Micah Shrewberry addressed the media Tuesday for his weekly press conference, just one day after Penn State fell 81-56 to UMass.
Here’s some of the biggest notes from Shrewsberry’s availability.
HAVE TO BOUNCE BACK....
Penn State has a quick turnaround from its first loss of the season, facing off against St. Francis Brooklyn at home this Thursday.
One of Shrewsberry’s main messages to his team after the game is making sure one loss doesn’t turn into two.
“[You] can’t dwell on anything. You can’t keep your head down,” Shrewsberry said. “You gotta bounce back. You gotta get back to work, and you gotta get better.”
He held that UMass played a solid game Monday night, and that contributed to the big win for the Minutemen, but there were plenty of things he wanted to see from his team that he didn’t get.
He didn’t think the Nittany Lions’ “system” was their downfall but rather their execution of the system.
THE GAME HONORS TOUGHNESS.....
Shrewsberry was pretty brutally honest talking about his team’s effort against UMass, and he didn’t think they held up to one of his most important standards.
“One of our four keys to the game is dominating effort. [UMass] did that,” Shrewsberry said.
He highlighted a play coming out of halftime where UMass’s Noah Fernandes lost the ball but dove on it immediately after to retain possession.
The Nittany Lions stood around and watched it happen, and then the Minutemen fueled a 20-4 run to break the game open.
“In the locker room before every game I say ‘The game honors toughness,’” Shrewsberry said. “They made the tough plays. They deserve for the ball to go in. They deserve for those moments to happen.”
REVOLVING DOOR OF AVAILABILITY.....
Penn State has had well-documented issues in the depth department this season.
Expected impact transfer forward Greg Lee has yet to step on the floor due to injury, veteran guard Myles Dread has dealt with his own injury at times and another transfer forward, Jevonnie Scott, has dealt with NCAA eligibility issues.
Shrewsberry added Tuesday that his team has been dealing with illnesses and “everything else,” too, to create what he called a “revolving door of guys being in and out.”
The first-year head coach said having his whole roster healthy brings more energy to practices.
“That helps us. That will help us. It’ll help us be able to do more things,” Shrewsberry said. “We don’t have to manage practice as much in terms of limiting guys’ reps so they’re fresh for games.”
However, he doesn’t want the ailments his team has dealt with to become an excuse.
“We gotta go with who’s available, who’s ready to help us at this current moment, and that’s enough for us,” Shrewsberry said. “Nobody feels sorry for us. UMass didn’t, St. Francis isn’t going to, nobody in the Big Ten is gonna feel sorry for us.
“We need to pick our heads up, get ready to roll. Whoever’s available is gonna be available… We’re gonna find whoever’s ready, and we’re gonna play.”
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