Micah Shrewsberry: 'I hope we've done enough' to make NCAA tournament after victory over Illinois in Big Ten tournament

Penn State’s NCAA Tournament hopes got a little brighter after Thursday’s Big Ten tournament victory over Illinois. The Nittany Lions entered the day as one of ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi’s Last Four In, meaning they were still on the bubble.

As for whether or not his team has done enough to get into the Field of 68, Micah Shrewsberry said he’s hopeful his team can make it in. But he’s more focused on a bigger task: winning.

“Our guys have been fighting,” Shrewsberry told Big Ten Network’s Rick Pizzo after the game. “The one thing we talked about is we’ve been playing tournament basketball for three weeks. It’s been do or die. Every game’s been so important, and these guys have just stepped to the plate and guarded, guarded, guarded and been focused. I’m so proud of these guys.

“I hope we’ve done enough. I hope we’ve done enough, but we want to keep winning. We want to keep winning here. We’re having a lot of fun playing ball.”

Jalen Pickett is one of the top weapons for Penn State, but he had just three points at halftime. He came out of the break and scored nine points in the second half, but still finished fourth on the team in scoring. He also added eight assists as other players — led by Andrew Funk and Camren Wynter — stepped up to help lead the Nittany Lions to the victory.

The key, according to Shrewsberry, was everyone else being ready to play and step up when the Illinois defense stymied Pickett early on.

“Timely shots,” Shrewsberry said about the key to battling through Pickett’s struggles. “Those guys, they believe in each other. We know ‘Pick’ can get going at any moment. But different guys stepped up and kind of held us, carried us, until he did get going. Then, once he gets going, all the attention goes to him and those guys knocked down shots.”

However, Penn State struggled mightily in one area: free throws. The Nittany Lions shot 13-for-22 from the stripe, including 12-for-20 in the second half with some key misses. That made it tough to coast to the victory, but Shrewsberry said his team did just enough.

“You’ve got to put the game away,” Shrewsberry said. “These guys are so good in transition, they’re so good at attacking. When you’re shooting free throws, that’s all they’re doing is attacking you and you’re on your heels a little bit. You want to make some more free throws and be more comfortable, but we knocked enough of them down to get where we need to be.”