Penn State frustrated with second half effort, officiating in loss to Purdue at the Palestra
Micah Shrewsberry did not mince words Sunday night after his team’s 76-63 loss to No. 1 Purdue at the Palestra.
He was frustrated with how his team came out of the locker room after halftime, when Penn State led 37-31, and he was going to make sure that point got across.
“We gotta address this as a team,” Shrewsberry said. “We gotta be better. This isn’t the first time it’s happened. ... Sometimes I sugarcoat it and dance around it, but we gotta be better. We gotta be better, man. We need seniors playing like seniors. Or I need to play freshmen. If seniors are gonna play like freshmen, I can play freshmen to play like freshmen. I thought that was a huge difference in the game. I thought their freshmen played like seniors and our seniors played like freshmen.”
That was not the criticism that drew the most attention after the game, but it was the one that he said had the most impact on the result.
The Nittany Lions fell to the Boilermakers thanks to a slow start to the second half that left Shrewsberry searching for answers on how to fix it.
Purdue went on a 19-5 run and Penn State was incapable of coming back from that point. Shrewsberry cited the poor open to the second half, and mentioned making changes next game to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“If this was a one-time thing, then gotcha,” he said. “But it’s not a one-time thing. And we’ve done this before. We haven’t come out of the locker room before with energy. I’ve had us doing closeouts at halftime to try and give us some kind of energy. I see it, I recognize it, I gotta find it. Maybe it’s a personnel change from one half to the next. ... I’m gonna figure it out. I guarantee you we’re gonna come out the second half on Wednesday. You might see something you ain’t never seen before. We’re gonna have some energy to start the second half against Indiana.”
Shrewsberry wasn’t just frustrated with the veterans on his team after the loss. That criticism won’t cost the Penn State head coach any money.
His other criticism probably will.
He expressed frustration with how the game was officiated, something that didn’t seem to be a one off. Shrewsberry drew the second technical foul of his head coaching career at Penn State after several extended and animated discussions with the referees Sunday night.
“There were a thousand points I was trying to make,” he said about receiving a technical foul. “You get frustrated after a while. This isn’t a one time thing, this is an every time thing. And I appreciate, I know I haven’t been here, I haven’t done anything in my career to earn any kind of good will from the officials, but we shot three free throws. I know they shot seven. It was a really physical game. The game didn’t warrant 10 free throws by both teams. Both teams were out there fouling.”
Shrewsberry admitted the calls likely would not have changed the outcome, but he was clearly fed up. This was an accumulation for the Penn State head coach, who brought up other issues that included an official at Michigan not knowing his name.
That, along with frustrations that officials treated him like he didn’t understand the game or didn’t know what he was seeing, led to him expressing his issues postgame.
He even made sure to note that deciding to express his frustration may even have an adverse impact on his team for its next game.
“Call a foul if you see a foul,” he said. “And you know what, this might hurt me when we get to Indiana because somebody’s feelings is hurt because I’m saying this, but I’m gonna fight for my guys. Always. Always gonna fight for this program. I don’t care what anybody thinks about that at all.”
Those concerns are valid in a very physical game that, as he noted, only featured 10 free throws. The question now for the Nittany Lions is: How will this change things? It’s not just about getting a more friendly whistle, but also creating their own opportunities by not starting slowly in the second half.
Maybe Shrewsberry is right and there will be a negative impact on his team from the officials against Indiana on Wednesday, but that won’t matter if his players don’t fix their own issues to start the second half of games.
There isn’t much time to right the ship either. Another important game looms, and Penn State is in need of a win to get back on track in the team’s toughest stretch of the season.
It’s on the program to get it right and make sure these bad feelings — and bad outcomes — don’t stretch deeper into the season.
