NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - PENN STATE VS TEXAS A&M

March 16, 2023

Micah Shrewsberry

Jalen Pickett

Andrew Funk

Wells Fargo Arena

Penn State Nittany Lions

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: Pleasure to have with us Head Coach, Micah Shrewsberry and the Penn State Nittany Lions, and student-athletes, Andrew Funk, Seth Lundry, and Jalen Pickett. Coach, your thoughts?

MICAH SHREWSBERRY: First of all, we really prepared for a few days in a row just because I knew how good this team was in Texas A&M. The run that they've been on for -- we have played well for ten straight games, 11 games, they've played well for like 20 in a row. Their guards are fantastic. They rebound like crazy, so we knew how good they were.

I thought our attention to detail on defense and offense was really good, and that's the benefit of having an older group of guys that can execute a scouting report on offense and defense, and we did that.

We played hard and we gave ourselves a chance to win.

Q. Jalen, you never know what you're going to get in the NCAA Tournament. You can watch them on film, but when you got out there and started playing for a few minutes, could you get kind of a feel for who Texas A&M was, their defense and what they were going to do? I've never seen anything like that. It was surgical. How did you do what you did?

JALEN PICKETT: Yeah, we watched a lot of film. They're a great basketball team and, you know, credit to them. They had a great season. We just came out and really shared the ball and I thought we played Penn State basketball and it was hard for them to guard when we moved the ball and got great shots. So after the first couple minutes I felt pretty good what we were doing offensively especially when people were shooting from deep, making a lot of threes.

Q. For the players, talk about your three point shooting tonight. Seemed like Texas A&M did not have an answer for you guys.

ANDREW FUNK: I think it goes back to what Jalen just said with how much of team basketball we played. Our focus on sharing the ball. With a guy like Pickett he commands a lot of attention, and the way we were able to play off of him, what we have been doing all year came to fruition tonight.

SETH LUNDY: I feel like we did a great job of finding the open man and credit to Texas A&M defense. They fly around and trap the ball really hard and when you are moving the ball real well and fast the ball moved faster than defense and we found open people.

JALEN PICKETT: Credit to these guys. We're a three point shooting team, we take a lot of threes and it kinda sparks us offensively and defensively so we're going to keep shooting them.

Q. Andrew, I'm sure you've heard it around campus a few times, but first win in the NCAA Tournament since 2001. What does it mean to you?

ANDREW FUNK: Honestly it means a lot. Probably more than people think because I've only been here for one year, but I went to Bucknell and Penn State has had a big time Philly pipeline going for a long time. I used to play against guys like Tony Carr and Lamar Stevens and Nazeer Bostick. So although I wasn't a direct fan of the program I watched those guys. To be able to come here and do this, you know, with this group of guys, it's really special and, you know, I'm happy to be doing it alongside the group of guys that we have.

Q. Andrew, for the layman and for someone who doesn't play basketball, describe what it's like to make the first one and then make the second one for somebody like you. What happens?

ANDREW FUNK: Yeah, the run opens up a little bit, for sure. It kinda gets to a point, especially with the offense that we play and like I know I'm going to get a lot of shots from three and when those first two go in, you start hunting them a little bit and you just get into a rhythm, especially in a game like that where our offense is flowing the way it is. So, yeah, just to keep it short, the rim opens up a lot and you get a lot of confidence flowing. Feels good.

Q. Jalen, could you comment on Andrew's shooting tonight? You had eight threes tonight. As you were watching that unfold from your spot, Jalen, what were you thinking?

JALEN PICKETT: Yeah, he's okay, he's an okay shooter. He's all right. He puts in a lot of work into his jump shot, he's in there getting extra reps, he's on the gun a lot. Andrew is a great shooter and when he gets it going like that we gotta find him and I think we did a great job of that tonight.

Q. Andrew I don't know if you noticed you were 7 trending on Twitter at one point. You shot the lights off tonight. Is that something you envisioned when you came to Penn State to be seen on a national stage like this?

ANDREW FUNK: Not really. I envisioned us getting to this point and winning a lot of games, but that's pretty cool and I'm glad to see that's cool for me, but for this program it deserves all the attention that we're getting and we're going to continue to get. So it means a lot and I'm really happy to be doing it for this university and program.

Q. Hey, Andrew, like we said you have been going viral on Twitter right now. Quite a lot of memes. As you sit up there right now, is this something to have this success at this stage in the tournament, the magic of March, is this something you dreamed of when you came to Penn State as a basketball player? What's the feeling?

