Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1454229
6 M A R C H 2 0 2 2 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M W hat Penn State basketball head coach Micah Shrewsberry saw down the stretch of the Nittany Lions' 76-70 loss at Minnesota made him snap. He was done concealing his frustra- tion. He felt his Penn State team had gotten a raw deal. And somebody was going to hear about it. Alluding to ignored contact on Sam Sessoms when the senior guard drove to the rim, and a pair of costly turn- overs late in the game that Shrewsberry felt should have been nullified by foul calls, the Nittany Lions' first-year coach spoke his mind on the officiat- ing during his postgame interview with Steve Jones and Penn State Radio. "They've made up their mind that they're not going to call Sam's drives, and that's not fair," Shrewsberry said. "That ain't right. Our kids are playing hard as hell, and to allow that to hap- pen, to allow what happened at the end of the game, that doesn't sit well with me. "Somebody is gonna hear something about this because this isn't right. It's the third game in a row where we've shot under eight free throws, and we were as aggressive as possible, driv- ing the basketball, throwing the ball in the post, doing what we need to do on the offensive glass, and none of those are getting called. And that ain't right. That ain't right. And I'm not happy about that." For Shrewsberry, it was, perhaps, an introduction to the dynamic that has been frustrating Nittany Lion coaches and fans for years. In the 11 seasons since its most recent NCAA Tournament appear- ance in 2010-11, Penn State has only once gotten to the free throw line at a higher rate than the opposition, based on KenPom's free throw rate metric, which amounts simply to free throw attempts divided by field goal at- tempts. In the same span, the Nittany Lions have ranked in the top half of the coun- try in offensive free throw rate just once, in 2012-13. As of this writing, Penn State had posted an offensive free throw rate of 22.9 — 342nd in the country, out of 358 teams — while conceding a free throw rate of 25.2 to its opponents. Welcome to Penn State, Micah Shrewsberry. Could this have been a challenge he anticipated? "No," he said. "I don't think anybody has a Penn State bias. It's not like these referees are going in like, 'Man, I hate blue. I ain't calling nothing.'" It's true, there are countless factors that go into how often a team gets to the foul line beyond the whims of the referees. How often do you attack the basket? How effectively do you post up? Do your players have the experience and guile to draw fouls where others might not? Certainly, there are seasons in which Penn State could be accused of not get- ting to the paint enough. A dominant big man is like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow to Penn State's basket- ball program. But 2021-22 doesn't quite feel like one of those seasons. Super seniors Greg Lee and John Harrar form one of the more dynamic forward duos the Nittany Lions have had in recent memory. Sessoms drives the ball as well as any guard in the country. Senior guard Jalen Pickett loves to assert himself physically down low. The Nittany Lions outscored the op- position in the paint in seven of their 13 conference games as of this writing. Before we go any further, let's ac- knowledge that, without a doubt, the ebb and flow of the officiating is not Penn State's only problem. Penn State's offense isn't cohesive enough. It lacks depth. It turns the ball over way too much. But add in an extra issue — one the Nittany Lions can't control — and it's difficult to ignore the impact, es- pecially considering that six of Penn State's nine conference losses have come by seven points or fewer. Shrewsberry tried to shrug it off after it took 36 minutes for his team to shoot a free throw in a one-point home loss to Michigan, citing his desire not to dip into the college fund for his four children in order to pay a fine from the Big Ten. What transpired against the Go- phers proved a step too far, though. If Shrewsberry's wallet suffers, then so be it. "I'm not very happy right now," he said. "We need to play better. Hats off to Minnesota, they beat us. But there's some things that are not right, man. These kids are competing, and they're not getting rewarded for it. And that ain't right." ■ O P I N I O N DAVID ECKERT davidecker t98@gmail.com Senior guard Sam Sessoms deserves more trips to the free throw line than what he has received this season, coach Micah Shrewsberry contends. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL Penn State's Whistle-Stop Tour Continues JUDGMENT CALL