Minneapolis — Penn State men’s basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry is sitting alone at a table as part of Big Ten men’s basketball media day. It’s raining outside, warm inside and just a few weeks from the start of Shrewsberry’s second year at the helm of the Nittany Lion’s very optimistic program. Penn State looks to return plenty of old faces while welcoming some promising new ones to the fold.
StateCollege.com took a seat with Shrewsberry for a few questions over the course of his half hour long open interview session. Shrewsberry will undoubtedly answer even more in two weeks as part of the program’s own media day.
StateCollege.com: Basketball seems to be – for my money – a game that is trending more toward offense than defense these days. All the same, you are a pretty defensive-minded coach and I would say that has paid dividends for you so far. What is the origin story of your defensive roots?
Micah Shrewsberry: I guess my high school coach probably. He played at Army for Coach [Bob] Knight. So what we did — the details of how we played — we were doing scouting reports in high school. We were watching film. We were doing all these things, and you see a team that’s not as talented still be able to beat other people. That’s kind of just been ingrained in my mind in terms of what you do. So ever since then, being at Butler, as much as people think of Brad Stevens as this offensive genius, at his core he’s a defensive guy. And I feel the same way. I think it helps you when you don’t have the most talent. This gives you a chance to win and and that’s who we need to be. The best teams in the Big Ten have always been those tough, hard-nosed defensive teams. So I’ve kind of hung my hat on that as well.
Seth Lundy has spent his entire college career having a different head coach each season. Now that he has some continuity, where is he getting better in areas that maybe he couldn’t get better at before simply because there was so much else going on each season?
MS: I think in practice, you can see how the game has slowed down for him offensively. We showed him a lot of film of turnovers last year; how did these turnovers happen? And maybe it’s court awareness and stepping out of bounds or travels when he catches the ball. He’s a little more aware of his footwork, and what we’re doing and what we’re teaching him in terms of how to improve — that’s not new. So now he’s catching the ball and he is much slower in terms of his footwork and where he’s driving. He’s reading close outs better, all things that we were working on throughout the year, but we didn’t get a chance to finish as the year got later. He got injured a little bit, things like that. But he’s kind of picked up on it really quickly. So seeing that understanding what we’re doing and what we’re talking about… what I’m calling something might be completely different than what he’s heard before but it might be the same exact concept but I’m asking him to do it, a small or different way. Now he knows exactly what we’re doing. That’s the kind of the progress of a player —as a freshman, you’re spinning because you don’t know what anybody’s saying. As a sophomore, you start to get better, as a junior you get better. Now as a senior, you get to the point where you’re no longer thinking which allows you to play faster, which allows you to play more decisive. I think you’re seeing that he’s being more decisive in terms of what he’s doing.
I’m sure that you have your moments behind closed doors but you seem to be pretty even-keeled in a profession that requires you to have a few screws loose at any given moment. Your temperament seems a bit unique, at least in the moments everyone can see you. How did that come to be?
MS: I’m more of a slow burn with a long wick to a big explosion. Right? I have a little more patience for things. Now you can’t make the same mistake over and over and over again. That’s where things start to change, but I just have patience for people and understand you’re not gonna be perfect. College kids aren’t going to be perfect in terms of what they do. Can we control … things that are controllable? Because when you make a mistake, but you’re trying to do what we asked you to do, I’m cool with that. But if you’re doing your own thing, or you can’t do what we’re asking you to do, that’s when you see the explosion probably come a little bit quicker. But I snap out of it. Like, you know, I want to live a long life. I got kids, I want to hang out with my kids. Like I say all the time, you guys ain’t gonna kill me out there.
Everyone decides what kind of coach they want to be in terms of intensity and emotion. How did you land on this style?
MS: I think everybody’s different. That’s just my personality. That’s just who I am. I’ve learned through doing this you have to be yourself. I think being a head coach when I was 30, I didn’t know exactly who I wanted to be as a coach. Right? I just kind of followed along with the guys that I worked for, and did some of the things that they did. So there’s probably stories from those guys. When I coached at IU South Bend I was like, man, this dude’s nuts. But over time, I’ve learned I’m more comfortable now. I’m more comfortable being myself. I know what I want to do and who I want to be and how I want the program. This is who I am when I talk to recruits. I tell them, like, “This is me. Me sitting in your living room right now. It’s the same guy that’s gonna coach you, the same guy that’s gonna talk to you on campus and everything else because I don’t have enough energy to be somebody else. I can only be me.”
