Skip to main content

For Penn State, Micah Shrewsberry success crystallizes program's crossroads: Bauer

nate-mug-10.12.14by:Nate Bauer03/10/23

NateBauerBWI

penn-state-micah-shrewsberry-success-crystallizes-programs-crossroads-bauer
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - MARCH 09: Head coach Micah Shrewsberry of the Penn State Nittany Lions reacts in the second half against the Illinois Fighting Illini at United Center on March 09, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images)

Shortly after Michigan State served Penn State a 67-58 loss on Dec. 7, Tom Izzo lent his perspective on Micah Shrewsberry’s short tenure with the Nittany Lions. A month into his second season with the program, Shrewsberry had made an impression on the Spartans’ revered head coach. 

So, when asked what Shrewsberry had done well with the Nittany Lions, the always-pragmatic Izzo didn’t hesitate. 

“God, just about everything,” Izzo said. 

How? Why?

The Nittany Lions had improved defensively, he said. The team’s shot selection had improved in an offense that “runs some great stuff.” And most important, the challenge of creating a powerfully potent system around an unconventionally talented, 6-foot-4, 209-pound point guard was implemented to perfection.

Building an offense in which Jalen Pickett utilizes his size to push around smaller defenders getting to the basket, or sprays assists to a perimeter loaded with complementary shooters, was “not easy to do” and a “hell of a job” by Shrewsberry, Izzo said. 

Three months later, Izzo’s evaluation feels prescient. Shrewsberry’s plan for the Nittany Lions, and the execution of it, has borne fruit unlike many seasons in the program’s history. 

Virtually assured of a bid to the NCAA Tournament following Thursday night’s 79-76 win over Illinois in the Big Ten Tournament, Penn State is ending a 12-year dancing drought. Pickett is a consensus first-team All-Big Ten guard, with All-American honors soon to follow, and is a candidate for every major national award in college basketball. The Nittany Lions boast one of the most prolific and efficient 3-point shooting offenses in the game. And, especially true of their six wins in the past seven games following a debilitating five losses in their prior six, it’s a program, in totality, that has demonstrated staggering chutzpah in the face of brutally difficult circumstances.

They don’t look or play like their peers in the conference, and they don’t want to. Supremely confident in the plan orchestrated by Shrewsberry, and in each other, their path to the postseason has been arduous but rewarding in what it says about themselves and the man tasked with leading them. 

“You can look down there at that guy,” Pickett said late Thursday in Chicago, nodding at Shrewsberry when asked how this Penn State team didn’t give up on its aspirations. “He said we’ve got to win it for ourselves, too. We felt like we had a special group and we played good basketball at some of those points.

“Our seniors came together, and we got the freshmen together (to say) ‘We’re a good team.’ We started putting that belief behind it and kept going to work every single day. We just felt like the ball was going to bounce our way eventually.”

For the past month, it finally has. With it, the immediate and long-term future of the Penn State basketball program, with Shrewsberry at the helm, should come into sharp focus. 

Somewhat remarkably, it all ties together.

Meeting with the media on Monday, Feb. 6, Shrewsberry and the Nittany Lions were facing vastly different circumstances. Three weeks earlier, The Athletic’s Brian Hamilton first floated Shrewsberry as a candidate for the impending opening of the Notre Dame gig at the end of the season. But, in falling to 5-7 in Big Ten play with a lifeless loss at Nebraska on Feb. 5, Shrewsberry made pointed comments about his future – though no one had asked – and those of his senior players, the same ones to which Pickett referred on Thursday night. 

“At some point in time, it’s got to kick in that this is it,” Shrewsberry said. “It’s February, and I tell these guys all the time, ‘Like it or not, I’m gonna be here next year. Some of you guys don’t get an opportunity. You’re not gonna be here. The season’s over. It ends. Careers are over.’

“I’m gonna be here. I got a lot more years left. So, I’m gonna get a chance to coach again, I’m gonna get a chance to try and accomplish what we want to accomplish. I’m gonna get to do it next year, and the year after that, and the year after that. If you’re a sixth-year guy, fifth-year guy, whatever, it’s this or nothing. It’s this or becoming an accountant, it’s this or become a plumber, it’s this or going, playing in Croatia.”

It’d take two more losses to get there, but the Nittany Lions have defiantly opted for the first of Shrewsberry’s scenarios. Emboldened to keep reaching, Penn State’s aspirations will be met, only left to determine how far they’re exceeded past the threshold of just getting into March Madness. 

But, what of Shrewsberry? What of the aspirations he has professionally, and where they’re most realistically attainable?

As it pertains to Penn State basketball and its future, potential opportunities for Shrewsberry at Notre Dame and Georgetown should purposefully be excluded from the conversation. Instead, athletic director Pat Kraft and his team should be asking how they can affirmatively answer those questions in the Nittany Lions’ favor, and then working to implement them, if the success of this season is to be sustained into the future.

Taking a page from James Franklin and his lamentations over the missed opportunity to capitalize on the momentum of a Big Ten Championship in 2016, followed by a Fiesta Bowl and an 11-win season in 2017, this is undeniably that moment for Penn State basketball. 

And at the top of that list of priorities for Shrewsberry, name, image, and likeness resources stand alone. A conundrum throughout college football and men’s basketball for every athletic department to solve, the likelihood of Penn State becoming a powerhouse in the space is nil. But, that doesn’t preclude the program from needing to make every effort to compete with the resources and opportunities it directs to it. 

In December, Shrewsberry told BWI on the Penn State Hoops Podcast that Penn State was last in the Big Ten in NIL. “We have to do something. That’s something where we can’t fall behind,” he said. “It’s about what you want as a program and what you’re happy with.”

Penn State, in its totality, must now answer that question. From Kraft and the resources invested in the program to the pressure he puts on the collectives and donors, to the broader community buzzing over its recent success, anything short of a good-faith commitment will almost certainly leave the program back at square one. 

And that, as easily recognizable to Izzo in December as it is to everyone following the program now, would be a mistake.

“You just listen to him. You hear people talk about him,” Izzo said. “I’d be wrapping my arms around him if I was a Penn State fan because he’s got a good 20-year stretch here that he can be a helluva coach.”

Through the course of two seasons, Shrewsberry has established the foundation of Izzo’s assessment. And, through a necessary evolution, he has also shown both the room for growth naturally accompanying a young coach and a willingness to pivot and change into it, when necessary.

At a critical moment for Penn State men’s basketball, the department, donors, and fans of the program must decide if they want to join him. 

You may also like