Penn State basketball preview: Lions look for two in a row against Northwestern
Penn State head basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry might be new to his role, but he isn’t new to the Big Ten.
As he prepares his team for the conference opponents it will encounter the rest of the way — like Northwestern Wednesday at 9 p.m. — his own learning curve is minimal.
He spent 2019-21 as an assistant with Purdue, where his scouting assignment involved preparing for the opposition’s defense. Certainly, he absorbed enough about their offensive tendencies to have a base of knowledge there, too.
“I’m at the games, I’m at practice, I’m at walk-through, so I know exactly how we were trying to guard them and what we were trying to do defensively,” he said. “We played a little bit differently defensively at Purdue than we do here, but with a common theme of what we do and also the personnel. I can specifically talk to our guys. The guys that were here last year know a little more about certain players. The guys who are new that don’t, I can talk to them.”
Shrewsberry pointed toward Northwestern guard Chase Audige as an example of his bank of knowledge coming into play.
Audige’s numbers this season are relatively pedestrian. He’s averaging 11.3 points per game on 36 percent shooting. But Shrewsberry knows there’s a spark there just waiting to ignite.
“That’s not what he’s capable of,” Shrewsberry said. “That’s what he’s doing at the moment. He can score 30. And I’ve seen him do it. And we’ve prepared for that. Being able to be in the league — recently in the league — and knowing some of the things that people like to do, some of the things that these players like to do, is really helpful. Still gotta stop it. That’s the plan. That’s the key.”
Scouting the Wildcats
The Nittany Lions and Wildcats share similar offensive philosophies. Shrewsberry compared it to looking in a mirror.
In fact, he texted Penn State legend Talor Battle — now an assistant with Northwestern — and jokingly told him to “stay out of my playbook.”
“It’s really going to be a discipline and an execution game,” he said. “It’s like playing in practice. Everybody knows what’s coming. Now you’ve gotta be able to stop it. You gotta be disciplined in what you do.”
Top 10
- 1
The Fighting Irish
Notre Dame beats Penn State to advance to CFP National Championship
- 2
Notre Dame odds
Irish natty line released vs. OSU and Texas
- 3Hot
Carson Beck
QB entering portal
- 4
Lee Corso
Near fall puts scare into CGD crew
- 5
Ohio State fans mistake
A brutal, costly error
Get the On3 Top 10 to your inbox every morning
By clicking "Subscribe to Newsletter", I agree to On3's Privacy Notice, Terms, and use of my personal information described therein.
Chris Collins’s team is off to an 8-3 start on the season, with a 1-1 Big Ten Mark. The Wildcats won at Maryland and suffered a narrow home defeat to Michigan State last weekend.
KenPom rates Northwestern as the No. 40 team in the country, with the Nittany Lions coming in at No. 82.
Senior forward Pete Nance leads the Wildcats in scoring with 16 points per game. He also averages 7.8 rebounds.
Their offense runs through junior guard Boo Buie — who also happens to be Battle’s half-brother.
Buie dishes out 5.5 assists per game, and is Northwestern’s second-leading scorer with 14.6 points on average.
Shrewsberry compared it to Penn State’s previous contest against Ohio State, when everyone on the court could stretch the floor.
“They create challenges,” he said. “Our 3-point defense hasn’t been great, and when we haven’t been great guarding the three we’ve usually lost. They’ve got a bunch of guys that can make threes.”
Penn State vs Northwestern spread
Northwestern opened as a 5-point favorite according to the Vegas Insider Consensus, but the line had moved to 7.5 as of late morning on Wednesday.
