Micah Shrewsberry Makes Return to Mackey Arena, Falls Short Against Top-Ranked Purdue
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Penn State basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry didn't mince words immediately following an 80-60 loss to No. 1 Purdue on Wednesday at Mackey Arena.
The opening statement to his postgame press conference was brief and to the point, just as he said it would be after his team fell to 14-8 and 5-6 in Big Ten play.
"Best team in the country. Best player in the country. Best coach in the country," Shrewsberry said.
The Nittany Lions squared off with the Boilermakers once already this season, which resulted in a 76-63 loss on Jan. 8 at the Palestra in Philadelphia. Back then, Purdue's star center Zach Edey piled on 30 points, came down with 13 rebounds and dished out three assists.
As Shrewsberry — a former assistant coach under Matt Painter — tried preparing Penn State for an upset in his return to West Lafayette, he was forced to pick his poison.
Rather than let Edey dominate the scoresheet against the Nittany Lions for the second time this season, they denied him the ball and focused the rest of their attention on freshman guards Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer.
Edey registered 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting, and the first-year backcourt duo had a combined 14 points. But it opened the door for junior forward Mason Gillis to set fire to the nets.
Gillis went off for a career-high 29 points and made 9-of-12 from the 3-point line, a record for a Purdue player in Mackey Arena. He orchestrated an 11-0 run himself to open the second half, igniting a lead that eventually stretched to as many as 26 points.
"You have to do something. Zach beat us up so bad in the paint last time," Shrewsberry said. "But it's also how you construct the team. You have the most dominant player in college basketball and you put guys around him that fit perfectly. That shoot it, that move it, that pass it.
"You have to pick and choose some stuff. We chose to try and leave some guys, we chose to try and rotate. We didn't do a very good job after he hit some of then finding him."
In his second year at the helm for the Nittany Lions, Shrewsberry fell to 0-4 against Painter and the Boilermakers. But even after being a part of talented Purdue programs and now preparing for them twice in each of the last two seasons, even he can tell that there's something different about this year's team.
"I think they fit really well together," Shrewsberry said. "I think those other guys on the floor, they know how good Zach is. Zach is playing a lot more, but they know how good he is and they get him the ball, and then he makes them better.
"He doesn't always make them better by having to throw it to them. Sometimes he makes them better by scoring the ball, and now everybody's attention goes to that and other guys are getting open."
The Boilermakers are 22-1 overall and 11-1 in conference play, riding a nine-game win streak since suffering their first loss of the season in early January. They sit atop the Big Ten standings with a significant lead before entering a stretch where they will play three of the next four on the road.
At this point in the year, Purdue is showing no signs of slowing down. But luckily for Shrewsberry, he may not have to worry about seeing Painter and the Boilermakers until next season.
"Everything fits offensively and how they want to play," Shrewsberry said. "I think coach has been building towards this and building towards this group. And I'm sure he's having a hell of a time coaching them."
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