ALTOONA, Pa. -- We're in the waiting game now, and because things usually move quickly at this time of year, we may not have to wait much longer.
Micah Shrewsberry is still Penn State's basketball coach, for now. Whether he will be in 24 or 48 hours remains anybody's guess.
For the past week or two, everybody who follows or cares about Penn State hoops has been saying the same thing: The university needs to step up and make a big commitment to Shrewsberry and the men's basketball program in general.
But that's only half the story.
As I've been saying all along, no matter how much of a commitment Penn State makes, there's a good chance somebody else will come along and make a bigger commitment -- somebody with a whole lot better basketball tradition than Penn State.
This whole thing has never and will never be about just Penn State deciding to spend more money on a basketball coach. It's every bit as much about the coach seeing what other offers he can get out there and comparing them to whatever Penn State has to offer.
Which brings us to this news Monday evening:
Am told by reliable source, Micah Shrewsberry now in talks with Notre Dame. I believe Penn State made its pitch. Whatever is going to happen, stay or go, will happen soon.
— David Jones (@djoneshoop) March 20, 2023
Whether Penn State fans want to hear this or not, Notre Dame makes perfect sense for Shrewsberry.
If the Fighting Irish truly want him to be their next basketball coach, then he'd be foolish to turn down that job in favor of Penn State. No matter what the Penn State administration offers him.
That's just the reality of college basketball. Because the Notre Dame job is a vastly superior job to Penn State, based on tradition and salary and future possibilities.
The facts:
• Penn State has made the NCAA Tournament three times this century (2001, 2011, 2023), plus it would have made it in 2020 when the tourney was canceled because of COVID. The Lions have made only 10 tournament appearances ever, and only one Sweet 16 in the modern tourney era.
• Notre Dame has made the tournament 13 times this century, made the Elite 8 twice (2015, '16) and made the Sweet 16 three times (2003, '15, '16). The Fighting Irish have made the tourney 37 times in their history.
Notre Dame also is potentially a perfect fit for this particular coach, who is from Indiana and has spent the vast majority of his playing and coaching career in that state.
Shrewsberry came to Penn State and did everything that everybody wanted him to do, getting to the NCAA Tournament in year two. But once Penn State destroyed Texas A&M in the first round, that very well might have been THE moment that Shrewsberry's days with the Nittany Lions would be numbered.
He went from being a hot commodity to a red-hot commodity, one that Penn State simply might not be able to keep no matter how good of an offer it makes to try.
We still don't know yet if Notre Dame will hire Shrewsberry. We don't know what kind of offer the Irish will make to him, or the kind of offer Penn State will make. Again, because these things move quickly, we might know a whole lot more by early or mid-day Tuesday.
If things don't materialize with Notre Dame, that won't be the end of the courting process. Other teams still could be interested interested in Shrewsberry, including perhaps Providence, which just lost Ed Cooley to Georgetown. Shrewsberry also was considered to be a candidate with the Hoyas, but Cooley was always their No. 1 choice.
As badly as many Penn State fans want the school to do whatever possible to keep Shrewsberry, the reality is that Penn State basketball is still Penn State basketball. Getting to one NCAA Tournament doesn't change the fact that the program doesn't have much tradition and will always, always face an uphill battle trying to make the NCAA Tournament in any given year.
Shrewsberry is a smart guy. He knows the challenges in place at Penn State, and even if big promises are made, there still won't be any guarantees that he can get the right kind of players to consistently contend in the Big Ten.
On the flip side, there is still the question of just how big of a commitment Penn State should really even try to make to Shrewsberry. Sure, I believe the school needs to give him a raise -- he's believed to be making $2 million a year -- but the athletic department cannot and should not go overboard here with a crazy offer just because this coach caught lightning in a bottle over the past few weeks.
The Lions, remember, were 5-9 in the Big Ten not too long ago. Yeah, Shrewsberry turned that around and helped make this a memorable March, but the chances of him repeating that feat next year or the next or the next may not be great. It took an All-American in Jalen Pickett and a highly unusual style of play for it to happen this year, and repeating that formula will be difficult.
And hey, while we're being totally honest here, there's no guarantee that Shrewsberry would do a great job at Notre Dame, either. His style does seem to fit what the Fighting Irish like to do -- shoot a lot of 3s -- but can he ever get a Jalen Pickett kind of guy to come to South Bend?
So many questions about Shrewsberry's potential, and we won't know the answers to many of them for a long time.
But ... it may not be long before we know the answer to the biggest question: Where will Shrewsberry be coaching next season?
Stay tuned, because the news literally could come at any minute.
