It is officially April and the College Basketball season has ended. In the same vein that The Floor Slap did season previews and in season spotlights for every team in the Big Ten, now it’s time to look back on everyone’s season and reflect. Going from the Bottom to the Top in the standings, we will be releasing Exit Survey’s for all 14 teams in the conference. Today, we have the 10th place Penn State Nittany Lions.
Preseason Expectations + Results of Season + Post Season and Transfer Portal = Article Contents.
Read the other articles for Minnesota, Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Nebraska on the website. The other 9 teams are coming soon!
Let’s talk Penn State…
Preseason
My preseason preview for Penn State focused on the idea that opportunity awaits for Micah Shrewsberry in Year Two.
The Nittany Lions fought hard in Year One under Shrewsberry, but didn’t have enough.
With a bunch of returning seniors, some incoming transfers, and recruits in key positions, Penn State and Shrewsberry had an opportunity to really compete in Year Two.
The Nittany Lions added three transfers Michael Henn (F), Andrew Funk (W), and Camren Wynter (G) to bolster their shooting and depth.
Shrewsberry brought in his five recruits in his first real recruiting class to Penn State. Demetrius Lilley and Kebba Njie were bigs who could replace starting center John Harrar. Jameel Brown, Kanye Clary, and Evan Mahaffey figured to have opportunities at minutes in the 1-3 positions.
Penn State returned highly experienced players in Jalen Pickett, Myles Dread, and Seth Lundy as the backbone of the team.
There were plenty of questions. Will either of the freshmen bigs be ready? Who would start? How will the mid-major transfers fare in the Big Ten?
Despite the questions, Penn State was ready to compete in the Big Ten under Micah Shrewsberry. He had earned their buy-in. Now, it’s his turn to show what kind of coach he can be.
The Season
The Season was more up and down than the public might remember.
There were moments where Penn State didn’t look good. Like two blowout losses to Purdue and losing to Rutgers by twenty while only putting up 43 points.
There were times where Shrewsberry couldn’t figure out the roster.
Jameel Brown, Dallion Johnson, and Caleb Dorsey were inconsistent and fell out of the lineup.
Nothing was working at Center. Lilley was too raw. Njie was inconsistent. Henn didn’t translate as well against Power 5 athletes.
By mid-February, Penn State looked doomed to miss the tournament. PSU was 14-11 and 5-9 in the Big Ten.
The season was trending towards a failure for Shrewsberry and the Nittany Lions.
Yet, the season ended with a tsunami of positive vibes as Shrewsberry and Penn State launched into a winning streak to end the season that shifted the narrative of their season.
Shrewsberry found something by going small. He down shifted their lineups to be shooters surrounding Pickett and sacrificed rebounding and traditional Big Ten play style.
Possessions often were Jalen Pickett isolated on the post baiting the opponent to double and leave Funk, Dread, Lundy or Wynter open. Don’t send the double and Pickett would punish smaller guards or nail midrange jumpers in defenders’ faces.
Penn State had critical wins at the end of the regular season against Maryland, Northwestern and Illinois to keep themselves in the bubble conversation.
The final two wins included back to back game winners for Camren Wynter as Penn State scratched and clawed to keep their dreams of a post-season alive.
The Nittany Lions finished 5-1 in conference down the stretch heading into the Big Ten Tourney.
After that run, the Nittany Lions then fought their way to win several games in the Big Ten Tournament and make the Conference Championship.
With wins over Illinois, Northwestern and Indiana in three days, Penn State had played their way into the Post-Season.
Post Season
Penn State fell short in the Big Ten title game 65-67 to Purdue. They nearly pulled off an incredible comeback as the Nittany Lions were a Seth Lundy airball away from a storybook ending.
The loss did not matter because Penn State’s hot streak had already punched their ticket. Penn State earned a 10 seed and a game against 7th seeded Texas A&M.
Jalen Pickett and Penn State didn’t disappoint either.
The Texas A&M game was thrilling. Jalen Pickett had 19 points and 8 assists, Andrew Funk sunk 8 threes and Penn State advanced with a 76-59 win. It was just their 10th Tournament win in program history.
Penn State’s season ended with a 66-71 loss to a really good Longhorns team. Senior laden Penn State wasn’t enough to beat Texas’ seniors Marcus Carr, Timmy Allen, Christian Bishop, Sir’Jabari Rice, etc.
The season ended and Penn State’s future shifted dramatically.
The hot streak in Happy Valley earned Micah Shrewsberry some eyeballs. He was a hot name on the coaching carousel.
Shrewsberry eventually took the Notre Dame job replacing Coach Mike Brey who had been in South Bend for over two decades.
Coach Shrewsberry is an Indiana Native with deep roots in the state. He had played at Hanover in Indiana. He had coached at Indiana colleges like Wabash, Depauw, Butler and twice at Purdue.
The Notre Dame job was a homecoming that made too much sense to pass up.
Penn State needed to pivot quickly after his departure.
Penn State had seniors like Pickett, Lundy, Dread, Funk, Wynter, etc. run out of eligibility.
The Transfer Portal opened and many of the players who came to play for Shrewsberry entered the portal like Evan Mahaffey, Kebba Njie, Jameel Brown and Kanye Clary. Plus, incoming recruits like Carey Booth, Logan Imes, and Shrewsberry’s son, Braeden Shrewsberry, requested out of their commitment to Penn State.
The Nittany Lions Athletic Department hired Mike Rhoades on March 29th.
Rhoades had been coaching VCU since 2017-2018. The Rams had six straight winning seasons under Rhoades and made the tourney 3 of the past 4 times it was held.
In the transfer portal era, coaches often take large portions of their previous team to their new destination.
Shrewsberry took a lot to Notre Dame and it seems like Rhoades will do the same with VCU players.
Penn State has landed Ace Baldwin and Nick Kern Jr. from VCU and Zach Hicks from Temple. Other players from VCU are rumored to be on their way too.
UNC transfer Puff Johnson is visiting soon.
Rhoades even convinced players like Jameel Brown and Kanye Clary to return to Happy Valley and take their name out of the portal.
Mike Rhoades is putting in work to compete in year one in Happy Valley.
Penn State is the hardest team to write about how the fans should feel this post season.
The highs and lows of their late season whirlwind of wins, Micah Shrewsberry’s exit, and the Mike Rhoades hire all came within a very short spell.
Undoubtedly, Nittany Lions fans feel good about how their season ended.
Jalen Pickett was a unanimous All-American and brought eyes to the Penn State program. Penn State made the tournament for the first time in over a decade. The Nittany Lions even won a tournament game.
It is bittersweet to say goodbye to Coach Shrewsberry so soon.
For a program as proud of their sports as Penn State is being a steppingstone is tough. However, landing what seems to be another great hire in Mike Rhoades has to feel good.
Seeing a competitive basketball program is an improvement. Seeing the AD commit serious investment to land a coach like Rhoades is encouraging. Having Rhoades land transfers and build Penn State as a destination is promising.
Penn State made progress as a basketball program this season.
The fans should be excited for Mike Rhoades to work on extending that progress.