NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - PENN STATE VS TEXAS

March 17, 2023

Micah Shrewsberry

Wells Fargo Arena

Penn State Nittany Lions

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: Pleased to be joined by Penn State Head Coach Micah Shrewsberry. Coach, your opening statement on tomorrow night's game.

MICAH SHREWSBERRY: We're excited to be playing again, and that's what we've been doing, just playing together, having fun, and we get a chance to play another game tomorrow.

In that game we play a really good opponent. Texas is one of the best teams in the country on both ends of the court. Their defense causes a lot of problems with the amount of turnovers that they force.

Their guards are as good as any in the country. It starts with Tyrese Hunter and Marcus Carr and Timmy Allen, and when Sir'Jabari Rice comes off the bench he's just as explosive. So we will have our hands full defensively trying to slow these guys down. They got into a rhythm yesterday and really did some good things on offense against Colgate.

So we will have our hands full, but it should be a great battle and we're looking forward to playing another game.

Q. At Big Ten you had multiple opportunities to play on CBS. TBS last night; CBS tomorrow. What has that exposure do you think meant for a team that doesn't always get it? What's it been like for you to be able to interact with the personalities who you probably -- Raf and some of those people growing up? I'm sure you watched a lot of them.

MICAH SHREWSBERRY: They do such a great job with this tournament of -- the games are on everywhere, all the channels that they're on, and when you get a chance to play on CBS. It's easy to find, I guess. It's one of the first couple channels that you scroll by.

But this is a blast. It's cool for our guys to get this experience. It's great for our program to get this exposure, for a lot of people to see it.

Hopefully we're opening up doors for potential future Nittany Lions, but also for the school, for the common student that sees us and says, man, that looks pretty cool. I'm going to check Penn State out, right?

Maybe there are kids that are watching this that end up coming there or applying there or want to come there just because they see what we're doing or they're seeing wrestling or football or what these athletic teams are doing and it opens up their minds to what Penn State University can be.

We're proud to represent Penn State in the right way, and to be able to do it on CBS is pretty cool. I wish Jim Jackson could play for us tomorrow. We would be really tough to deal with.

Q. Micah, do you remember the first time that you watched Jalen Pickett play? What do you think of his style? It's such a distinct way to play.

MICAH SHREWSBERRY: The first time was when I got the job, watching him on the internet, trying to pull up tape, pull up film as we were recruiting him. They played a lot of pick-and-rolls early on when he was there.

His vision was what stood out as a passer. He was such a good passer. You could see that. That really stood out to me first and foremost, and then the more you talked to him, you understood why he had great vision, because of his ability to see the game, his ability to think the game.

I've said it multiple times, like, we lucked into him being able to score in the post. We didn't utilize him in that way until midway through the season last year.

It just kinda happened organically, and then I was like, huh? Hey, dummy, why don't we do this a little bit more? Because he's pretty good down there. I'm glad it happened because it's worked out.

Q. Coach, I wanted to ask you about -- we've talked about this being the DIII player as a kid. I know you've been in this situation before with Purdue. You've been to the Dance. How different now is it to be the head coach at the tournament, the guy that's winning and going through the crowds and the guy that everyone says is the most brilliant player because Andrew Funk hits eight threes?

MICAH SHREWSBERRY: That is exactly true. I'm still the same guy I was when I was playing at Hanover. There is no difference to me. I just get a chance to coach really good players.

But it's fun. I'm enjoying it. I'm trying to do this for our guys, because I want them to experience some of the things that I've experienced. I've had some great experiences in the NCAA Tournament. I want them to be able to experience the same things.

But more importantly, it's cool that my family gets to be a part of this. Right? They've been through a lot, as you're working your way through coaching, the ups and downs of what happens, packing up and moving a bunch of different times.

You know, as we move up the ladder and going from Division III to other Division III to Division I job and NAI job. They have been part of this every single step of the way, so I'm glad they get to experience this and be on this ride with us and experience this with us.

Q. Micah, Penn State is preparing to make a significant long-term financial commitment to you to stick around here at Penn State. Can you speak to that report? Have you had those conversations with Mr. Craft?

MICAH SHREWSBERRY: No, we haven't. He knows, like, I'm just focused on our team. He doesn't really bother me with anything except for congratulations and cheers and loves what we're doing.

When the season ends I have time to think about things like that. Right now, I got my hands full with Texas and how are we going to guard Marcus Carr. I've been on the wrong side of some Marcus Carr scoring outbursts when he was at Minnesota.

Once we crack that code we will be thinking about other things later.

Q. Coach, obviously you guys hit a lot of threes in this past game. How do you make sure your defense is tight if your shots don't fall as quickly in this next game?

MICAH SHREWSBERRY: For us, we've played through our defense recently. I think that's where a lot of our turnaround has come. We've become more of a team that has a defensive DNA. That's helped us win. That's spurred us on.

We've had games in this stretch where we haven't made shots and we've stayed in games because we are defending.

So, you know, it's about getting shots each and every time and we will take that shot no matter where it is, so if it's a three it's a three, if it's a layup it's a layup. We just want to run good offense so they can't get into transition. I think that's the number one thing.

This group has played through our defense. Early in the year if we weren't making shots then I would be more worried about that, but I think we're pretty battle tested right now.

Q. Coach, so Kebba was obviously a big get for you before the season started, but he struggled, played a little stiff. As of recently he's been playing sort of his best basketball in this free-flowing state. When did you see things start to click and how important is his success for this team?

MICAH SHREWSBERRY: You started to see the turn when we were at Nebraska. We lost that game, but his physicality was different, the way he went after offensive rebounds and those things.

I think it took him a little bit of time to go through the league and understand what it takes to be a good player in this league, to guard good players in the league.

