BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 11, 2022

Micah Shrewsberry

John Harrar

Jalen Pickett

Gainbridge Fieldhouse

Penn State Nittany Lions

Postgame Press Conference

Purdue - 69, Penn State - 61

MODERATOR: We are joined by Penn State Head Coach Micah Shrewsberry, John Harrar, along with Jalen Pickett. We'll start with an opening statement from Coach, then we'll take questions from the students, then we'll return to questions for Coach.

Coach?

COACH MICAH SHREWSBERRY: First off, congratulations to Purdue. Just a hard-fought game. We knew how tough it would be. It's always like a tough emotional game for me playing against those guys you spend so many times, so many years with, but I thought they played great.

Our guys, man, they're just some warriors. I love our fight, I love how we compete. The guys that are seniors kind of put their blind trust in me and they didn't have to, and the way that they fought and the way that they competed all year, man, I'm so proud of these guys.

It's almost a year to the day that I got hired and did a Zoom call with these guys. John was there, John was on the Zoom, and I told him, like I can't get on that Zoom call and tell you guys like I love you, like we're going to do great and this and that, I don't even know you. Like that's fake, that's phony, whatever.

But being here for a year, being able to coach this guy next to me, being able to coach Jalen, like what they've done not just for this week, like the entire season, man, I love these two dudes. I love these two dudes. I'll go to war with them any day of the week, and I appreciate everything they've done for this program.

And I told those guys that came, we're going somewhere, like this program's going somewhere, and the guys -- and maybe their impact wasn't great, all of them, but the people that are Penn State supporters are never going to forget those guys' names ever. I'll make sure of that, because they deserve it because of how they fought, what they did. When the chips were down, every single time they answered the bell and they responded. I can say it now after a year, I'm going to miss you. I love you, Big Fella.

Q. John, you've told us a lot that you have a lot left to give, you said you don't want this to be over. Where's your head at right now and do you feel like you gave it all in your time here?

JOHN HARRAR: You know, that's the rule of more to give. I still got more to give. I don't know where it is, but I still got more to give.

And I'm so happy with my decision of coming back here and being coached by Coach Shrews. He doesn't know this, but I have a Word document probably like four pages now of his whole defense and offensive concepts because I want to keep playing. I love the game. I just have everything that he's done defensively against certain plays all in a Word document, so wherever I go, it's going to follow with him. I mean, I've been following him all year. I'm stealing his gritty, not pretty sign, I love that. That's carrying with me.

And right behind you is going to be a Big Ten championship, Braeden Shrewsberry, and guess where I'm going to be? I know Coach always says that he wants me to keep playing, but I'm flying out to that game. I hope it's right here and I'll be right behind the bench cheering for him and that will be one of the happiest moments of my life, seeing Penn State win a Big Ten championship. so I'm happy I came. I'm happy I got to play with Jaden Pickett, all those dudes. Seth Lundy, Sam, you name them. I'm Penn State forever and it's been a lot of fun this year.

Q. Jalen and John, three nights in a row, a lot of resilience out there, and also you guys were competitive every night. What gave you the energy to keep coming back and back and back, because this was a heck of a competitive game.

JALEN PICKETT: Not wanting to go home, playing for our seniors. I think that's something that we all knew we had to do. It's tournament time and the energy we were giving each and every night getting wins really gave us the motivation to keep playing.

Q. John, the entirety of Penn State is going to miss you. I mean, the energy you brought just day in and day out. My question for you, John, what are you going to miss most about Penn State basketball and what does this team mean to you?

JOHN HARRAR: I think just the days in the BJC (Bryce Jordan Center). Like this year I was trying to eat it all up. I was trying to be in the office, in the locker room as much as I can. Just like knowing I always had a place to go, being around my teammates, my staff, that's what I'm going to miss the most. Just all the teammates I've had, like I just want to thank them. From the first day I stepped on campus, those dudes make it special. I'm going to have -- I hope I have a huge wedding. I'll have like 70 of my teammates, that's the guy I want to be. Like they mean the world to me and what they gave to me, and hopefully I gave something back to them. But that's what I'm going to miss the most, my teammates and my coaches.

Q. John, met you a few years ago. I want you to reflect on how you've grown as a person from that freshman guy coming in there to right now and what it's like to represent Penn State University.

JOHN HARRAR: I've been so lucky to meet the people I've met in my life. We were at Butler and there was a saying that I saw that just made me think a lot about my career, and it's like you're not born a Bulldog, you're made a Bulldog. I mean, that's it right there. I met so many people here at Penn State that I wasn't born like, you know, I just got so lucky and fortunate to be coached by Coach Shrews and everyone else that has been at Penn State to just form me into the man I am today. Really lucky, really fortunate.

Q. Jalen, you obviously had a huge decision to make when you were deciding where to transfer to. Can you just talk about how it's worked out for you, taking a chance with a first-year coach, and do you have a decision to make on next year?

JALEN PICKETT: Yeah, you know, I think it was a great decision. Coach Shrewsberry and this year was really special, the guys are really good and, yeah, I'm coming back next year.

Q. Jalen, it looked like you were shown a lot of emotion tonight and throughout this week. You went out for like two minutes basically all week and were really invested there from the sideline. Did you feel the gravity of the game tonight? Did it feel bigger than other games this year?

