Blue White Illustrated

November 2021

Penn State Sports Magazine

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N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 1 3 9 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M PSU's coach sees signs of progress on and off the court heading into his debut season M icah Shrewsberry has been in coaching for two decades. He's been an assistant at some of the top schools in college basketball and was on the Boston Celtics' staff in the NBA for six seasons. So he knows how to assemble disparate parts into a co- hesive whole. He'll be looking to do just that in his first season as Penn State's head coach. Shrewsberry took over the Nittany Lions program in March and spent the months that followed remaking the team, primarily via the transfer portal. Eight of the 15 players on Penn State's 2021-22 roster are new to the program this year. The Nittany Lions are hoping that the influx of newcomers, coupled with the return of veterans like junior forward Seth Lundy, senior forward John Harrar and senior guard Myles Dread, will help them make up for the loss of leading scorers Myreon Jones and Izaiah Brock- ington and defensive standout Jamari Wheeler. After going 11-14 overall and 7-12 in Big Ten play in its lone season under interim coach Jim Ferry, the team is eager for the start of its new era. Earlier this month, Shrewsberry sat down with Blue White Illustrated for a one-on-one interview in which he dis- cussed his coaching philosophies and his hopes for the Nittany Lions in his first season as their head coach. Here's what he had to say: BWI: How well-positioned is the program now with its infrastructure and what work needs to be done from that perspective? That can mean per- sonnel or actual, physical facilities, whatever that word means to you. SHREWSBERRY: Taking this job has showed me that they think outside the box. Hiring an assistant coach to be a head coach in the Big Ten, you have to be a little forward thinking in that, and I think Sandy [Barbour, Penn State's athletics director] is that way. In terms of what we've needed, I haven't asked for a lot, but everything I've asked for, they've provided, which shows that they do want us to have success. They are going to do what we need to have success. There were things that were in place long before I got here that are making our program better. The opening up of the new weight room, the new training room, our locker room — all of those things are improving our program. And I think it's really helped in recruiting. I think recruits have seen what we're doing and how our administration is backing us and trying to [provide] what we need in order to be successful in this league. Whether that's staffing, travel, whatever it may be, they've stepped up to the plate and they've done it. So that's in place. Now, what we do on the court, I think, drives everything else. It's hard for me to come in and say, let's change this, this and this without having seen the products. I want to get into the Bryce Jordan Center and coach games in there. I want to feel that environ- ment. I want to see, OK, this is how we need to schedule to make it the best [it can be], to get more fans in there. How do we get more students? Those are things I think I need to go through before I can make a determi- nation on this, but that's the next step that we're working on and trying to attack – making the environment in- side there the best that it can be to give our guys an advantage, just like other teams in our league have an advantage. BWI: Seeing the facilities and how they have changed a little bit, do you feel like those are going to have a huge impact on the recruiting front? What's the feedback that you're getting on those things? SHREWSBERRY: I think it's been a huge selling point. And the funny thing is, it wasn't even open when most of the guys that we're recruiting came through and saw it. Guys saw pictures of that stuff, they didn't actually get to see it. We've had a couple of guys make return visits, and now it's open. It's a game-changer in terms of what it looks like. It's showing an investment in the program. And when people can see visual proof of investment and visual proof of improvement, then you know we're serious about what we're doing. BWI: How complex are the concepts you're teaching to these guys? SHREWSBERRY: You know what, it's funny. I'm a stickler on the defen- sive end. I keep telling them I'm not going to bend on these things. We're going to do it one way, and this is how we're going to do it every single time. So if you would see me and you'd say, man, that guy is very mellow and very NAT E BAU E R | NBAUER@BLUEWHITEONLINE.COM FIRST IMPRESSIONS Shrewsberry has emphasized team defense throughout the offseason. "I'm a stickler on the defensive end," he said. "I keep telling them I'm not going to bend on these things." PHOTO BY NATE BAUER MEN'S BASKETBALL I N T E R V I E W M I C A H S H R E W S B E R R Y

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