Micah Shrewsberry 'knew' players would respond to calling them soft

Micah Shrewsberry didn’t mince his words after Penn State’s 65-45 loss at Rutgers back on Tuesday. He called out the Nittany Lions in one of the most gripping ways a coach can and, as of this morning, they rebounded in a big way.

Shrewsberry spoke about his team’s performance following Sunday’s 83-61 win over Michigan. He said he knew his players would answer his challenge because of who they are.

“I know these guys. I keep it 100 with ’em all the time, I tell it how it is and call it how I see it,” said Shrewsberry. “I’m not going to beat around the bush and tell them something to make them feel good, to make them feel bad. Whatever it might be? I’m just going to tell them the truth.”

“Sometimes people need the truth. But I know this group. I know their character, I know their makeup, and I knew how they were gonna play today,” Shrewsberry said. “I didn’t know we were gonna play like this. But I knew they were gonna compete the right way, play the right way. We did that on both ends of the court.”

Penn State nearly doubled their offensive output from Tuesday night against the Wolverines today with 38 more points. That’s because they raised their field goal percentage from 33.3% to 54.4%. The Nittany Lions also showed more pride on the defensive end. They held Michigan to a lower field goal percentage in today’s victory than they did the Scarlet Knights in Tuesday’s loss against. After losing on the glass by 17 in Piscataway, they won the rebounding battle as well today by nine.

These performances were night and day in terms of production and efficiency for Penn State. With them both now in the book, this was the result Shrewsberry was likely hoping for today. He knows what buttons to push to get his team right and, based on today’s outcome, he did it well in order to get the Nittany Lions back to .500 in the Big Ten.