Sunday Column: If The Refs are Truly to Blame for Penn State’s Consistent Basketball Blunders, Then Maybe It’s Time to Change The Game Plan

Micah Shrewsberry has done a lot of good stuff since he took over as the Penn State men’s basketball coach last year. He’s completed a couple of solid-to-strong recruiting classes, used the transfer portal to fill in some significant gaps left by departures that were no fault of his own, and, if you’re watching closely, has shown a grasp of Xs and Os that exceeds that of most of his Nittany Lion coaching predecessors.

However, he seems to have fallen into the trap that ensnared many of those predecessors and a sizable chunk of Penn State’s not-so-sizable men’s hoops fan base—namely, he thinks Big Ten officials are out to get him and his team.

To which I would say:

1. No they’re not.
2. If they are, the coach and his team need to try a few other tactics

The Nittany Lions’ mid-winter nose dive continued Saturday with a 74-68 loss at Maryland, their fourth straight defeat and fifth in the last six games. And a couple of quick looks at the final box underscore what have been two sticking points for Shrewsberry for the bulk of the season. The Terrapins shot 23 free throws to Penn State’s four. And Jalen Pickett, the do-it-all senior guard who spends more time with the ball in his hands than any other Nittany Lion, went to the free-throw line once, bringing his total free-throw attempts over the four-game losing streak to … one.

Shrewsberry has, as he did Saturday, repeatedly complained of a lack of respect shown toward Pickett, who will most likely wind up on the all-league first team this season. Now, the 6-foot-4 guard does spend an awful lot of time in the paint for a player his size, so you’d think he sees at least as much nightly contact as the average power forward. But Pickett rarely drives all the way to the basket; his game is predicated on floaters, pullups, pump fakes, and, if Penn State’s offense is doing what it’s supposed to be doing, kick-outs to open shooters.

Let’s table the Pickett point for a second, though, and focus on that last sentence. Penn State is unabashedly all about the 3-point shot this season. The Nittany Lions have taken 700 attempts from beyond the arc in 25 games this season, more than any other Big Ten team, and have connected on 271 of them, more than any other Big Ten team. That’s a result of both the strengths and weaknesses of their current roster and explains the feast-or-famine nature of their season results.

However, launching threes, while an efficient way of scoring points, is a very inefficient way of getting to the line or even drawing fouls. And the long rebounds that are often the product of missed threes make it difficult to get offensive rebounds—Penn State is dead last in the conference in that category—and draw contact that way. The Nittany Lions shoot so many threes because they have highly skilled marksmen, yes, but also because they have very few players who can break down defenders off the dribble and attack the basket and even fewer big men who can post up, snatch an entry pass and draw a foul.

The irony is that Penn State, before going 2-of-4 at the stripe on Saturday, was the best free-throw shooting team in the conference in terms of percentage … but ranked last in the league in both attempts and makes from the line. If the Lions want to shoot more free throws, instead of waiting for the refs to call a few more hand checks on Pickett, how about a few more hard drives to the rack? Or instead of a pass out of a double to an open shooter on the wing, why not toss one to a player cutting to the hoop?

What Shrewsberry knows—and hasn’t been shy about saying publicly, either—is that while the free-throw disparity isn’t helping his team avoid a late-season collapse, it isn’t hurting it as much as the Nittany Lions’ lack of defense down the stretch. On Saturday, the Terps made 12 of their final 14 shots and 14 of 22 overall in a 43-point second half, becoming the fourth straight opponent to shoot at least 51% from the field against the Nittany Lions.

Maybe if Pickett and the Nittany Lions get to the line more often, they’ll have more chances to catch their breath and actually defend someone on the other end?

I’ve seen Patrick Chambers and Ed DeChellis insinuate if not outright say that the Nittany Lions don’t get a fair whistle, and my response has always been disappointment. If they were wrong and Shrewsberry is wrong—which, again, I happen to believe is true—it sounds like whining and fails to put the correct emphasis on the other issues that are leading to Penn State defeats. But IF they’re right, and there has been some grand conspiracy that Bob Knight, Gene Keady, Steve Fisher and Jud Heathcote launched when Penn State joined the conference in 1992 and was perpetuated every single year, IF the Big Ten powers-that-be continue to hold down a long-suffering program with one of the largest alumni bases in the world for whatever reason, then is publicly complaining about it, or writing the league office letters about it, going to fix … anything?

If Penn State is truly convinced it’s not ever going to get a fair whistle, at some point it needs to stop reacting when it doesn’t get calls. No thinly veiled postgame potshots. No game tape sent to Indy. No arguing immediately after the whistles themselves. Instead, the Nittany Lions should play as though they expect to get knocked to the ground whenever they leave their feet. They should strive to out-play their opponents to the point that not even a 20 free-throw difference will change the outcome. Instead of not worrying about the things they can’t control, assume those things are going to be obstacles each night and go from there.

Sound ridiculous? Well, maybe that’s how Penn State complaining about officiating sounds to everyone else, particularly when the Nittany Lions haven’t done a great job—historically and during the last few weeks—of controlling the things they can control.