Penn State Embraced Basketball in March. Will It Continue?
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The most grueling time to ask athletes to reflect is when a loss still freshly stings. So Penn State coach Micah Shrewsberry wore a broken heart on his sleeve Saturday night, searching for the right words to soothe himself, his program and their fans after the Lions' NCAA Tournament run ended. He succeeded.
Penn State's magic March — which the football team's social media department renamed the month of "Shrewsberry" — ran into a Final Four contender in Texas, which defeated the Lions 71-66 in a Midwest Region second-round game. Shrewsberry said Texas was the first team recently to "crack the code" of Penn State's ball-screen defense, doing so in a way that freed forward Dylan Disu to score a season-high 28 points.
Meanwhile, Texas limited All-America point guard Jalen Pickett to 11 points and one assist (with seven turnovers), while Penn State's 3-point shooters, so exceptional in a first-round win over Texas A&M, couldn't recapture their groove. The Lions shot 28.6 percent from 3-point range, and Andrew Funk went 2-10 against Texas after making eight of 10 against the Aggies.
Still, the feisty Lions made it a game, rallying from an 11-point second-half deficit to take a three-point lead with 5 minutes remaining. Texas responded with a 10-0 run to reassert control, preventing Penn State from reaching the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2001.
Since that year, Penn State has compiled nice seasons (much like this one) but hasn't stacked them. The program hasn't had back-to-back 20-win seasons since 1995-96. It has won more than 11 Big Ten regular-season games once. It went 12 years between NCAA Tournament appearances, though the 2020 team would have danced.
One year after that, Shrewsberry took over a program in transition. Six players entered the NCAA Transfer Portal, including Seth Lundy and 2022 cornerstone John Harrar. But both ultimately stayed, as did Myles Dread, which Shrewsberry noted again Saturday night as the turning point for his program and a central component of his coaching success.
"There was two routes to take," Shrewsberry said. "There was the easy route, and there was the hard route. They chose the hard route."
It was hard. Penn State labored through the 2021-22 season as the Big Ten's lowest-scoring team but won 14 games with defense. In the offseason, Shrewsberry brought in scorers Funk and Camren Wynter from the transfer portal, giving the team some shooting juice and Pickett a ship he could steer. Slowly, the hardened and wizened Lions found their stride, winning eight of 10 in March before the NCAA Tournament.
For that, Shrewsberry was equally grateful to Pickett, who transferred to Penn State in 2021 and took a chance on a first-time head coach. They needed time to make it work, but Shrewsberry and his staff ultimately positioned Pickett for one of the great seasons in Penn State history.
Even Saturday, Shrewsberry remained baffled at how a fellow Big Ten coach didn't vote Pickett first-team all-conference.
"He chose to come here, and I had never coached a game before," Shrewsberry said. "He repaid that by letting me sit and watch the season that he's had."
Lundy, Dread and Pickett sat alongside Shrewsberry on the dais in Des Moines. Often during the postgame press conference, Shrewsberry cradled his head on one hand. He spoke softly and deliberately yet contextualized the night and season perfectly.
"It's been a joy for me to just be on this ride with them and watch them and watch what they've accomplished," the coach said. "... I didn't want to stop. I want to practice again, I want to play again because this group is, like, they deserve it. They deserve it for all the work that they put in that nobody sees, nobody recognizes."
Shrewsberry's players picked him up then, too.
"My goal coming to Penn State was to leave it better than I left it, and I feel like we did that. We accomplished that for sure," Dread said. "At this point, you know, we're not going to stop, and I know coach Shrewsberry is not going to stop. The sky is the limit."
Added Lundy, "What coach Shrews is doing and the freshman group we have now, they're going to made huge strides in the future, and he's going to continue to bring in more great players in the future, being the great coach that he is."
Penn State's roster will look quite different next year. Pickett, Dread, Funk and Camren Wynter will be gone. Lundy could return but might have his eye on the NBA. Shrewsberry's two recruiting classes will be called to duty, but the coach likely will be active again in the NCAA Transfer Portal.
All that presumes Shrewsberry returns, which seems a safe assumption. In Des Moines, Shrewsberry was asked twice about next season, including a report by CBS' Jon Rothstein that Penn State will offer Shrewsberry a "significant, long-term financial commitment."
Though he didn't address the report or his future directly (because why would he?), Shrewsberry at no point sounded like a coach planning to leave. In fact, before the NCAA Tournament even began, Shrewsberry said he wanted to bring the Lions back.
"I'm happy that this group gets a chance to fire up all Penn Staters about basketball," the coach said. "I'm happy that this group gets a chance to bring everybody together. ... They're all so excited about that.Let's keep that going. Let's be one family, let's keep rolling in one direction and let's keep going to tournaments every single year."
Shrewsberry said that Wednesday, before the Lions' thrilling win over Texas A&M. He seemed to mean it. His demeanor Saturday suggested he did.
Before leaving Des Moines, Shrewsberry, Lundy, Dread and Pickett were asked whether this version of Penn State basketball is sustainable. They didn't hesitate to say, of course.
"I don't know anybody in the country who would sit there and say it's not sustainable," Dread said.
But sustainability is fragile. Penn State must invest in basketball on and off the court. It must be willing to accept steps back while celebrating steps forward. It must commit, and that means everyone.
Pickett affirmed that, leaving everyone who wants Penn State basketball to succeed with this thought.
"I just want the Penn State fans to come out next year and pack the [Bryce Jordan Center] for those guys," he said. "They're going to work hard this summer. We had a bunch of new kids return. I definitely think they will be back next year, and I want them to come out and support those guys."
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AllPennState is the place for Penn State news, opinion and perspective on the SI.com network. Publisher Mark Wogenrich has covered Penn State for more than 20 years, tracking three coaching staffs, three Big Ten titles and a catalog of great stories. Follow him on Twitter @MarkWogenrich. And consider subscribing (button's on the home page) for more great content across the SI.com network.
