Micah Shrewsberry on Rutgers loss: ‘I got out-coached’

On Sunday afternoon, the Penn State Nittany Lions blew a massive 19-point lead in a crucial home matchup against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. Here is what head coach Micah Shrewsberry had to say after the crushing loss.

Micah Shrewsberry takes the blame during post-game presser

After Penn State’s awful loss on Sunday, head coach Micah Shrewsberry reiterated one main point throughout the entirety of his press conference: the loss was on him. According to Shrewsberry, he was simply out-coached throughout the entire second half, which allowed the Scarlet Knights to mount a massive comeback and steal a victory from the jaws of defeat.

“First off, congrats to Rutgers on their win. I thought — the way they played — they deserved to win.” Shrewsberry said. “I thought Steve Pikiell completely out-coached me and played circles around me tonight. We got out-coached and I gotta to put our guys in a better position to be successful if we want to win a game like this. It’s disappointing that we lost it, because we had a 19-point lead in the second half, but, you know, we’re back to work tomorrow — get back to practice and clean up what we need to clean up to get ready for our next game.”

On why Jalen Pickett didn’t attempt a shot in the second half

“They usually sent two at the ball a lot of times.” Micah Shrewsberry said. “Really doubled him and tried to get the ball out of his hands — forced other guys to try and beat them. We had opportunities, usually we can, but Seth [Lundy] goes 0/11 from three and [Andrew] Funk goes 1/7, Miles [Bridges] goes 0/1 — that’s three better shooters [that are] 1/19 shooting open shots. Hats off to them — we needed to adjust and go to something different, but like I said, I got out-coached.”

Penn State basketball needs to bounce back, and Micah Shrewsberry knows it

“The season’s not over,” Shrewsberry said. “We have a game on Wednesday — if this was the last game of our season and they had to take their jersey off and go home after tonight, they’d probably feel a bit different. But we have a lot of games left — a lot of games left to play — it’s disappointing because we had the chance to win it. We need to make the right plays throughout the game to win it, and we didn’t do that. I gotta help them do it, and I didn’t help them tonight.”

Nittany Lions can revive season at Northwestern

Tonight, the Penn State Nittany Lions make the trip just north of Chicago to face the Northwestern Wildcats in another huge quad one game. Penn State’s season is still alive, and a win over Northwestern could get the Lions right back in the mix for an NCAA tournament berth next month. Now, just as head coach Micah Shrewsberry continues to say, his Penn State basketball team must go out and earn the victory.

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