Penn State crossroads laid bare: Micah Shrewsberry notebook

Micah Shrewsberry offered a pointed critique of a recent stretch of officiating on Sunday night. Immediately following a 76-63 loss to No. 1 Purdue at the Palestra, the Nittany Lions head coach acknowledged his frustrations over a handful of grievances. 

Monday afternoon, Shrewsberry looped back to not overshadow another point he’d made in the progress.

Meeting with reporters at the Bryce Jordan Center, Shrewsberry said he wanted to make sure everyone understood and realized how good of a team Purdue is. And, maybe more specifically, he wanted to ensure everyone also understood how good the Boilermakers were in the performance in Philadelphia. 

“I don’t want anything that I said yesterday to take away from their team and how they played,” Shrewsberry said. “They won that game. They asserted their dominance in who they were. I got nothing but love for those guys. I texted them last night on the bus ride home. 

“The coaches, the guys I coached, everything else, just congratulating them on how they played, what they’ve done so far. I told them I’d see them in a couple of weeks. They’re a really good team.”

Penn State coach Micah Shrewsberry weekly press conference

Set to face Indiana on Wednesday at the BJC (7 p.m., BTN), the Hoosiers having also dropped back-to-back games, and now out of the Top 25, Penn State’s challenges won’t dissipate on the back side of its latest loss. 

Instead, Shrewsberry and his staff prepped the Nittany Lions at practice on Monday afternoon for what is certain to be another big test. 

“I know they’ve got a couple of guys injured, but their presence defensively, they’re one of the more physical, active defensive teams and they’re gonna make it hard on us, they’re gonna challenge us,” Shrewsberry said. “So this is going to be a good test for us. We got to bounce back, we gotta find our swagger, we got to find our toughness because we’re gonna need it.”

Nobody panic

Coming off back-to-back losses, falling to 2-3 in the Big Ten and 11-5 on the season in the process, Shrewsberry suggested the team’s mettle is now under the microscope. 

Needing to stabilize in the wake of a second setback in as many tries, the psyche that carried his Nittany Lions to a solid start to the season, including a 9-2 mark against the nonconference competition, can’t melt. 

“That’s the biggest thing right now. You prove things in moments, you prove things at different times. We didn’t play well in the second half. You can’t let that affect your psyche of man, we’re not a very good team,” Shrewsberry said. “We got beat by the number one team in the country… It’s not that belief of, We can’t play with them. It’s more a belief of, Can we do it for an entire game? 

“It’s not just Purdue; it’s Indiana, it’s Iowa, it’s Michigan, it’s whoever we play. You got to do it and you can’t talk about it, you gotta prove it for 40 minutes, you got to do it. We know we can do it. Now it’s about sticking with it when things aren’t going well.”

A fragile psyche

According to Shrewsberry, Penn State’s present ability isn’t one of ability. Having demonstrated that this group can play with and win against quality competition, the “want” that senior guard Jalen Pickett said was being tested Sunday night has to return in full.

“We’ve shown it. We’ve done it. Now it’s a matter of doing it every single time,” Shrewsberry said. “It’s easy to do something when you feel good. Let’s do something when you don’t feel good. Everybody works out on January 1. Everybody quits working out at the end. It doesn’t feel good anymore. I don’t have that feeling anymore. 

“Continue to do it when it doesn’t feel good. Continue to do it when things aren’t going your way. That’s when you find something deep down inside. That’s when you know you got something special. When you can do it when things aren’t going your way. When you do what you’re supposed to do when things aren’t going your way. That’s what we got to find.”

Determined to come up with those solutions ahead of Wednesday night’s tilt, Shrewsberry said the question isn’t singularly directed at Penn State. Instead, both programs are at a crossroads from which either a loss or win is a certainty by late Wednesday night.

“We’ve lost two straight, Indiana’s lost two straight. It’s gonna be about who comes in here and wants it more,” Shrewsberry said. “Who wants this game more? Because the result is gonna be the same at the end. Somebody’s leaving here with three straight losses. Who wants it more? That’s it.”

Everything’s fine?

Asked about his comments on Sunday night and whether he’d spoken to the Big Ten, either to bring attention to his frustrations or from the league offices levying a possible fine, Shrewsberry said Monday afternoon that he had not. 

“No, I haven’t heard anything,” he said. “I’ve just been focused on trying to get us better and trying to get prepared for Indiana. I haven’t talked to anybody.”