Micah Shrewsberry talks defense, timetables for missing big men
Penn State is coming off of a 1-1 weekend at the Emerald Coast Classic in Florida, including a close loss to LSU and a dominant win over Oregon State.
There’s no breathers for the Nittany Lions, though, as they’ll square off against Miami in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge on Wednesday and Ohio State this Sunday. Both games are at home.
Micah Shrewsberry spoke with the media Monday afternoon to address the upcoming week.
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BIG WEEK AHEAD.....
Shrewsberry quickly acknowledged the magnitude of the week his team has in front of him, and he said the Big Ten/ACC Challenge is always a good indicator of establishing where his program stands.
“We want to put our best foot forward and help our league. And then we also have a league game following up after that, so it's another great week, two great tests for us,” Shrewsberry said. “We're looking forward to seeing where we are after this weekend, how we can use these couple of days to get better, play a game and use a couple more days to get better.”
Shrewsberry also has an assistant on staff, Adam Fisher, who spent eight years at Miami after graduating from Penn State, so there’s a bit of a reunion ahead this week.
He said there’s some benefit to Fisher’s experience, but he still hasn’t been practicing with them all year at the end of the day.
“He knows a little bit about what they want to do, how they want to do things, situations that they've been in, how they handle those situations. It's helpful in the personnel sense, it's helpful in a way to help prepare for them,” Shrewsberry said.” It gives us a little bit of an advantage, but he hasn't been in practice with him all year, so he doesn't know the keys to everything.”
Penn State’s first-year head coach has gone through his fair share of reunion games in his career, citing playing Butler the year after he moved from the Bulldogs to Purdue. But they’re “not fun games,” according to Shrewsberry.
“That’s a hard game,” Shrewsberry said. “[Fisher’s] nervous about it, right? But everybody is.”
Shrewsberry said recently he typically delegates scouting reports across his assistant coaches on a rotation, but it’s interesting to note Fisher was leading the scouting portion of practice that was open to the media Monday.
DEFENSIVE PROWESS.....
Penn State seemed to be hitting its stride this weekend on the defensive side of the ball, holding LSU to 68 points in an overtime loss and keeping Oregon State to just 45 points..
It’s a nice building block as the Nittany Lions gets closer to a full conference schedule and a grueling week, but Shrewsberry still wasn’t entirely satisfied.
He said Beavers coach Wayne Tinkle is a “really good coach” and “one of the nicest human beings I’ve ever met,” but there’s a caveat.
“No disrespect to Oregon State or anything like that, but they shouldn’t have scored 40.” Shrewsberry said. “That’s where we let up. We thought the game was over, and there was eight minutes left.”
He said it goes back to setting a standard and building a “nasty and gritty” mindset through a full 40 minutes.
TIMETABLES FOR LEE, SCOTT
Two of the biggest pieces Shrewsberry brought in through the transfer portal this season, Jevonnie Scott and Greg Lee, still have yet to take the floor in a game.
Shrewsberry said Lee is on track with his recovery from what looked like a leg/ankle injury. Lee is up and walking around after spending time in a walking boot and on a scooter.
Shrewsberry said Lee has an appointment scheduled soon to determine next steps.
As for Scott, Shrewsberry confirmed he’s eligible after dealing with some issues from the NCAA at the beginning of the year. He’s not quite ready to throw him into the fire of game action, though, but he is “close.”
“I don't know if throwing him to the fire against LSU or Miami or Ohio State or whoever it may be... I don't know if that's the time to do it,” Shrewsberry said. “When you miss so much time, you can't just jump in and everything's gonna be seamless... you gotta build up to it.”
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