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tant's job at Purdue under Matt Painter, Shrewsberry began the second of two professional relationships integral to his career advancement. He studied, took lessons and grew from his relationships with each head coach, rejoining Stevens in the NBA with the Boston Celtics for a six-year stint, then returning as an asso- ciate head coach for Painter at Purdue the past two years. Those experiences in a combined 13-year apprenticeship helped prime Shrewsberry for Penn State's top job this spring. Crediting Stevens with his attention to detail and intense, thorough preparation, and Painter for his egoless direction of a major college hoops program, Shrews- berry intends to apply those lessons to his job as head coach of the Nittany Lions. "When you talk about who we want to be and who we're going to be," he said, "I want to be an underdog type of team." Given Penn State's long struggle for rel- evancy and consistency in men's basket- ball, the intended characteristic is likely to suit the program well. Though details of his contract and the budget that will be made available to him by Penn State were not revealed at his in- troduction, the university's pursuit of the highly sought-after Shrewsberry repre- sented an obvious, if preliminary, step to- ward realizing its ambitions. Athletic director Sandy Barbour said Penn State's goal is to compete successfully, every year, in the Big Ten and beyond. She said she believes that Shrewsberry is capable of delivering on those aspirations, which have often proven elusive in the Nittany Lions' 125-season history. "It's important to note, through those hundreds of conversations [in our search for a new head coach], there was no one, not one person that we talked to, who didn't believe we could achieve our stated goals," Barbour said. "We can and will do in men's basketball at Penn State what we've done almost entirely across the board in Penn State athletics, and that is to compete for Big Ten titles, and to get to the NCAA tournament consis- tently." Complimenting former coach Patrick Chambers and interim head coach Jim Ferry for instilling a blue-collar identity in the program, Shrewsberry was admit- tedly uncomfortable at times in his first days at Penn State. With six entries into the NCAA transfer portal in the days fol- lowing his hiring, including top scorer Myreon Jones, senior point guard Jamari Wheeler, dynamic wing Izaiah Brocking- ton, senior power forward John Harrar, small forward Seth Lundy and senior Trent Buttrick, Shrewsberry and his top assistant, Penn State alumnus Adam Fisher, attempted to salvage as much as possible of the team's personnel. While Jones and Wheeler secured their exits from the program, Brockington quickly committed to returning to the Nittany Lions, leaving Harrar, Lundy and Buttrick as to-be-determined pieces for next sea- son's team as of this writing. Those players were integral to a team that finished 11-14 last season, including a 7-12 mark against Big Ten competition. The group's determination in the face of its many hardships – the forced resigna- tion of Chambers, the COVID-19 pan- demic, a two-week pause for infections, and a series of close losses – appealed to Shrewsberry's sense of how the program might appear under his leadership. "I have much respect for the guys who played last season and how hard they played every single night out. This season was hard. It was under tough circum- stances with COVID and everything else, but they gave their all for Penn State and I'm going to give my all for those guys," he said. "We're going to keep that underdog mentality. ... For me, I've kind of been that way my whole life, and I want a team that models after that." Previewing a style of basketball that will feature tough defense and an offense built around a read-and-react, free-flowing, space-driven scheme next season and be- yond, Shrewsberry is determined to cap- italize on his opportunity, driven in large part by memories of the hard work that led him to Penn State. "That's the journey I talked about. That's the ups and downs. That's the grind. But that's who I want to be. That's who I want my program to be," he said. "Nothing comes easy to us. We don't want anything, we don't expect anything, we're going to work for everything, and that's who we want to be. That's who I am." ■ THE SHREWSBERRY FILE HOMETOWN Indianapolis, Ind. EDUCATION Hanover College, 1999 – B.A. in physical education; Indiana State University, 2003 – M.S. in sports management FAMILY Wife: Molly; sons: Braeden, Nicholas; daughters: Caitlin, Grace COACHING CAREER 2019-21 Purdue, associate head coach 2013-19 Boston Celtics, assistant coach 2011-13 Purdue, assistant coach 2008-11 Butler, assistant coach 2007-08 Butler, coordinator of basketball operations 2005-07 Indiana University South Bend, head coach 2003-05 Marshall, director of basketball operations 2001-03 DePauw, assistant coach 1999-2000 Wabash, assistant coach PROMINENT PLAYERS COACHED Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics Isaiah Thomas, Boston Celtics Al Horford, Boston Celtics Kyrie Irving, Boston Celtics Marcus Smart, Boston Celtics Rajon Rondo, Boston Celtics Gordon Hayward, Butler, Charlotte Hornets, 2010 NBA Draft pick Shelvin Mack, Butler, 2011 NBA Draft pick Robbie Hummel, Purdue, 2012 NBA Draft pick

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