Micah Shrewsberry says Penn State basketball working toward sustained success
As the curtain closed on the 2022-23 men’s basketball season for Penn State on Saturday night, head coach Micah Shrewsberry stressed that this is just the beginning of sustained success for the program. Penn State was eliminated from the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament by Texas in the second round in the Midwest region with a 71-66 setback against the Big 12 champions. But with the loss behind him, Shrewsberry is already working on the messaging to his team moving forward.
“Yeah, I mean, you want it to be sustainable, right? Like, we’re not going to be satisfied with this,” Shrewsberry said in his postgame press conference late Saturday night. “It’s like, all right, cool, let’s — ten years from now let’s go back to the tournament. No, we worked for it every single day.”
Penn State reached the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament for the first time since 2011, and for just the fourth time since joining the Big Ten (Penn State likely would have been in the 2020 tournament if it was not canceled). They got there by going on a respectable run through the Big Ten basketball tournament, which ended with a close loss to Purdue in the Big Ten championship game. In Shrewsberry’s second year at the helm, Penn State went from a 14-17 record in his first season as a head coach to a 23-win season ending in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
“These guys aren’t satisfied, the young guys aren’t satisfied with being here one time and setting a bunch of school records and everything else,” Shrewsberry said. “We’re all competitors. You want to win.”
Shrewsberry’s postgame comments are good to hear as the focus will quickly shift on his own future at Penn State. Shrewsberry had been linked to coaching search rumors for programs like Georgetown and Notre Dame, but a recent report has suggested Penn State is preparing to make a significant offer to keep Shrewsberry in Happy Valley.
If Shrewsberry ends up staying, Penn State will be in good hands as Shrewsberry will have a good amount of work to do with the roster after some key departures.
“There’s a lot that goes into it. Like I said, you gotta have the right people, you gotta have the right mix of guys, you gotta have the right work ethic and then things can fall into place,” Shrewsberry said. “That’s what we’re gearing up to do and that’s what we’re trying to do each and every year.”
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