Update 7:30 p.m. March 15, 2021: Micah Shrewsberry has been hired as the 14th men’s basketball coach in Penn State history, the university’s athletic department confirmed on Monday night. Updates to follow.
Penn State basketball had hired Purdue assistant coach Micah Shrewsberry as the Nittany Lions’ next head coach, Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Sandy Barbour announced on Monday night. The university Board of Trustees Subcommittee on Compensation approved Shrewsberry’s terms of employment, but the terms have not yet been revealed.
Multiple reports earlier on Monday broke the news that Shrewsberry would be Penn State’s next head coach and StateCollege.com confirmed that Shrewsberry has long been among AD Sandy Barbour’s top targets in the search.
At age 44, Shrewsberry has a relatively long coaching career with the bulk of his current noteworthy stops including time at Butler under then coach Brad Stevens from 2008-11, a brief stint at Purdue with coach Matt Painter and time against spent with Stevens and the Boston Celtics from 2013-2019 before returning to Purdue in 2019.
Shrewsberry’s only head coaching job came at IU South Bend from 2005-07.
Penn State is now also the only Power Five school in America with a black head coach representing its football and basketball programs.
Shrewsberry’s hiring comes just months shy of a decade exactly since the hiring of now former head coach Pat Chambers.
Chambers was forced out in October and interim head coach Jim Ferry led the team to an 11-14 record. The Nittany Lions’ season came to a close with a 75-74 loss to Wisconsin in the Big Ten Tournament second round. Despite finishing the season No. 35 in the KenPom ratings system and the nation’s top strength of schedule, Penn State did not receive an invite to the NIT.
