Penn State men’s basketball has clear path forward despite loss to No. 3 Purdue
Micah Shrewsberry spoke softly into the microphone at his post-game press conference. The Penn State men’s basketball head coach lost his voice — not an uncommon occurrence — and did his best to lean into the microphone to make himself heard.
Then, when asked about the residuals of a close game like the one his team just played — a 74-67 loss to No. 3 Purdue — Shrewsberry’s voice rose. His face grew slightly more intense, the intent in his voice rising.
“What I don’t like,” Shrewsberry said after the game, adding the caveat that he feels disrespected over everything, “I don’t like when people say that loss sucks for Indiana and that’s a bad loss. We’re not a bad team. ... If people want to come in here and take us lightly, they can do that every day of the week.”
The perceived disrespect came from all over. From Indiana fans on Twitter, frustrated with the Sunday evening defeat, to television analysts discussing the game, the unintended swipe at the Nittany Lions meant more as a critique of Indiana struck a nerve with Shrewsberry.
Thirteen games into his career as a Division I head coach, Shrewsberry seems to be right.
He and his program continued proving Saturday that the Nittany Lions are not a pushover, and not the preseason bottom feeder some had projected.
Shrewsberry’s stint with Penn State got off to a rocky start, with his team losing its first true road game in blowout fashion in the middle of November, but since that game the Nittany Lions have been competitive and only lost to teams that should be in the NCAA Tournament this season.
“If you look at the teams that have beaten us, Miami is like 12-3,” he said. “Should be ranked, close to being ranked, I don’t know. We lost to Michigan State, who’s ranked probably top 10 in the country. We’ve lost to Ohio State, we’ve lost to LSU, who are all in the top 25. There’s four losses. Now we’ve lost to Purdue, that’s No. 3 in the country.”
Saturday was the peak of that stretch, facing the No. 3 team in the country and the front runner to win the Big Ten, and Penn State delivered. The Lions went toe to toe with the Boilermakers, one of the most well-coached and best-run programs in the country.
They did not stay in the game because Purdue did not take them seriously, or because the Boilermakers did not play well. Saturday was an example of two teams playing well, with the more talented team using their ability to pull away down the stretch.
Purdue head coach Matt Painter said that — while Shrewsberry’s familiarity may have helped in preparation, having been the associate head coach at Purdue previously — it wasn’t the reason the game was close. That was because of how the Lions executed the plan laid out for them by their head coach.
“You still got to play the game, right?” Painter said following the win. “You still got to play the game. And I think our players are just a little bit better than their players.”
For now, that is the biggest difference between Penn State and Purdue — Purdue has better, more experienced players. But Penn State is trending in the right direction. For 10 years the program mostly toiled, with an NBA-level talent in Lamar Stevens carrying it to its peak — No. 9 in the country — in his senior season. Outside of that 2019-2020 season, the Nittany Lions stagnated.
That is not this team. This team is cohesive when it has every reason not to be given the number of transfer portal additions in the starting lineup alone —three — and plays with intent on both ends of the court.
Shrewsberry and his staff are moving in the right direction, even if it doesn’t make him happy to drop games like Saturday’s against Purdue.
“The residual of (the loss) is that it ruins my night, I guess,” he said with a laugh. “I’m gonna walk upstairs and I’m gonna watch this film and figure out how we can get better.”
And they should get better. A system is in placed and a path forward has been marked. Now the team must continue down that path.
Where it ends this season is a mystery. For all of the close games, Penn State and Shrewsberry are highly unlikely to make the NCAA Tournament.
But long term, they might not be far off.
