they did so during their 2022-23 season. As a result, the program saw more interest than in previous years and new AD Pat Kraft and his team have opted to invest more in the program.

Signing a new head coach in Mike Rhoades and his landing plenty of talent (see: Ace Baldwin, Zach Hicks, Leo O’Boyle, Puff Johnson, Qudus Wahab, RayQuawndis Mitchell and others), the Nittany Lions clearly have the intention of going dancing again this upcoming season.

But the page hasn’t turned yet as two stars of last season’s team had their time to shine on Thursday.

Thursday’s 2023 NBA draft became the first time ever that the Penn State Nittany Lions have had two players drafted out of their basketball program in the same draft.

The leader of the 2022-23 team was Jalen Pickett and he earned himself a draft selection from the reigning NBA champions.

Early on in the second round, with pick 32, the Denver Nuggets selected Pickett.

Sources: Denver is selecting Jalen Pickett at No. 32. https://t.co/Z8rZKX2Rl3

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 23, 2023

For Denver, it was their second pick having made a selection just three picks earlier at 29.

It’s also notable as former Penn State Nittany Lion Calvin Booth is the general manager of the Nuggets and made the decision to select the guard from his alma matter.

Just a few picks later, program stalwart Seth Lundy would his name called by the Atlanta Hawks.

Sources: Hawks picking Seth Lundy at No. 46.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 23, 2023

Lundy had an incredible showing with the shooting drills and floor sprints at the NBA combine, so his draft stock was certainly reasonably high heading into the draft.

Lundy had, of course, been with the Nittany Lions for four seasons and had played under the turmoil of three different coaches during his tenure with the program giving the team some consistency somewhere through several transitions.

The Nittany Lions basketball squad will take the court once again this fall with a new look, but with the same goal: making it to the NCAA Tournament.

Surely having several players just get drafted won’t hurt their recruiting ability moving forward.