Stevens Announces Return for Senior Season

Penn State forward Lamar Stevens tested the NBA waters this spring.

Ultimately, they weren't to his liking.

Announcing his decision via social media, the All-Big Ten selection made it official that a fourth and final season with the Nittany Lions proved to be his preference for the 2019-20 campaign.

The decision comes in the wake of Stevens’ outstanding junior season with the Nittany Lions, one in which he posted 19.9 points and 7.7 rebounds per game, starting all 32 contests while averaging 36.9 minutes per outing. He finished tied for second in the conference in scoring behind Purdue’s Carsen Edwards and was named first-team All-Big Ten as a result.

Stevens connected on 42.2 percent of his shots from the floor but only 22.0 percent from 3-point range (20 of 91 for the season), and was something he acknowledged as a point of emphasis as he pursued a possible NBA future.

Nudging him back to Penn State, though, was the possibility of closing out his career as one of the bests to ever play for the Nittany Lions. And, maybe more important, Stevens hopes to lift the program to new heights in his final season.

“That was the original reason why I wanted to come here was to start a legacy and just leaving my mark on this team,” said Stevens. “Of course it's important to me because Penn State has just been so great to me and everybody has been so welcoming and supportive. That does mean a lot to me.”

Now within striking distance of the career scoring mark currently held by Talor Battle, currently at 1,660 points to Battle’s career record of 2,213 points, Stevens will get that opportunity to finish his Penn State tenure with the program scoring record.