Penn State toughness to be tested against Indiana
Micah Shrewsberry recognized the difference immediately following Penn State’s loss at the Palestra. Up six points to No. 1 Purdue on Sunday evening, the Nittany Lions lost their edge and, consequently, lost their lead immediately in the second half.
A replay of Penn State’s evaporating lead against Iowa at the Bryce Jordan Center seven days prior, and loss to Clemson in November, the circumstances drew Shrewsberry’s ire.
So, he called it out.
“It’s something we got to address as a team. We gotta be better,” Shrewsberry said. “This isn’t the first time it’s happened. I’m talking about it in the locker room of how we got to come out, how we have to play, how we have to do things with energy. Sometimes I sugarcoat it and dance around it, but we gotta be better.
“We need seniors playing like seniors… I thought that was a huge difference in the game. Zach (Edey) was a problem. But their freshman played like seniors. I thought our seniors were like freshmen.”
Penn State second-half lapses
Signaling his dissatisfaction with lapses in performance against opponents Penn State has competed against and led at times this season, the message was transparent.
And Shrewsberry’s message primarily centered on his disappointment with effort. Asked about playing in Philadelphia and what it meant to the program, he said his Penn State team hadn’t played with the same toughness or fight as it had when building up its 37-31 advantage over the Boilermakers.
At the forefront of that lapse was a group of players Penn State has counted upon as the foundation of this year’s team. A responsibility shared among the likes of veterans including Myles Dread, Andrew Funk, Seth Lundy, and Camren Wynter, Shrewsberry insisted in the game’s aftermath that the intangibles seniors are supposed to bring to the court quickly need to reappear from this group.
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“Just more mature, doing what we need them to do in certain moments,” Shrewsberry said Monday. “Different games, different moments call for different things. Sometimes it’s scoring, sometimes it’s defense, sometimes it’s leadership, and sometimes it’s poise. That’s what a senior brings.
“If you look at the scale of college basketball, as a freshman, you want to play. As a sophomore, you want to start, as a junior, you want to be all-conference. As a senior, you want to win and you do whatever it takes to win. That’s number one and it should be number one on these guys’ minds.”
Next steps
Penn State’s seniors will get an opportunity at redemption Wednesday when they face Indiana at the BJC (7 p.m., BTN).
Facing a Hoosier team similarly in a losing spell, Shrewsberry pointed to Trayce Jackson-Davis, Jalen Hood-Schifino, and Miller Kopp as pieces of an Indiana roster who will give Penn State trouble with their physicality.
“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.”
