Penn State hoops ready to 'put up or shut up': Notebook

Penn State head coach Micah Shrewsberry met with the media Thursday afternoon. And, with just four days remaining before the Nittany Lions open the season, he acknowledged he’s getting excited about it.

Set to host Winthrop, an NCAA Tournament team last year, losing to Villanova in the first round. The game is set for a 7 p.m. tip and will be broadcast by BTN+.

Before getting to the Eagles, though, Shrewsberry offered updates on the progress made by his Nittany Lions, what to expect moving forward, and more.

Here is a look at the news and notes to emerge from Shrewsberry’s Thursday session:

1) The starting line-up

Whether it’s gamesmanship or genuine, Shrewsberry isn’t divulging the starting lineup ahead of the opener. He told reporters Thursday that he asks for input from his staff after every practice, but maintained a position he’s kept throughout the offseason.

Leading a team that has options and the ability to match up against team-specific strengths of opponents, his only assurance was that Jalen Pickett, the preseason All-Big Ten selection, and Seth Lundy would start. Beyond that, he called it “a crapshoot.”

That might be true. But, we have some guesses anyway for how the Nittany Lions might look when first taking the hardwood. 

“We’re gonna practice today, we’re gonna practice Saturday, we’re gonna practice Sunday. And, hopefully, they tell me who’s starting by the time we get there,” Shrewsberry said. “If not, that’s either a really good problem to have or that’s a bad problem to have if there’s no separation.”

2) The Andrew Funk impact

Announced as one of four team captains earlier Thursday, grad transfer sniper Andrew Funk grabbed some attention in the process. Though Penn State and Shrewsberry had been discussing his acclimation to the program as a success, his place as the only transfer to earn a captaincy allowed him to stand apart somewhat.

According to Shrewsberry, it wasn’t by doing anything dramatic. It was just the opposite as Funk immediately meshed with his teammates, has constantly shown servant leadership qualities, and worked tirelessly. 

“He’s doing everything we asked him to do on the court,” Shrewsberry said. “But he also has a way about him where teammates connect with him because he’s easy to talk to. He’s willing to take his time to help the freshmen and everybody else.

“He was an easy pick for us to name a captain.”

3) “Put up or shut up”

Shrewsberry’s folksy demeanor is disarming and unassuming. But, he’s also an intense competitor. And, with his first season in the program through, he’s ready to get going with putting a better product on the hardwood this year.

So when he was asked about how he feels going into this first game of the season, a big part of his response was about where the Nittany Lions are as a team, but also he talked about his anxiousness to see the fruits of the labor of building excitement around the program through last year and the offseason.

“I want to see what we look like. I want to test ourselves against a good team. And, I want to see what our environment looks like,” Shrewsberry said. “There’s a lot of people walking around telling me how excited they are about basketball. Show me. Show up, sit in the stands, and cheer for us. I want to see that. So that’s the biggest part of it is getting started.”

Acknowledging the length of the wait between the end of last season and the start of this new one, Shrewsberry added that the anxiousness and anticipation for its start accompany its eventual arrival. But, with it, the foundation built last season had an opportunity to grow stronger through the program’s work in the offseason, leading to a place in which he feels they’re stronger now than they were a year ago at the same time.

“I think we’re much further ahead offensively than where we were. I think we’re catching up defensively. And, I think we’re in a good spot defensively. I don’t think we’re gonna be perfect. I think we struggled early in the year defensively also. But there are some things that we struggled with early that we tried to address now going into this year so we don’t have those same mistakes early on,” Shrewsberry said. “But I feel like we’re much further ahead in terms of what we have in, the amount of stuff we have in, how we’re getting the chance to practice it, the amount of things that we’ve been able to do in late-game situations. So now it’s put up or shut up, I guess.”