Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1482664
4 2 N O V E M B E R 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 M icah Shrewsberry is eager to see Penn State in action as he heads into his second season as head coach. Coming off a debut season in which the Nittany Lions were competitive on a nightly basis while compiling a 14-17 record, Shrewsberry has brought in an infusion of talent this offseason, from graduate transfer guards Camren Wyn- ter and Andrew Funk to a five-player freshman class. The Lions lost their most productive big man, with John Harrar, one of only two players in the Big Ten to average a double-double last year, having finally exhausted his eligibility. Nevertheless, PSU appears to be improved in many ways this season. Shrewsberry recently sat down with Blue White Illustrated to discuss the up- coming men's basketball campaign. BWI: What do you envision the iden- tity of this team being this season? SHREWSBERRY: I don't know if our identity will ever change. I think we will always be a program built around a defensive identity — toughness, being a pest, and making things hard for the opponent. We want to be a fundamen- tal team, a solid team, and a disciplined team. I don't think that will ever change. Now, how we look and how we do those things could change from year to year. We don't have the same physically imposing big guy like John Harrar. But how our guys play should be at the same level in terms of their intensity. I think from here until they no longer want me here, that's who we'll always be. We have the potential to score a lot better and score a lot easier. Offensively, we could look different in terms of how we play, but that's what we're hanging our hat on — gritty, not pretty. BWI: How much did last season's success help establish a foundation to carry forward? SHREWSBERRY: It helps, because now you can see that you've given your- self a chance. All you can ask for is that we give ourselves a chance every single night. There were a handful of games in there last season that you can throw out and say we weren't there, but in the rest of them, we had a chance. When they start to see that we did have the chance to win those games, it gives them a sense of hope and a sense of belief that if we flip a few things here and there, now we can turn that into a win. BWI: Does having more depth on the roster change the competitive level within the program? SHREWSBERRY: It does. We track wins. Every time we did a competitive drill when we were in a team setting, we tracked our wins to see who was win- ning and who was losing. Based on what groups you do, [super senior guard] Jalen Pickett's team won. They would win all the time. But then you look back, and [freshman guard] Jameel Brown is second in wins. He's not our leading scorer. He just helps his team win. I tell our assistants all the time, "Hey, good luck to you guys trying to figure out who you're going to play. Why don't you guys let me know, and then I'll send the parents your way when you're mak- ing these decisions of who should play and who shouldn't." But it's a good problem to have, be- cause our competition level has gone up, and our depth has gone up. They are all pushing each other to work and be better. BWI: How much progress has the team made since you've had everyone together? SHREWSBERRY: We spent so much time doing offensive stuff this summer, and a lot of skill stuff this fall, that we are way ahead offensively. Now, I want to see us play against somebody else to see what areas we have to clean up and what areas we have to get better at. We guard each other every day, and our defense isn't playing as fast as our offense. Our offense is so good it's mak- ing our defense better, hopefully. It's hard for us to get stops, which is good and bad and encouraging and not encouraging. But I felt like we made a huge step in that way. These last few weeks, we got our de- fensive system in. We're trying to get our freshmen up to speed so that they're not thinking and they can start playing 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 Heading Into Year 2, Micah Shrewsberry Sees Lions Making Strides NAT E BAU E R | NAT E . B AU E R @ O N 3 . C O M "There were a handful of games last season that you can throw out and say we weren't there, but in the rest of them, we had a chance. When they start to see that we did have the chance to win those games, it gives them a sense of hope and a sense of belief that if we flip a few things here and there, now we can turn that into a win." S H R E W S B E R R Y