ANDREW FUNK: It's a lot of emotions, more so just happiness. I guess the Twitter stuff is cool, I guess. They can do some cool things with my last name, some puns, I guess. But it's fun. Like you said, you grow up watching this tournament and missing out on it. My four years at Bucknell was a part of why I wanted to come here and help this team get here. So to see it come to fruition is hard to put in words, to be honest.

Q. Jalen, have you seen Texas play at all? Do you have any impressions of them? Why the heck are you guys a 10 seed?

JALEN PICKETT: I don't know too much about the Committee and how they rank the seeds, anything like that. We watched Texas a little bit today right before our game. Marcus Carr is a really good guard and Texas has been good all year. We're going to watch film on them and we just know they're a really good team so it should be fun come Saturday.

Q. Micah, how challenging do you suspect it would be to prepare for your team in terms of a setting based on the uniqueness of your offense and limited time and a lot of unfamiliar opponents?

MICAH SHREWSBERRY: I think it would be difficult, because we are just unique in how we play. We're unique in how we try and attack. You could see some stuff or see us do some stuff on a Monday game, and then you might not see it for two or three weeks, and then we come back to it later on or we might change a little bit here or there. That's just having these guys who are really good on the fly at changing some things and adjusting.

You know, that's the fun part of coaching these guys, right? Like, I got three guys sitting here, there's a lot more in the locker room, but these three guys can play off of each other and understand what each other's doing at any point in time and break something off and go to something else. So, you know, we prepare for each game and they really focus on what we're trying to do, and I'm having a blast coaching them.

Q. Going off the idea of how much fun you're having coaching these guys, Micah, what does it mean to you to be able to make history with this group of seniors that's played so many games together?

MICAH SHREWSBERRY: First of all, I'm so happy for Seth and Myles, because of everything that happened to them after the 2020 season and the success that they were having and then not getting a chance to play in the tournament. Then those guys stuck it out here. They stuck it out here. And I'm happy for those guys because now they're getting to experience that, but Pickett decided to come and play for us and I had never coached a game before in my life.

We talked about this. We talked about this vision, same with Funk, same with Cam, we talked about this vision of doing this and it's all coming to fruition for us.

Q. Jalen, Buzz Williams gave you a a lot of compliments a few minutes ago. He said you make the right decision and you make it in a split second. There was a point out there, end of the first half, where you were like an orchestra leader. Do you feel like you're the maestro?

JALEN PICKETT: Yeah, I have the ball in my hands a lot and I definitely ask my teammates on the court what do they see, where they're open at, sometimes they tell me if they're open, just voluntarily. It's great the communication that we have and when Coach draws up a play, I see the reads immediately as soon as they come off. I know what I'm looking at. I know what should happen. I just try to find people and get the ball out quick so it's on time and on target so it's easy for them to shoot it, for Kevin to get a dunk or something like that.

Q. Micah, how rewarding is it to go from a team last year that could barely score 60 points per game in conference to a team that shot 60% from three against Texas A&M?

MICAH SHREWSBERRY: Yeah, and how we had to put our team together last year, we tried to piece it together. These guys had never had a chance to play with each other or learn how to play off of each other. I didn't know Pickett could post until January or February last year. Also, like, we guarded people. That was our thing last year, we could really guard people, probably because that's all we did in the summer and the fall and in practice all the time.

But this group is different. This group is different and now we're figuring out different ways. It's just weapons. It's just weapons. Tonight was Funk's night where he got it going, but Seth has had those games, and he's going to have them for us in this tournament. Pickett has this those games, Cam's had those games, Myles other guys have stepped up. We just have a lot of weapons we go to and mix it up, and I think that makes us hard to guard. It makes people think I'm a really good coach because I've got really good players sitting next to me.

Q. Coach, how do you think your team has handled the distraction of taking part in the NCAA Tournament for the first time? Can you discuss the quick turn around to play Texas on Saturday?

MICAH SHREWSBERRY: I don't think there has been a distraction about playing in the tournament. I think they're all really excited to be here. I wanted them to enjoy it. I wanted them to enjoy it. This is fun. This is fun. This is fun for them, they're getting a chance to be here and play and experience this whole thing. Let's experience it. Let's have fun. It's fun seeing all the Penn Staters that showed up and were cheering for us, but, like, we want to go on a run and on a ride, and we're having a blast. So I don't think they're distracted at all based on how we prepared for this game.

It is a quick turn around and we're getting ready for an unbelievable opponent who has had a great year, so we gotta do it again. We got to trust our system, how we play and what we do, and we gotta prepare the same exact way, learn from film, watch film and then figure out a game plan and go execute it again.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. Thank you, gentlemen.