Penn State’s Lamar Stevens earned All-Big Ten honors. Here’s why that made school basketball history
Lamar Stevens made Penn State history Monday afternoon.
The senior forward was a consensus first-team All-Big Ten selection, making him just the fourth Nittany Lion to ever earn first-team consensus honors, alongside Jarrett Stephens (2000), Talor Battle (2009) and Tony Carr (2018). He was also the first Penn State men’s basketball player named to the first-team in consecutive seasons.
Battle twice earned first-team honors but did so as a sophomore (2009) and senior (2011). Battle and Stevens are now the only two Nittany Lions to ever become first-team selections over multiple seasons.
“He put us on the map,” Penn State coach Pat Chambers said last week, referring to Stevens.”... He’s going to leave an impact on these players in that locker room because now they have somebody to look up to.”
Stevens is among the Big Ten leaders in multiple categories this season and now has the Nittany Lions poised to make their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2011. He’s fourth in the conference in scoring (17.6 ppg), sixth in defensive rebounds (5.7 drpg), ninth in field-goal percentage (.423), 10th in free-throw rate (.719), 10th in steals (1.1 spg), 11th in overall rebounds (6.9 rpg) and 13th in blocked shots (1.2 bpg).
He was joined on the first team by Iowa’s Luke Garza (media, coaches), Maryland’s Jalen Smith (media, coaches), Michigan State’s Cassius Winston (media, coaches), Illinois’ Ayo Dosunmu (media) and Maryland’s Anthony Cowan Jr. (coaches).
Stevens was twice named the Big Ten Player of the Week this season, for both the weeks of Dec. 19 and Feb. 10. He recorded back-to-back double-doubles for his first honor and helped upset then-No. 16 Michigan State for his second, scoring 57 points over two games.
“Special kid,” Chambers added last week. “Special family.”
Thanks in large part to Stevens, the Nittany Lions have experienced nearly unprecedented success this season. Penn State was ranked as high as No. 9 in the Associated Press poll, tying a school record for its highest ranking. (It was also ranked No. 9 in 1996 and in 1954.) It’s also just the third time, since joining the conference in 1992-1993, that the Nittany Lions have won at least 10 Big Ten games.
Stevens is also second all-time on the school’s scoring list. He needs just seven more career points to surpass the current leader, Battle.
He’ll have his chance to make more history at 8:55 p.m. Thursday in the Big Ten tournament, when the No. 6-seed Nittany Lions will take on Wednesday’s winner between No. 14-seed Nebraska and No. 11-seed Indiana.
This story was originally published March 9, 2020 at 4:14 PM.
