Penn State shooting goes cold in 67-58 loss to Michigan State

To say Penn State welcomed a wary Michigan State team coming off back-to-back losses wouldn’t be accurate. For Nittany Lions’ head coach Micah Shrewsberry, rather, the Wednesday evening tilt at the Bryce Jordan Center would be every bit the test expected out of Tom Izzo’s Spartans.

“I knew what was coming through this door,” Shrewsberry said. “And I tried to heed that warning to our guys.” 

Shrewsberry was right.

Flummoxed offensively in one of the worst shooting performances of the season, Penn State dropped a 67-58 decision to Michigan State in front of 8,302 fans at the BJC. The loss is the Nittany Lions’ second-straight and drops the program to 6-3 for the 2022-23 season.

The contest didn’t start that way, though. Able to pull ahead by 10 points within the first 8 minutes, with a chance to create an early cushion off a 21-12 advantage, Penn State found itself in a grind-it-out game.

Here’s a look at what went right, what went wrong, and what’s next for the Nittany Lions:

Missed shots

Penn State started well enough, paced by Cam Wynter and Caleb Dorsey 3-pointers out of the gates. And by the time Myles Dread poured in an open 3 and three free throws out of a foul, the Nittany Lions’ 16-6 advantage built momentum in the building. 

A Dallion Johnson miss from deep, his second in as many attempts, began a creep of the tough outing the rest of the night would turn into offensively. Still managing three more 3-pointers after the midpoint of the first half, the Nittany Lions couldn’t connect on good looks inside and saw their lead slip away on a pair of AJ Hoggard and-ones in the final two minutes of the frame. 

Evened at 35-35 going into the break, the second half opened with a fast-break Seth Lundy 3-pointer. It’d be Penn State’s last of the game, taking eight more and missing all of them.

“I still like the threes that we took. There was a couple that we took that were rushed, that were quick, that I’d love to have back,” Shrewsberry said, acknowledging the lack of ball movement and a departure from the team’s practice approach. But, even while crediting Michigan State for the defensive effort, another reality emerged. “Jalen Pickett, he had a layup, passes it up, and kicks it out to Myles. That’s a wide-open three. He’s in the middle of the paint and they double and he kicks it to Cam Wynter at the top. That’s a wide-open three. 

“I don’t know what more you want. You’re trying to run offense to get layups, to get open threes. We’re getting wide-open threes, we just didn’t convert them. Gotta live with it. There’s some I’d like to have back, but I’d probably take those same shots from those same guys.”

Izzo agreed.

Against a Michigan State approach that kept wings on shooters, it created a dynamic in which good looks were had but ultimately didn’t go down for the Nittany Lions. So much so, in fact, that Izzo admitted the uncharacteristic result for what had been a handful of great opportunities for Penn State

“We deserve some credit because we did a good job. But they missed a couple of really good shots if I was to be honest about it,” Izzo said. “But they’re not supposed to make them all, even though they’re one of the best in the country and they missed a couple of good ones.”

Not just that

It wasn’t only Penn State’s poor shooting from deep that left the Nittany Lions in the lurch. Finishing just 8-of-27 from three, the 29.6 hit rate was the program’s lowest of the season.

But it also matched a markedly low percentage from the floor, many of them looks close to the basket for Pickett and others. 

“I didn’t think we played particularly good offensively,” Shrewsberry said. “We didn’t move it the way we needed to. We didn’t what we were practicing either. We’re gonna watch it tomorrow. We’re gonna learn from it. They’re a good defensive team. I thought they took some stuff away.”

The Spartans didn’t take everything away, though. 

Pointing to Pickett’s performance, one in which he finished with 13 points, 17 rebounds, and eight assists, the veteran point guard’s 5-of-14 shooting line, including a 1-of-5 clip from deep, reflected the series of unconverted good looks.

“He got to the basket the way he wanted to. But you look at it, he went 5 for 14. He’s backing guys to the concession stand. You gotta make them,” Shrewsberry said. “It’s a make-or-miss game. Joey Hauser does the same thing, he makes his. You gotta make them on the other end. 

“I love Pick. The dude gets 17 rebounds tonight and had eight assists. He’s doing a lot for us. He’s probably pissed. He’s probably mad at some of the opportunities that he had there near the basket, some that he normally makes and he just missed it. Sometimes that’s the game. When you get the ball in the paint, he’s got to convert like that.”

Big, untimely turnover

For as poorly as Penn State shot it, the close game remained close well into the second half. Trading blows, the Nittany Lions couldn’t stretch a lead past 4 points while Michigan State finally pushed the game into the danger zone for the hosts off back-to-back Hoggard makes. 

A critical swing pivoted against Penn State on a carrying call levied against Lundy at the 4:38 mark. Coming out of a layup in which momentum seemed to shift, the Nittany Lions trailing just 56-54 with an opportunity to tie or lead out of a Walker 3-point miss, the whistle was followed by a no-call on a physical layup attempt for Pickett. 

Asked about the sequence, Shrewsberry held off.

“It is what it is. I gotta go back and watch it,” Shrewsberry said. “When the game is going on, I think I’m a ref. And then sometimes I miss a lot of things when I go back and watch. I want to go see it. 

“That was huge possession for us. We needed something out of that. So it was a big call, but I’ll see it and see what happens and go from there.”

Backed by another Walker bucket, Penn State wouldn’t get closer than two points the rest of the way.

Too much pressure?

Shrewsberry built up the game’s importance on Monday, urging fans to come out and support the program. Beginning Big Ten play, coming out of a double-overtime loss at Clemson, Shrewsberry described Penn State as jumping from a pot of boiling water into a frying pan. 

Was it too much? 

Afterward, he asked himself that question.

“Maybe part of that is why we didn’t shoot so well,” he said. “Maybe we put so much pressure on ourselves to win this that we’re squeezing the ball too tight, because we’re getting open looks, we’re getting open shots. But maybe I put too much pressure on our guys. 

“And that’s something that I should probably be better at. We got to be on the edge, but we also got to be loose and we also got to play free and it didn’t feel like that for us.”

Disappointed by the result, and that it came in front of Penn State’s home crowd, Shrewsberry lamented it.

“This was a big game for us. And we wanted to play well for our fans. We wanted to play well at home,” he said. “We wanted to prove ourselves and you know, maybe it was too much. Because we didn’t respond the whole time. I thought we started out well and then we kind of backtracked too much.”