Penn State Coach Micah Shrewsberry Previews Matchup With No. 1 Purdue
Ahead of No. 1 Purdue basketball's game with Penn State at 6:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday inside Mackey Arena, Nittany Lions head coach Micah Shrewsberry previewed the matchup with the Boilermakers.
The two programs met for the first time this season on Jan. 8 at the Palestra in Philadelphia, where Purdue dominated in a 76-63 victory on the back of 30 points from junior center Zach Edey.
Since the loss, Penn State has won three games at home but continues to struggle on the road before a trip to West Lafayette. It's coming off an 83-61 thrashing of Michigan on Sunday, a game in which the team held junior center Hunter Dickinson to just six points and two rebounds.
Shrewsberry discussed the challenges of preparing for Edey, who at 7-foot-4 is one of the toughest covers in not just the Big Ten but all of college basketball. Here's what he had to say about the Boilermakers:
On Penn State's apparent 3-point shooting disparity on the road this season
Shrewsberry: We've shot really good here. Obviously, we've set or broke or tied or whatever 3-point records, all here. Now it's about having the same mentality, but everything that happens doesn't have to be the same everywhere.
Penn State basketball's not very good, why do we have to continue to say that? Just because something happened 10 years ago, has nothing to do with me. Whatever happened at Rutgers has nothing to do with what's going to happen at Purdue.
I think when you start to get into that mentality of "oh man, here we go again," you're just holding yourself back. I don't want us to hold ourselves back. I want us to play free, I want us to play loose, I want us to have the mentality of the next shot's going in.
Sometimes you get on the road and you get sped up a little. You get rushed, maybe you're getting the same quality of shot, it's just a little bit quicker. It's just a little bit out of rhythm or out of sync. It doesn't mean you're a bad shooter, right? You've made shots before, now you just have to trust yourself. You have to trust the work that you've put in, you have to stay confident in those moments.
We did that, we played with more poise when we were at Illinois, and we made shots. I think we need to play with more poise offensively. Maybe I need to use my timeouts better to keep the crowd out of the game and keep the focus on ourselves. But then we need to stay confident.
People are doing a good job of guarding us in a lot of different ways. People are feeding off their crowds defensively, so they're playing a little more active, a little more aggressive, whatever that may be.
You just need to execute, play with great purpose, and when my time comes, shoot it with confidence. If you miss it, do the same exact thing down the court. Shoot it with confidence again. No two games are the exact same, so we can be who we want to be.
On what Penn State can take away from its first matchup against Zach Edey and Purdue
Shrewsberry: You watch it, you go back and it's like alright, we can't do this. But this was OK, and we can and do this. They do a really good job of like -- I talk about playing with a purpose, they play with a purpose.
They're going to get him the basketball. At the expense of everybody else on the team, I'm going to get him the ball. That is my number one priority. There aren't very many college teams that play with a great purpose like that.
You watch some other teams, and it's like alright, well he got it a couple times, it's time for me to get a shot. Or I'm shooting it the next time, I don't really care about him anymore. They're going to get him the ball, and they're going to play off of it. They're going to get open shots because of it and because of the focus that is put onto him.
Trying to figure out the best way to stop him is really hard. We have a lot of areas to clean up, I know that much. We weren't good in the post, we weren't good in ball screen defense, we weren't good off the ball. So there are a lot of areas to really clean up.
I don't even know where you start with Zach, he's such a matchup nightmare. You don't see it, he's different. He's different than Hunter Dickinson, and Hunter Dickinson is massive. Zach's totally different than him.
It's like man, I guess I can go home and get on my kids' video games and create some dude that's that big and then play against him and simulate a game and see how they guard him. And then maybe try and come up with some ideas, but the Big Ten has handcuffed me and is only giving me a couple days to really figure something out.
We're just going to compete. We're just going to play as hard as we can, we're going to make it as tough as we can. He's the player of the year in the country. He's having a fantastic season.
You can't let him take your spirit, that's the biggest thing. You have to fight every time down the court. It's easy when he's scoring, scoring, scoring to just get your head down. Another possession, but you gotta fight, you gotta fight, you gotta fight, you gotta fight, you gotta fight. You gotta compete, you gotta come back, you gotta fight, you gotta do it again.
Because as soon as he takes your spirit, that's when he gets 40, which he was really close to doing [Sunday] and against us.
On how much Penn State can rely on Caleb Dorsey and Michael Henn in a matchup against Zach Edey
Shrewsberry: I thought those two played with a great energy, which is how they ended up starting. They practice that way. We have to continue that, they have to play the same way. Like I said, no two games are exactly the same.
Just because I played well last game, doesn't automatically assume the same things are going to happen. They have to prepare the same exact way, they have to know, they have to watch the film. They have to be locked in during walkthrough.
I thought we were all on the same page offensively and defensively, and I think that's what helped us. Those two guys were a factor in it, but I think everybody else that was on the court was a big factor as well.
We're on one page offensively and defensively, I think that's when we're at our best. I don't know if there's one game plan against Zach that's like this is the exact way to guard him. Nobody knows because nobody has been able to guard him at all.
If we're doing the wrong thing, but at least five of us are doing it, then we're good to go. We're all on the same page and we're doing it, so we're going to do it at great speed and with enthusiasm and with some toughness instead of everybody having their own idea about how we should be doing this. And now we don't have five guys, we have each single guy doing his own thing.
If we can get all five guys going in the same direction, I think hopefully good things can happen for us.
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