Penn State gives reason to believe again in 85-66 blowout victory over Indiana
Micah Shrewsberry challenged his team following Sunday’s loss to Purdue. He did it at the podium when he spoke to the media, and he did it again in practice, telling the players he didn’t know who was going to play and they were going to have to show him.
And at some point between the loss and Wednesday’s game against the Indiana Hoosiers, he challenged himself.
“I talked to our guys before we watched film today, and I just talked about playing with joy and what that looks like. But also apologized to them,” he said, taking a brief moment to think about how he wanted to say the next sentence.
“It’s hard. I’m still learning as a coach. And I’m still young in my career. I’ve been living and dying on every single thing that’s happened. Every single loss, win, whatever. It’s just been eating at me. It’s just been stressing me out. And I’m giving that to those guys for no reason at all.”
Shrewsberry’s self-reflection and challenge of his players paid immediate dividends. The Nittany Lions blew out the Hoosiers in an 85-66 win that put them back on track after two straight losses.
The second-year head coach said his relative newness to leading a program led him to take a step back and look inward. He credited his team for responding but said he talked to some people — including other coaches, his parents, his wife and more — about what he was doing.
He said what they saw matched what he was seeing when he went back and watched the broadcast of the last couple of games against Purdue and Michigan.
“I looked like an idiot out there,” he said. “I’m not helping my team. I’m not helping those guys in the moments that they need me. ... My parents have been here, my wife. They tell me, ‘Hey, dum-dum, shut up and coach your team.’”
Shrewsberry’s challenge to himself showed on the court. He was much calmer in the game. After voicing his frustrations with Big Ten officials following the Purdue game, he did not argue all that much with Wednesday night’s referees. He maintained focus on his players, with a reassuring look and two hands up as if to say, “it’s OK” after calls they seemed annoyed with.
His measured approach translated all the way down the roster.
The Nittany Lions were calmer. They were measured on offense, making the correct decisions under pressure while applying pressure to the Hoosiers by getting stops on the other end of the court.
The result was staggeringly different from the two previous. Wednesday night was not totally non-competitive, but it was close to it. The Penn State team that took the court looked much more like the one that could break the program’s NCAA Tournament drought than the one that looked to be on the precipice of disaster after the Purdue game.
Seth Lundy, who led the game with 25 points, said the past few days were more like summer workouts than in-season practice — to which Shrewsberry laughed and said they weren’t that bad — but the team responded exactly how it needed to.
“He was really on us but that’s who we are, though,” Lundy said. “We’re a gritty team. When we play gritty and we share the ball offensively, that’s when we play our best. ... We really focused on that these last two days.”
The intensity wasn’t necessarily lacking in all 40 minutes of the two previous games, but it was lacking enough out of halftime, when the team had led against both Michigan and Purdue, that Shrewsberry felt the need for a change.
It worked, and this time the Nittany Lions’ halftime lead did not go away. Instead, it expanded and helped the team put away Indiana relatively early.
The switch to different drills when the team came out of the locker room at halftime was a major factor in the team having the energy it needed to start strong.
“We even changed our routine at halftime when we first came out. We did different drills so guys could stay loose, so guys could stay ready mentally and physically,” Lundy said. “And we all trusted each other. Basketball is a game of runs. They made a couple shots in the second half but we just dug deep and got more stops.”
The newfound intensity could grow into much more for the Nittany Lions. Their season would not have been over if they would have lost, but they would have been inching closer to being yet another Penn State men’s basketball team that fell short.
But the win could change everything. There is no longer a sense of doom and gloom, or frustration. Shrewsberry laughed during his press conference. He did not lament what transpired or voice frustration.
He showed the joy of winning. And even he admitted he lives and dies too much with every outcome on the court, but it’s hard not to when the season gets into full swing in January.
Part of college basketball is the importance of every single conference game, especially for those projected to be on the bubble of the NCAA Tournament like Penn State.
Right now, he and his program are living, and it is thriving. That may change if things go awry against Wisconsin on Tuesday. But there are five days between this game and that one.
For now, Penn State is riding high.
The Nittany Lions have allowed fans to once again dream of what this season could be rather than worrying about where it goes from here.