Ever since then he's really taken off. I think his rebounding has been great. His effort has been great. He's scoring the ball better. He's catching and finishing. He's putting time into his game outside as well to work on some things that weren't going well for him early on.

So it's a testament to him and a testament to the work that he's put in. He's really helped us. Gives us another threat around the rim.

There was an old coach at Miami of Ohio. Charlie Coles was a great, great coach back then. He's passed away now. He played Kentucky once and a reporter asked him, you know, why his guys were struggling against Kentucky and he just said, like, have you ever been face-to-face with a bear? Like, you're going to be scared of a bear.

I think Kebba had a little bit of that early on, but he got better. He recognized what he needed to do and now he's starting to become one of those.

Q. Texas used bigs down low to get a rebound advantage. What are you going to have to do for them not to get an edge on the board?

MICAH SHREWSBERRY: It's been a fight all year just being a smaller team. It takes all of us to rebound. Texas A&M sent four guys to the glass every single possession. It was a battle each and every time the shot went up.

We gotta do the same thing, right? We got great practice. They got a lot of offensive rebounds but they didn't capitalize on them as well. We've got to do the same thing.

What we did or what we did yesterday has no bearing on what's going to happen tomorrow, so you have to do it every single time. You've got to turn, box out every single possession, and do your best.

And then we need guys that don't have to box out because their man is not coming. They need to come in and help us, clean up some of those rebounds.

We need to have our guards have a high rebounding game tomorrow to kind of X that advantage that they have off.

Q. Digging into more of Jalen's play style, like you mentioned it took you a while to use him in the post. Even then post plays don't begin with the guard dribbling from 20 feet away. How did you and him together develop that part of his game? Or as part of your system? What's unique about him that allows him to do that? Seems like he has a blend of vision and strength.

MICAH SHREWSBERRY: I think, you know, we talked about the vision. Also the strength, to be able to take hits, right, from a further away. He starts his post-ups at the three-point line or outside of the lane to get where he needs to get, right?

I'm sure at the end of the games he's going home sore because of the amount of hits that he's absorbing.

For us it's also about finding who we want to guard him and also looking at how people are playing different things. So we spend a lot of time going into the game trying to figure out, like, who we want to guard him and how do we get to that?

Then once we figure that out, he and I get on the same page and then I let him operate, right? Or if he doesn't see it then I will put guys in position to get what we want. So I think that's a lot of times if you see me just standing over there being looking like an air traffic controller, I'm trying to help him get to an easier matchup, and now he can go to work and do what he does and force people to help or be able to try to get a shot close to the basket.

A lot of film study. A lot of work in practice to now be on the same page with everybody on our team, everybody on the sideline, knowing what we're trying to search out and hunt for each possession.

Q. Micah, Andrew said earlier he has been lucky to play for coaches who don't have a problem with the shots he takes. Do players that shoot it like that make you change the definition of what a good shot is? For example, that shot two minutes into the game from 35-feet out.

MICAH SHREWSBERRY: I don't really talk a lot about shot selection. Every once in a while I might say something, but you need guys to feel confident. You need guys to play free. You don't want them looking over their shoulders worried about whether coach likes this shot or not.

I guess my shot selection, to them, is get the best shot for Penn State. That's all we're trying to do: get the best shot for our team.

Sometimes that's Andrew shooting from the logo. I also have seen how much work he's put in, so, like, it surprises me when he misses because I know all the work that he's put in. He's just playing free. He's playing carefree, and I want all those guys to do that, because that way, they're not looking over their shoulder, right?

There is defense out there trying to stop them. That's what they should be focused on, not whether I'm happy with their shot selection or not. I don't say much about it. My face might frown up every once in a while because I might not like it, but you'll never see me say something to them about any of the shots they take.

Q. Micah, you've talked through your two years here about John Harrah's role and building the program from what it was to what it is now. Have you talked to him since being in Des Moines? Going home last night did you think about what it was like riding with him last year to the point where Penn State is now?

MICAH SHREWSBERRY: I haven't, not since we've been here. He sent me a couple of messages last week during the Big Ten tournament. It's hard. His timing over there in Spain is a little different than our timing over here. Some of our guys on staff were texting, facetiming with him, telling him to jump on a plane and get over here.

But I think he likes his contract way too much and he can watch our game on TV. Like I wish for him -- like some of the things he did for our program and how he set our culture last year came off the court. He wasn't a big talker, but he spoke up when he needed to. He was a worker that everybody saw how much he worked, and then they kind of took to that themselves.

John lifted. After every game he was in the weight room. And Kebba has never played with John, but when I go back through after my press conference to go back to my office, Kebba now lifts after every single game.

There's guys in the practice gym getting shots up after every single game if they didn't play. Like all of those, like -- I attribute that to John, what he did here and how he led here.

So I'm so happy that I got a chance to coach him. I feel like he's a huge part of this run that we're on right now. Even though he's not on our team he's still a huge part of this. We're going to find some way to honor him when we honor this team, because he really deserves it.

Q. Can you talk about the three point defense that you guys are going to try to play against their guards? What are you going to do to disrupt their shots on the perimeter?

MICAH SHREWSBERRY: They were really comfortable yesterday. Colgate went under a lot of screens so they were able to stop behind screens, get their feet set. And basketball is such a confidence game that once you do that, once you hit one, you start feeling pretty good. Every game is different, but they shot the ball well in here, so they should come in here feeling like we can do it again.

So you've got to break their rhythm early. You've got to do nothing to give them confidence either. You can't foul them. Can't let them get into transition; now they are feeling good. Those are things we have to do.

Our defense has to be on pointe. Starts in transition. Starts on getting them off the glass and not getting kick-out threes, and then we just need to be disciplined. We be can't give 'em those same looks they got yesterday.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.