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From Mirror reports
For the first time in a long time, the Penn State men's basketball team had something to celebrate on draft night in the National Basketball Association.
Guard Jalen Pickett (2nd round, 32nd pick, Denver Nuggets) and wing Seth Lundy (2nd round, 46th pick, Atlanta Hawks) were selected in the 2023 draft Thursday night.
Pickett and Lundy's selections mark the first time in program history that two Nittany Lions were selected in the same NBA Draft. The Nittany Lion pair are the 14th and 15th NBA Draft picks from Penn State. Pickett and Lundy are the first Penn State players to be chosen in the NBA Draft since Tony Carr was selected by the New Orleans Pelicans as the 51st overall pick in the 2018 Draft.
And it got even more special for the program, the university and the Nittany Lion fans when Andrew Funk signed a free agent deal to play for the Nuggets Summer League team, meaning he and Pickett will be teammates for the time being.
Calvin Booth, the current general manager of the NBA champion Nuggets, was part of a team behind the moves. Booth was drafted in the second round by the Washington Bullets out of Penn State.
Pickett and Lundy will join Nittany Lion alumnus Lamar Stevens 2020 as active Penn State players in the NBA. Stevens recently wrapped up his third season with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Pickett is now the highest-drafted Nittany Lion in the modern era of the two-round NBA Draft, which dates back to 1989. Booth was the previous highest pick out of Penn State at No. 35.
Pickett's collegiate career culminated in a Consensus All-American season in 2022-23 as he averaged 17.7 ppg, 7.4 rpg and 6.6 apg with a 50.8 FG%, becoming the first Division I men's college basketball player since at least the 1992-93 season to average 17/7/6 or better while shooting at least 50% from the field. The point guard ranked top 15 in the nation in assists per game (6.6 -- fifth) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.89 -- 13th) while setting the Penn State single-season assists record with 243 helpers.
Lundy was selected in the second round with the 46th overall pick by the Atlanta Hawks. He will join former Nittany Lion Tom Hovasse (1989) as the only Penn State products to suit up for the Hawks, who signed Hovasse to a free-agent deal during the 1994-1995 campaign where he played in only two games that season.
Lundy completed his four-year Penn State career after putting together a career-best season as a senior, finishing the season with 14.2 points and 6.3 rebounds per game. He proved to be one of the most efficiently productive players in the country, as one of only five Division I players to tally 10+ points per game and 6+ rebounds per game while shooting at least 50% from two-point range (53.3%), 40% from three-point range (40.0%) and 80% from the free throw line (80.7%).
Funk proved to be the most lethal 3-point shooter in the Big Ten during the 2022-23 season, leading the conference and ranking top 25 in the nation in both 3FG% (41.2%) and 3-pointers made per game (3.03). Funk's 112 triples during the 2022-23 season led the Big Ten and were the second-most in a single season in school history. The Warrington, Pa. native finished his graduate season at Penn State averaging 12.5 points per game while tallying 25 double-digit scoring games and eight 20-point performances. He shot a career-best 44.4 percent from the field and 41.2 percent from 3-point range.
Funk finished his five-year collegiate career with marks of 1,693 points (11.5 ppg), 457 rebounds, 237 assists and 302 3-pointers. He played four seasons at Bucknell before playing graduate season at Penn State and earning master's degree in management and organizational leadership. He earned All-Big Ten honorable mention laurels at Penn State as well as a spot on the Academic All-District team.