Micah Shrewsberry talks expectations, transfers and more at B1G media days

Leading off his first appearance at Big Ten basketball media days, Penn State head coach Micah Shrewsberry was asked about expectations.

Picked to finish tied for 12th by the media heading into the first season of his tenure, Shrewsberry said he won't be bound by outside perception.

"I'm excited about our team," he said. "There's no outside expectations that I really care about except for the expectations that I put on myself and the expectations that we have in our locker room."

The Nittany Lions will field one of the most experienced teams in college basketball. John Harrar returns to the fold for his fifth season. Sam Sessoms and Myles Dread are back for their senior seasons.

In the transfer portal, Shrewsberry added three more fifth years in Greg Lee, Jaheam Cornwall and Jalanni White, along with another senior in Jalen Pickett.

Of the 11 scholarship players on the roster, two are underclassmen.

"Everybody in college basketball is old," Shrewsberry said. "There's a lot of guys that have come back. There's a lot of players that have played a bunch of games and they're back in college basketball, and I can say with the fact that we're one of the oldest. I believe we're the third oldest team in the country. We have seven seniors this year, with four of those being senior pluses. And then we have two juniors outside of that. To have your top nine guys be juniors and seniors, that's something that you can build off of."

Another piece of the foundation for Shrewsberry comes with the return of some key figures from last year's rotation, in the form of Harrar, Dread, Sessoms and junior forward Seth Lundy.

On a roster left with very few known commodities in the Big Ten after an offseason transfer exodus, the know-how provided by that quartet will be key.

"That's thrilling for me as a first year head coach because I have a building block of guys that have been in the Big Ten," Shrewsberry said. "Guys that have played in these arenas and not necessarily empty, they played in the full arenas, and they know what it's like to win in this league. They know what it takes to win in this league."

Shrewsberry did make a point to mention that he feels good about the talent the Nittany Lions added via the transfer portal, specifically guard Pickett, who Shrewsberry said will help the Nittany Lions "tremendously," and Lee, a forward.

"When you start putting guys together like that, older guys that have played basketball, you have an opportunity to play the right way," Shrewsberry said. "You have an opportunity to have guys that aren't scared to go into different venues. They've played a lot of college basketball. They also know what winning basketball looks like."

Now, it's a matter of making sure all the pieces work well within the same unit.

Shrewsberry has expressed previously that, in a way, everyone on his roster is like a freshman, because they're unfamiliar with his system and how he wants to play.

Just over a week into official practice, Shrewsberry feels it coming together. He used Harrar's leaps forward since he's arrived as an example.

"That's growth for me every single day," Shrewsberry said. "That gives me encouragement every day that what we're teaching is getting through. And now you take the blueprint of winning basketball, how you win in the Big Ten. Being in the Big Ten, I understand what it takes to win in this league. Now you take that blueprint, and you bring it over here to these guys and add to it."

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