Can Penn State build off momentum of magical run?
For most of the last seven decades, Penn State men’s basketball has been a big tease or just a big joke.
The Nittany Lions have spent many of their 30-plus years in the Big Ten in the bottom half of the conference standings. NCAA Tournament berths have been few and far between.
As a result, Penn State alumni and fans have been mostly hesitant to buy in even when seasons looked promising because they expected — almost always correctly — to be disappointed.
Then along came the 2022-23 Lions, who captured hearts with Penn State’s best three-week run in March in more than 20 years..
It ended Saturday night in Des Moines, Iowa, where they pushed a superior Texas team to the limit before losing to the fifth-ranked Longhorns 71-66.
When the NCAA round of 32 game ended, Penn State coach Micah Shrewsberry and several players were disappointed.
“We wanted to go so much farther,” said senior Seth Lundy, who played at Roman Catholic High School in Philadelphia. “This is not where we wanted the journey to end.”
The Lions and their fans hope this 23-14 season was only the beginning. Penn State men’s basketball hasn’t had sustained success for generations. Its last backto-back appearances in the NCAA Tournament came in 1954-55.
Shrewsberry might be the coach to make the Lions consistent winners. He’s made quite an impact in two seasons at Penn State after serving as an assistant for Brad Stevens and Matt Painter with the Boston Celtics, Butler and Purdue.
Keeping him, however, might be challenging.
Will Penn State make a long-term financial commitment to him and the program’s staff and facilities? Will NIL basketball money increase dramatically?
If it doesn’t, many schools will be knocking on Shrewsberry’s door if they haven’t already.
“You want it to be sustainable, right?” he said Saturday night. “We’re not going to be satisfied with this. You gotta have the right people. You gotta have the right mix of people. You gotta have the right work ethic and things will fall into place.”
Shrewsberry and his staff brought in several transfer players after going 1417 in his first season. Camren Wynter (Drexel), Andrew Funk (Bucknell) and Mikey Henn (Denver) meshed quickly with returners like Jalen Pickett (a previous transfer from Siena), Lundy and Myles Dread. Lundy and Dread were on Penn State’s 2020 team that was headed to the NCAA Tournament before it was canceled because of the pandemic.
Pickett became Penn State’s first All-American player in almost 70 years and the only player in the country to average more than 17 points, seven rebounds and six assists per game. Only two other college basketball players have done that in the last 30 years.
“Jalen Pickett just put together one of the most sensational seasons in Penn State history, (and) college basketball history,” Shrewsberry said.
This group became the first Penn State team to play in the NCAA Tournament in 12 years and the first to win a tournament game since 2001, thrashing 17th-ranked Texas A&M.
“I feel for the fans,” Lundy said. “They’ve been waiting for a moment like this for a long time. I hope they just remember us for giving it all that we got and to let them know there’s going to be a lot more coming in the future.”
Where does Penn State basketball go from here? Can it continue the momentum it built this season?
Unfairly or not, there has been a perception for a long, long time that the Penn State administration and community
isn’t willing to do what it takes to help make the program an annual NCAA Tournament team.
This is the time to disprove that notion, off the heels of a historic season and run, which included posting seven wins over NCAA Tournament teams and reaching the Big Ten Tournament title game since March 1.
“This team in particular definitely laid a foundation for Penn State in the future,” Lundy said. “Penn State is going back to the tournament, so I believe in those (younger) guys and I believe in Coach Shrews and the future of this program.”
So does Dread, who finished his career as the alltime leader in games played at Penn State.
“My goal coming to Penn State was to leave it better than when I came here,” he said. “I feel like we did that. We accomplished that for sure.
“We’re not going to stop and I know Coach Shrewsberry is not going to stop. The sky’s the limit.”