Former Penn State player Jon Crispin details what's needed after Micah Shrewsberry's departure for Notre Dame
Former Penn State basketball player Jon Crispin called the Nittany Lions job a “stepping stone” after Micah Shrewsberry accepted a deal at Notre Dame.
On the surface, that’s how Penn State basketball is perceived among Power Five and blue blood programs. But, it’s not for a lack of resources.
Crispin joined Sirius XM’s Big Ten Radio and detailed what the program needed to do in regards to their next head coach.
“My reaction was it was inevitable,” Crispin said to Shrewsberry leaving. “It’s just the reality at Penn State and right now you’re a stepping stone job, you will always be a stepping stone job because it’s not that the resources aren’t there. The resources are there in the sense of money, but it’s the real resources that you need to make a program great. And the resources are the buy in from people, buy in from a fan base, interest from a university standpoint, all these things aren’t there.
“That’s the biggest challenge and I always said … it’s not about hiring the next guy. It’s about hiring the guy that can make this program good 20 years from now. So the guy after that has inherited a great program.”
As far as men’s basketball at the school and state-wide, it’s further down the list than one would think. Perhaps that’s what Shrewsberry thought of Penn State
“And there’s interest at Penn State, that goes far beyond what you do on the basketball court,” Crispin said. “It has to be community driven. You have to make basketball fun in the community. You have to welcome people to the program, you have to inform a fan base of what you’re doing and why you need to be more transparent than anywhere else. Then you need to make it great in the region where you welcome people from the region to play at Penn State to be a part of practices, to be a part of that program in so many ways.
“Then you need to make basketball interesting in the state of Pennsylvania. Because right now, if we look at sports in Pennsylvania, it’s football, wrestling and women’s basketball, even more so than the men’s. That’s the reality of the state of Pennsylvania. And Micah Shrewsbury knows that. He feels that he’s a basketball guy. He’s an Indiana guy, if you grew up in Indiana and you’re coaching at Penn State, you know full well what’s missing.”
Crispin made the point that even lucrative deals can’t keep guys like Shrewsberry if there’s not more than money to persuade someone to take or keep that job.
“There was no amount of money that could have kept him,” Crispin said. “But my concern is what’s next. At what point do you start to say okay, what we really need to look at creating something for this program that is far beyond just the next hire. Because I think otherwise you’re gonna hire somebody else. They’re gonna do a good job, and they’re gonna get the heck out as quickly as possible. Money doesn’t keep you there. The potential long term does. And the Bryce Jordan Center being half full at best, just doesn’t cut it.”