DES MOINES, Iowa โ Moments after Penn State basketball lost 71-66 to Texas, Myles Dreadย stopped for a second at center court.
He still had two things left to do before he took off his navy uniform.
The first was to embrace coach Micah Shrewsberry, completing their two-year journey to the NCAA tournament.
The second was to salute the Penn State fans behind the benches.
โI want them to know I gave it everything I had,โ Dread said. โI ran the clock dry and I had fun doing it; I wear this blue and white with pride. Iโm so thankful for everything this university has ever given me, for the people Iโve met and the relationships Iโve built. These guys and Coach Shrews, I will never forget those memories.โ
Itโs going to be hard for Penn State fans to forget them, either. Dread nearly gave Penn State fans one more brilliant memory with four 3-pointers, but Texas proved just a bit better. Even so, this was a performance that Penn State could walk away from with pride.
โObviously, this stings a little now and itโs going to continue to sting for a bit, but thereโs a lot to be proud of from those 40 minutes and from all year,โ Penn State guard Andrew Funkย said. โIโm really proud of this group. Iโm happy to have done it with them and Iโm proud to be a part of it.โ
The challenge now for Penn State comes in making sure this becomes the new standard for Nittany Lion basketball. Penn State hasnโt made consecutive NCAA tournaments since the 1950s, and no player since then has ever made more than one appearance in the event.
Thatโs not going to be good enough for Shrewsberry, whoโs described himself as a very impatient man.
Two years was barely acceptable for him to wait to coach in the NCAA tournament, and heโs already anxious to get back.
โYou want it to be sustainable,โ he said. โWeโre not going to be satisfied with this. We worked for it every single day, and thereโs a lot that goes into it. Youโve got to have the right people, youโve got to have the right mix of guys, youโve got to have the right work ethic and then things can fall into place.
โThatโs what weโre gearing up to do and thatโs what weโre trying to do each and every year. These guys arenโt satisfied; the young guys arenโt satisfied with being here one time and setting a bunch of school records. Weโre all competitors who want to win.โ
The same is true of the departing seniors, who all spoke of bringing Penn State basketball to a better place than they found it. Penn State loses two true seniors and five senior-pluses, and all of them said they wanted this to be a beginning of a new era of Penn State basketball.
โItโs so cool because this was coach Shrewsโ vision,โ Mikey Hennย said. โWe all bought into coach Shrewsโ vision a long time ago, and when youโre in a program that hasnโt been on the rise, youโve got to work harder than other people do. Weโve worked our tails off to build this thing, and weโre excited about the future.
โWeโve got a lot of good, young kids and Iโm sure theyโll recruit some grad transfers like they did this year. We just hope this segues into having similar types of success, if not greater success, in the years to come.โ
Shrewsberry already has another top-30 class on the way to State College, and the Penn Stateโs returners made big strides as the season progressed. But thoughts Saturday night were in the moment.
As he exited the Penn State locker room, his face was heavy with emotion, mostly in gratitude to what the seniors had helped him build.
โSeth (Lundy) and Myles didnโt have to stay,โ Shrewsberry said. โThey chose the hard route. The way I talk about John (Harrar), I hold those guys in that esteemed category with John, because these guys took a chance on me and they didnโt have to.
Wherever theyโre playing, whatever theyโre doing, these are my guys forever.
โ(Jalen) Pickett is the same. He chose to come here, and I had never coached a game before. He repaid that by letting me sit and watch the season heโs had. These guys have all been fantastic.โ
