Micah Shrewsberry determined to build on defensive foundation

Micah Shrewsberry isn’t interested in abandoning the formula that worked in his debut season at Penn State. Joining reporters for the Big Ten’s basketball preseason media day Wednesday in Minneapolis, he made that much clear repeatedly. 

Establishing a defensive identity that made his Nittany Lions one of the toughest opponents in the Big Ten last season, finishing the year ranked 49th nationally giving up just 65.0 points per game, Shrewsberry expects that foundation to remain. Boasting the return of two keys to that effort, wing Seth Lundy and Jalen Pickett, who he described as two of the “underrated defenders” in the Big Ten, is a good place to start.

The change, of course, is that Shrewsberry is also expecting the Nittany Lions to score this season.

One year after playing at one of the slowest paces in college basketball, with one of the lowest scoring outputs to match at 64.6 points per game, the Nittany Lions are determined to put the ball through the net. 

“We have a little more firepower in terms of what we’ll be able to do offensively,” Shrewsberry said. “We’re still going to play the same exact way. We’re still going to challenge people defensively and make it as hard as possible. But, I think we’ll be able to score the ball a little bit better.”

Micah Shrewsberry’s expected improvement

Shrewsberry’s confidence is built on what might appear to be conflicting notions.

On the front end, consistency is key to the message. Describing a college basketball world in which turnover is a constant, Shrewsberry said that the five returning players from the 2021-22 team are essential to the growth that has taken place this offseason.

In Pickett and Lundy, Penn State has two leaders representing the program at the media day event and, more importantly, versatile defenders and scorers. Pickett, according to Shrewsberry, is “one of the best guards in the league and the Big Ten conference” ahead of his bonus year of eligibility. And Lundy, in his fourth season as a Nittany Lion, is poised to build on a season in which he was “impressive” guarding the best of the best. Now, he also has the benefit of playing for the same head coach in back-to-back seasons for the first time.

“He’s more comfortable when you watch him in practice. He’s more comfortable in terms of what we’re doing in our system offensively and defensively,” Shrewsberry said. “And now you’ll see the game slow down for him. Now I think he’ll take his game to another level.”

Along with Dallion Johnson, Myles Dread, and Caleb Dorsey, Penn State has examples from which to show the program’s identity. With eight new additions to the program, three from the transfer portal, and a five-man Class of 2022 in its first months on campus, that element is particularly important.

“We’ve grown from year one to year two, and having continuity is huge in this time,” Shrewsberry said. “Even though we have eight new players on our roster, having the other five guys that were with us last year, makes it easy. Staff continuity makes it easy to continue to do what we did. And, that was laying a foundation of how we want to play. And lay a foundation that we’re gonna be a hard team to play every night out.”

Next steps

On the other end of the floor, that firepower is expected to come from the program’s transfer portal additions.

Shrewsberry touted the career resumes of Camren Wynter (Drexel) and Andrew Funk (Bucknell), each with 1,200 or more points. In them, Penn State has experienced help ready to contribute on the offensive end. And, with its inexperienced help, Penn State also is working to quickly develop Kebba Njie on the interior. Evan Mahaffey, Jameel Brown, Kanye Clary, and Demetrius Lilley will also work to contribute early.

Combining, they form a group Shrewsberry believes is capable of competing every night in the conference. They are now less than a month away from opening the season on Nov. 7 against Winthrop at the Bryce Jordan Center.

“(We have) five freshmen that we’ve all recruited. (They) fit our personality, that fit who we want to be as a program, that has also raised the competition level in our practices. So, I’m happy with our group,” Shrewsberry said. “We’re gonna fight every single night. We’re gonna make it as hard as possible. And, we’re gonna do what we can every day to become one of the best teams in the Big Ten.”