'The Sky's the Limit,' for Penn State's Micah Shrewsberry
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As the NCAA men's basketball Final Four takes center stage, Penn State fans naturally ask the question: When will the Nittany Lions return to the Final Four?
To that end, Penn State Athletic Director Sandy Barbour said the "sky's the limit" under head coach Micah Shrewsberry.
"I think what Micah Shrewsberry and his staff and the guys did this year was pretty amazing," Barbour said.
Penn State finished 14-17 in Year 1 under Shrewsberrry, who embraced bigger goals after a season-ending loss to Purdue in the Big Ten Tournament. The Lions lost eight Big Ten games by seven points or less and had three non-conference games canceled because of COVID-19 protocols.
A few swings of fortune and perhaps Penn State would have reached the NCAA Tournament, or at least the NIT, in Shrewsberry's first season.
"We're right there," Shrewsberry said after the season. "That's the part where you get a little disappointed that you're close, you're really close. Now, don't take steps back to take steps forward. We need to build off what we did this year."
Barbour, who is retiring in July after eight seasons at Penn State, said Shrewsberry navigated a difficult first year with skill. He had to re-recruit his entire team and still lost multiple starters to the NCAA Transfer Portal, then steered through the December COVID shutdown. Shrewsberry also signed the program's highest-ranked recruiting class in history.
"You think about the timeline for he and the staff to keep guys from transferring, bring in some [transfers], maybe even the most amazing thing, the recruiting class that they signed in November that will be here soon," Barbour said. "Then we go through the season, you see the way the guys bought in and the way they played. They played so, so, so hard in a program that's always been known for the guys playing hard. But I think Micah and the guys took it to a new level."
Penn State has made nine NCAA Tournament appearances, the last in 2011. The Lions have played in one Final Four: in 1954, when they beat Notre Dame to win the East 2 Region. Penn State lost to eventual national champ La Salle in the Final Four before defeating USC 70-61 in the third-place game.
Barbour didn't promise that sort of program trajectory. But she remains "very bullish" on Shrewsberry's potential.
"I'm really excited to watch what they'll do," Barbour said of Shrewsberry's future teams. "Just the enthusiasm with the Big Ten tournament run and the kind of outpouring of support and love from the guys to Micah, Micah to the guys, from our Penn State men's basketball enthusiasts.
"But the sky's the limit. I think Micah Shrewsberry is going to do great things at Penn State. I was obviously very bullish on Micah when we hired him, and I'm even more so now."
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