With Penn State reportedly set to hire Purdue assistant Micah Shrewsberry as head coach, there are no shortage of questions and obstacles he will have to answer or overcome in his new role. Penn State has long been regarded as one of the most difficult coaching jobs in America between a long history of institutional apathy and the challenges of building a program in a conference as strong as the Big Ten.
In turn nothing about Shrewsberry’s job will be easy, but how the next few weeks and months unfold will go a long way in setting the tone and course for Penn State’s immediate future.
More questions will pop up, but here are the four biggest as things stand today.
Assistant coaching pool:
Traditionally Penn State’s spending on assistant coaches has lagged behind the rest of the conference at the same rate as its head coaching salaries have. It remains to be seen if Shrewsberry’s contract information becomes public – it wasn’t under Patrick Chambers per university practices – but perhaps even more importantly will be the numbers Shrewsberry has to work with to round out his staff. The Chambers era may have been driven by his direction and energy, but he would be the first to tell you that the work of assistants Keith Urgo and others was as important as anything to the program’s budding success.
If Penn State wants Shrewsberry to continue what Chambers started, that will include ponying up for whoever might want to join him on this journey, and who will want to join him will come down in part to the checks attached to the titles.
In a similar line of thinking, who does Shrewsberry hold over from the previous staff, if anyone? Talor Battle seems like a sensible retention – both as a basketball mind and bridge to other former players. Longtime ops guru Nick Colella would also be a sensible name to hang on to with a good lay of the land both inside and outside the program.
Investments:
Pat Chambers gets plenty of credit for the work Penn State was able to do on the court, but also should get equal credit for the improvements the program had off the court as well. Of course this comes back to Barbour signing on the dotted line, but Chambers’ vision for some of these improvements played a role.
In terms of Shrewsberry, what does he see as the next steps for the the infrastructure of the program’s everyday life? Little things can make a big difference. The film room, training table and locker rooms are new, but what does he see as the next steps off the court?
This isn’t as pressing as some of the more immediate questions facing the program, but it speaks to both Barbour’s interest in continuing to improve the program, and Shrewsberry’s A: thoughts of longevity and B: a new eye looking things over.
Retention/Acquisition
Beyond some of the more nuts and bolts issues behind Penn State’s new hire, the ability for Shrewsberry to retain as many current players as possible will be crucial to avoiding to a partial to full rebuild in the coming seasons. It seems almost impossible to assume that Penn State will be able to hang on to all of its eligible-to-return players [which given COVID-19 eligibility rules is all of them] this offseason, but winning over a few key pieces could go a long way.
Shrewsberry will want to start with its four scholarship freshmen followed closely by any combination of players from the group of Myreon Jones, Myles Dread, Seth Lundy and Izaiah Brockington. The duo of Jamari Wheeler and John Harrar may or may not feel inclined to return, but on the final year of a long collegiate career, their departure may have more to do with their own futures more than who is or isn’t their head coach.
Obviously the more Shrewsberry can keep in place the better off Penn State will be, but with transfers on the horizon who stays might be more important than who goes.
The other side of this coin is the transfer portal and the immediate eligibility that would give Shrewsberry far more flexibility to rebuild his roster than his predecessors had when taking over the job. If Shrewsberry can land portal targets that fit his and Penn State’s mold, the program might be able to forgo an extensive rebuild as Shrewsberry establishes his own recruiting footprint in the interim.
Philly:
There’s no rule set in stone that Penn State has to recruit Philadelphia to be a successful basketball program – but one imagines that the more talent that Shrewsberry can get out of the Keystone State the easier the entire enterprise is going to be.
Interestingly enough Purdue has managed to pick up a handful of PA products over the years including four-stars Ethan Morton [2020] and Jameel Brown [2022]. It’s hard to know at this point who on Purdue’s staff was the primary point on those commitments – or how much Purdue’s overall brand had a role in landing each prospect. Either way it would appear that Shrewsberry is at least familiar with the south eastern corner of the stat. Add in his time with the Boston Celtics and Shrewsberry is not a completely unfamiliar name in that corner of the northeast.
No matter who Penn State’s coach is the Philadelphia, DMV area will be a crucial part of the footprint, where else Shrewsberry dips in for talent remains to be seen, but given his background one imagines a much more midwestern flair than usual. Which isn’t the worst thing considering the amount of talent in that part of the country.
Myles Dread is currently the most western of the Nittany Lions, hailing from Michigan.