JALEN PICKETT: Definitely. I mean, each game you play in this tournament is a big game. Of course you've got to bring the energy and emotion and we want everyone on our team to bring their own energy because it basically felt like a home game for Purdue with all their fans. We just had a couple. You know, we're always here for each other on the bench. I'm going to give success to my guys and give support whenever I can.

Q. Micah, you guys made the big push at the beginning and Purdue got back into it. What changed from that standpoint?

COACH MICAH SHREWSBERRY: That's something that I talked about at halftime, right? Probably a rookie mistake by me because we were moving the basketball, we were in a good flow, and then like I forced us to be too stagnant by trying to run more ball screen stuff and get switches in the back. We did it. We had discussed it, but then the ball stuck. We see at the end when we got down, we went back to playing that way. Now the ball's moving, we were playing at a faster pace, we were getting to the rim a little better.

You know, I've got to be better, I've got to help those guys be better, continue to play the right way and we will. It's like learning, learning experiences as you go. That's why I'm happy that those guys put their trust in me and helped me go through my rookie mistakes a little bit.

Q. I'm wondering if you can give us an idea of what you said to Brandon Newman after the game.

COACH MICAH SHREWSBERRY: That kid, man, like I spent so much time with him in his redshirt year just being in the gym, working out, just doing a lot of stuff together. Like he was always around. He'd go with me to watch Braeden play. We spent so much time together in those couple years and in good times and in bad times. When we played him early, I talked to him, but then at different times throughout the year, I'd just shoot him a text and try to encourage him, keep his head up. You go through tough times all the time, but -- and the things about those tough times, you're not ready for your moment, you're not ready for your opportunity. He was ready for his moment tonight, so I stopped him in the huddle and I was like, man, I was encouraging you and all that and you do that to me, some friend you are. But I'm happy for that kid, man. He earned it, he deserved it. he kept his head up, so good for him.

Q. Obviously Indy's home for you. So many people rooting for you that I talked to. What was it like for you to come home and be so proud and perform so well in front of the home crowd, so many friends and family?

COACH MICAH SHREWSBERRY: It's always fun to be back here. I've got to thank my wife and Nick Colella for handling all the ticket stuff and doing that for me so I could really just focus on our guys and concentrate on that. Just seeing the support, it's great to be here. Like I've grown up coming to this event, coming to this tournament and now getting a chance to be on the sidelines like coaching in this, like I'm completely like -- I still pinch myself sometimes, right? You look down the sideline and like what Coach Painter's done at Purdue and the impact he's had in the Big Ten, and I get a chance to stand on the sideline and try to compete against him. I just want my teams to play as hard as they do. I want my teams to play as hard as Michigan State's teams do. Like that's how you honor the Big Ten, and I hope we did that. I hope people that watched this felt that way, that we honored the Big Ten the right way.

And we'll be back, we'll be back. We're going to keep playing like this. So it's great to be here. We're looking forward to coming back again.

Q. Coach, this could be a really, really sad moment. I know there's a lot of sadness in losing, but this feels like a little bit of almost a celebration of family and almost love between you and the players. You guys are all just -- just seems to be something here. Like what does that say about what you were able to accomplish in just one season?

COACH MICAH SHREWSBERRY: You're right about that first part, about it being a tough moment. I wasn't this chipper immediately after the game in the locker room.

I feel bad for our guys. Like they were hurt. They were hurt, man. We lost 17 games, ended up getting to eight. But look at the games that we lost that were close, like the amount of teams that we played with and fought toe to toe. That's the one thing I told those guys, is that resiliency that you showed on the basketball court is going to show up for you at some point in time in your life.

People counted us out from the moment I got here and you don't listen to anybody else's expectations but your own. I felt like those guys, that's how they played, that's how they conducted themselves, that's how they acted. It wasn't anybody else's expectations, it was our own.

No matter what our record looks like, I'm proud of what we did, how we fought. When we were down, we always came back. So like that's going to carry on for those guys in life, that's going to carry on in this program, that's who I want us to be. You know, we'll be back, like I said, we'll be back again. We'll be back again next year. I might have some new faces, but we'll have some old faces. I told them remember this moment, remember how it feels right now because you have to go through this to get where you want to get.

Q. Micah, what are you kind of looking at in the next few days? What's next? I know Jalen said he's going to come back next year. What's kind of the decision timeline for the other guys and if the CBI or something like that comes up, what would be kind of the timeline for something like that?

COACH MICAH SHREWSBERRY: I just want to get back to the hotel, crack open a Dr. Pepper, take my shoes off, chill for a little bit. This season's been a grind, man. The first time through it.

You guys know, first of all, how much I love Coach Painter and being around Coach Painter. He talks about the end the season and I'm taking his motto because when we get home tomorrow, I'm going to put my pajamas on with the feet in them and I'm going to lay on the coach and I'm going to watch these games. Sucks that we're not playing, but I'm going to watch them and I'm going to decompress a little bit and then I can move on to what's next.

We've got five guys that have signed with us that we're excited about our class that's coming. We've got some decisions that will be made from some older guys, but we've got an opportunity to have a bunch of the guys that were playing back again next year. So continue to work defensively, get better in that area, figure out how to score a few more points, enjoy my Dr. Pepper and cheer for Purdue.