One of the big-picture questions Penn State basketball has faced is trying to agree on what a reasonable expectation for this program is. That’s maybe impossible to answer because no coach is going to settle for something, but what do you view in your eyes as “this is what we’re going for?”
MS: There are 14 teams [in the Big Ten] and only nine of those teams go to the NCAA tournament. I look back, we tied for 10th, so how do we flip those games to get it? You flip a game here or there. You start to look at, it’s like OK, now you’re in discussion to get in the NCAA Tournament. I want us to get there. I’m not gonna stop with one [appearance] but we have to do that first. And I think that will help change some things, that’ll help change some perceptions about our program. And that’ll help change perceptions in recruits minds — we have to do that first. So that’s my mission, to get us there. … We’re close. We’re starting to add [players who are] who we want to be offensively and who we want to be defensively. And now you start recruiting to that more. We’re closer in the skill department, way more than we were last year in terms of basketball IQ and in terms of skill. More guys that can shoot the basketball, play in pick and rolls, we’re closer to that. Now as the years goes on, we want to stay with that but now be bigger, longer, more athletic. That’s where recruiting starts to kick in. That’s my goal every single morning. Let’s get this program the NCAA tournament. Then from there … then you have to take advantage of it once you get there. So I don’t know what the end goal is. But that’s the first hurdle that we need to get to.
You managed to put together a pretty solid first recruiting class but I think the question was if you could do it again. While there’s always a bit of breath-holding before Signing Day you seem to have pulled together another good class. That’s easier said than done, why do you think you’ve been able to do that?
MS: I think people understand our vision of what we’re trying to sell. That’s the biggest thing is you go in last year, you didn’t have anything to sell, right? You sell hopes and dreams, and you’re doing it again the next year. You’re selling hopes and dreams until they can see something concrete. But once you get them on campus, and now they see ‘OK, here’s the hopes and dreams that this coach is talking about,’ but here’s how we implement it. Here’s how we put it into place. Here’s the plan that we have for you to be really good for you to try and make your goals. I think that convinces people that what he says, they’re really are doing. That’s the biggest thing. I’m not a used car salesman. I’m as genuine as I can be. And I’m gonna talk to those guys in that way. If you have the potential to make it [in the NBA] I’m gonna tell you and now I’m gonna help you get there. I’m gonna show you the plan for how you can get there and how you can do it. And then you’ve got to find guys that fit us. I think that’s been the biggest thing and we don’t waste our time recruiting guys that don’t fit us. There’s not enough time in the day for me to go recruit the No. 2 dude in the country and he ain’t ever coming here. I gotta find the guys that fit us guys that can play here, guys that have potential to be good here and guys who have potential to help us win. And then we go all in and get those guys.
Another big-picture question has been “What does it look like for Penn State to support men’s basketball?” and I think the answer to that question depends on who you ask. With Pat Kraft now in the AD role, what is your answer to that question?
MS: We have discussions about it. … Whenever you have somebody new that comes in, immediately they asked, like, “What can we do and how can we help you?” I’ve only been there a year, right? So I can’t get into, like, what’s next for Penn State or what do we need? Until I really get a chance to dive deep into it. So we’re fixing smaller parts as we go. I think that’s one of the biggest things: let’s fix this and be really good at this. Let’s change this and have this help our team. I think the things that Pat really wants to focus on are the things that are helping our student-athletes. And I’m all for that, right. Because the more you do for your student-athletes, the more that you can keep them right there, the more that you’re showing that everything’s important, so now they’re not going to the transfer portal and find it somewhere else.
We’re doing everything in our power to take care of them. And him already having that attitude — I’m not saying like Sandy didn’t have that attitude — but him coming in from day one saying that those are things are really important. Who he is kind of fits me as well in terms of his intensity as an athletic director and being able to just be in the trenches with you. I love that part of it. So I think like everybody needs more [laughs]. If you would [go around the room of coaches] they would want more. We don’t know what more is, but I don’t think coaches ever stop [wanting more].
The one thing that helps, I’ve been at programs that haven’t had the most. Like at Butler we we weren’t Kansas, we weren’t Kentucky but we did the most with what we had. And I think that’s what we’ll try and do here. Like I don’t know if I’m gonna ask for a lot. It’s just not that important to me. If there’s things that are really important that we need to change, I’m gonna go ask for it. But I’m not gonna ask for something just to have it, right? Like, it’s got to be really important to our program. Really important to our student athletes.”
