As longtime DeMatha High School coach Morgan Wootten once said, “Evaluate wins and losses objectively, focusing more on effort and execution rather than on the outcome of the game.”
And when it comes to Penn State’s 74-67 loss to No. 3 Purdue on Saturday afternoon, the objective unpacking of the Nittany Lions’ effort and execution bodes well for the immediate and longterm future of Penn State basketball under head coach Micah Shrewsberry.
Because facing a simply better team, the Nittany Lions did just about everything they could have. They made shots (47% of them) they grabbed rebounds (30, just as many as Purdue) they played solid defense and they had a chance to win. If you’re Shrewsberry, there’s not much more you can ask of your team than that. Sometimes the other team is just better.
“I think, you know, our players are just a little bit better than their players,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said at the conclusion of a far more expansive thought about the game.
Painters’ point rang true on Saturday. The Nittany Lions are talented, but they are a patchwork of returning players and guns-for-hire. They are experienced but they are not supremely talented top to bottom. Even if Shrewsberry has built a roster that is going to give the rest of the Big Ten fits in 2022, it appears limited when not playing at the extreme end of what is theoretically possible. Even on Saturday the Nittany Lions had to rely on a handful of prayers answered and an otherwise unsustainable barrage of nine-straight made shots to take a one point lead on the eighth make, and find themselves still trailing after the ninth.
Meanwhile Purdue was what everyone expected to see coming into the season. Timely shooting from beyond the arc and dominant scoring in the paint. Whatever Penn State rolled out, Purdue simply had a better version of. It’s not meant as a slight to a Nittany Lion roster not without skill and promise — you don’t almost end up winning a game against the No. 3 team in the nation by mistake — but there is a pragmatism in regards to this particular team’s ceiling. Purdue is a favorite to win the national title; Penn State is not. There is reason why both of these things are true.
Nevertheless, as Penn State found itself trailing by five at halftime the Nittany Lions still had a punchers’ chance. They were crisp on offense and dependable on defense. John Harrar grabbed rebounds and Jalen Pickett was crafty with the ball in his hands. By the time the second half rolled around and Purdue did what Purdue does, the Boilermakers dispatched an avalanche of offense and found themselves leading by 13 as a result.
The bad thing about comebacks like the one Penn State put together on Saturday though: it takes a lot of work to get back to even, and eventually the other team is going to answer.
And that’s what Purdue did. It made shots, answered, took Penn State’s right hand and countered with a left. That’s how it goes in good basketball games. Fighters exchanging blows until someone finally gets knocked out.
The analogies aside, the best thing you can say about Penn State’s loss on Saturday is what you could have said about the Nittany Lions over the past three games: they’re getting the most out of what they have, and they’re getting better finding that level of play consistently.
“I’m proud of their effort,” Shrewsberry said after the game. “I hate losing. You guys know this. I hate losing. But when you prepare the right way, when you play and you leave everything out there on the court, you can feel OK with the results. And I feel OK with the results.”
That’s the takeaway from Saturday afternoon. Yes, everyone has those days when absolutely everything goes your way and all of the shots fall while your opponent goes cold, but those wins are often mirages, telling you something that may or may not turn out to be true. And while Penn State fell to Purdue like so many others have, the Nittany Lions looked like a team that understood what it wanted to do and was able to do it for large portions of the game. That’s something that, especially so early in the year with an entirely new coaching staff, bodes well for not only this team, but teams to come.
Between now and a time somewhere down the road, Shrewsberry will have to assemble better and better rosters in order to turn the program’s perpetual purgatory of “good but not quite good enough” into something that collects actual results, but if his first season at the helm is about first impressions, Saturday was the latest in a growing list of good ones.
Because at the end of the day coaching is about getting the most out of your team and Shrewsberry did that on Saturday.
