Micah Shrewsberry on defense: ‘Can’t play soft’ in the Big Ten

Penn State head coach Micah Shrewsberry was unequivocal about the way his team played defense in a 20-point loss to Rutgers on Tuesday. And he was equally strident about the acceptability of it.

“Congrats to Rutgers, I thought they played great. They’ve been playing like this all year. Can’t play soft in this league if you want to win basketball games,” Shrewsberry said. “100% fact. We played soft, we got beat by 20.” 

After answering a question about the way Rutgers played defense, Shrewsberry was asked if he had any descriptors beyond “soft.”

“Petite? I don’t know what to say. They played grown-man basketball. No matter who was on our team, they took them to the post and they scored,” Shrewsberry said. “At some point in time, you gotta stand up. At some point in time, you gotta have some pride. And right now we don’t have any pride. I told them that. Like what I’m saying to you, I told them exactly this in the locker room. We need some pride — some prideful defenders. And that’s on me.

“I don’t how I let them become this soft defensively as a team. Right now we’re in the low 80s, defensively. And dropping, quickly. You wanna win this league? You gotta play tough. We played soft, we got our ass kicked and ran out the door.”

Against Penn State, Rutgers made 19-of-37 two-point field goals and got to the free throw line for 19 attempts. Rutgers center Cliff Omoruyi went for 16 points and 10 rebounds, scoring in double digits within the first 10 minutes of gameplay.

From the jump, Rutgers was bullying the Penn State defense and as Shrewsberry emphatically noted, that won’t do.

“We didn’t respond well. We got open shots, we just missed open shots,” Shrewsberry said. “I’m just disappointed with how we played defensively. I thought we were really soft. I thought they got whatever they wanted to.”