Penn State Sports Magazine
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4 6 M A Y 2 0 2 3 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M a new staff was arriving with him. Mean- while, there was only one collective avail- able for raising basketball funds — Success With Honor — and the school's relatively small donor class was either unable or un- willing to embrace the new normal. "NIL is a topic that is almost contro- versial for a lot of people," Shrewsberry said in December. "Right now, you have to adjust to what's happening in the times. It's really big in recruiting, and it's really big in player retention." Controversial to whom? To Penn State donors, who had been conditioned for decades to believe that money in college athletics detracted from the purity of the game. Shrewsberry conceded that Penn State wasn't going to be able to match Illinois, but he said, "We have to do something. "We can't fall behind. You're going to lose out on kids. When everything is even, there has to be something that puts it over the top," he continued. "The relationship, it's not going to be that, unfortunately. And they're good kids. We're not recruit- ing kids that are asking us for NIL money. But they might ask, 'What are you guys doing? What's going on? What's happen- ing with your team?' "I can't speak for everybody, but I would say of 14 teams in the Big Ten, we're probably 14. Maybe 13. It's just about who we want to be as a program. What are we willing to say is our standard? I can be as good a coach as there is in the world, but if you don't have [the right] players, it doesn't matter. Or, you may do a great job with your development, you find a kid, you develop him, and then somebody comes in and they have something for him. That's kids. That's life right now, and that's what's happening." Doing A Deal In January, Shrewsberry's representa- tives began working with Penn State on a contract extension. He was in the middle of the second year of his initial deal, and the opening terms were being discussed to keep him at Penn State for a longer term at an increased salary. Meanwhile, on Jan. 19 Mike Brey an- nounced that he would retire as head coach at Notre Dame following the sea- son. Shortly after Brey's announcement, Brian Hamilton of The Athletic offered a list of candidates that he thought Notre Dame would likely pursue. Shrewsberry was cited as a "home run fit." Hamilton described the Irish's head coaching position as a "sometimes thank- less job," but added that "Notre Dame's ACC membership, arena upgrades, and investment in a new practice facility" made the job appealing. Within a week of Brey's announced de- parture, Penn State traveled to Rutgers for a midweek game. It was an impor- tant matchup in the middle of the Big Ten slate, but the Nittany Lions came out flat and fell to the Scarlet Knights 65-45, their most lopsided loss of the season. Prior to the game, Shrewsberry had talked about the high-energy atmosphere that he knew was awaiting his team at the Rutgers Athletic Center. "Atmosphere is everything for a pro- gram. Their players feed off of their fans, just because of how loud it is in there," he said. "Recruits see that. They watch games, they're at games and now you see Rutgers has won because of their fans. "There's no kid that's looking at Rut- gers and being like, 'Man, the shape of the building is terrible,' or, 'The bathroom situation is not the best.' Nobody cares about that. All they care about is the at- mosphere when they're playing, what they're seeing." And Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center? Stressing that the venue itself is less im- portant than the fans and energy within it, Shrewsberry implicitly begged for more seats to be filled and, maybe more important, for fans to create a level of en- ergy that impacts games. "The Bryce Jordan Center is what we've got," he said. "I can't snap my fingers, and it's going to change. There's nothing wrong with it. But, if the Bryce Jordan Center was rocking, and as loud as can be, what's the difference between that place and Rec Hall? "We've got to do our part as well, but let's come up with something. Let's be organized in what we're doing. And let's make Michigan come in here and be like, 'What in the hell is going on in here? We did not expect this.' That's what I want people to say." Later that week, he got what he wanted. When the Lions hosted Michigan on Jan. 29, a crowd listed at 12,047 turned out. Penn State rode that wave of enthusiasm to an 83-61 victory. Getting Hot After handing the Wolverines a stun- ning 22-point loss, Penn State dropped its next four games, falling to Purdue, Shrewsberry was introduced as Penn State's head coach on March 30, 2021. Before arriving in State College, he spent his entire collegiate career in his home state of Indiana, serving on the staffs at Purdue, Butler, Indiana University South Bend, DePauw and Wabash. PHOTO BY MARK SELDERS/PENN STATE ATHLETICS