Penn State coach Micah Shrewsberry post-game press conference: Watch

Penn State knocked off No. 19 Michigan State on Tuesday night at the Bryce Jordan Center, 62-58.

They needed every minute of action to do so, too.

Clawing back from a 14-point second half deficit, the Nittany Lions used an 11-0 run to give themselves a puncher’s chance. And in trading jabs the rest of the way, that chance turned to reality late with a series of clutch made shots, key defensive stands, and made free throws.

After the game, Penn State head coach Micah Shrewsberry addressed the media. Check out his full post-game press conference video below, as well as some of the transcribed highlights from both Shrewsberry and Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo.

Penn State coach Micah Shrewsberry press conference

On his first technical at Penn State:

“It was probably them playing a lot better that set me off a little bit. I thought our guys were competing. I disagreed with the official and what he called. But at the end of the day, he called the tech, it was over right after that. I went to him and I was like, hey man, sorry. It is what it is. And he said the same exact thing. And we kind of moved on from it.

“But immediately, Myles came over and was like, Hey, we got you, coach. We got you. And we had an older group on the court at the time, and I thought they really responded and really played hard from that moment defensively. We really locked in in terms of what we need to do. I thought our offense got better from that moment on. So, I don’t know, maybe I’m a dummy for waiting this long to get one.”

On John Harrar’s performance:

“John’s a warrior. He’s a warrior. He gives you everything he has… He was in there battling by himself. We sent four guys back in transition. And John fought. We could do that because there wasn’t a fear of John not sprinting back on defense every single time. He was gonna go as hard as possible to glass and run back as hard as he needs to.

“I talk about those clips that we’re going to show with John. These will be some of them. You can play this hard. If John can do it, anybody can do it, in terms of effort. This is pure effort, heart, determination, and love for Penn State. He wants Penn State to do really well. And 16 points. 16 rebounds is really impressive.

“They have a bunch of good players at the five and they threw those guys all at him and he just kept going and going and going. We gotta get him some rest because he’s gotta do it again on Thursday.”

On Penn State responding to 14-point second half deficit:

“They came out the second half really determined. That’s one thing we talked about. I don’t think halftime is probably going to be a picnic for them. But they came out on fire. We weren’t great in terms of closing out and getting to their shooters. They got some offensive rebounds. They’re attacking the rim. They were doing everything right. And we were a little slow out of the gate.

“So once we got down, we’ve been down before and we’ve come back and we chipped away, but we talk about doing it one possession at a time. There’s no 14 point shot. But everything gets magnified. I think every defensive possession gets magnified, every offensive possession gets magnified.

“I think we finished with two turnovers in the second half, so I thought we were maximizing the shots that we were going to get. And luck was with us. We made some tough shots, we made some timely shots and knocked in our free throws down the stretch.”

Tom Izzo post-game comments

On what he told Micah Shrewsberry: “I told him I was proud of him. I said that you’ve been in, you could’ve won about four games and good coaches just keep on banging and that’s what he did. He’ll be the right coach for this place.

“I thought he did a helluva of job of getting his kids up night after night after night. He’s had 20 of these games, it seems like. Every time I look at film, it’s a three point game, two point game, one point game and they lose at the buzzer. This time they won it.”

On John Harrar’s performance: “I’m proud he’s a Big Ten player. Look at our league. He’s the kind of guys that you want to represent your league. Just keeps doing his job. Rolling, rolling. We did such a poor job of handling it, but he did a great job of rolling. My guys are popping, his guys rolling, and that was the difference in the game, I thought. There’s no question John Harrar was the difference in the game.

“He’s done something that’s illegal now. He’s gone through the process, he’s done a nice job of that, he’s gotten better every year. He doesn’t complain about what he’s doing. Just keeps getting stronger, better, and tonight he was the hero.