Penn State Basketball: 12 candidates to replace Micah Shrewsberry as head coach

Talor Battle

Two years ago, Penn State went in the direction of a well-traveled assistant coach to reboot their basketball program and it clearly worked with magnificent results. Shrewsberry’s departure after just two seasons is disappointing, but understandable in the world of college basketball. This first name on the list is another promising Big Ten assistant who has serious ties to the Nittany Lions.

Battle is the all-time leading scorer in Penn State basketball history, having played for the Nittany Lions from 2007 to 2011, including on their other most recent Tourney team as a senior. After playing point guard seven years overseas, he began his coaching career on staff at Penn State before spending the last two years under Chris Collins at Northwestern, working closely with his half-brother Boo Buie and helping lead the Wildcats on a phenomenal season of their own.

This is likely the most connected name on this list and his hire would echo Shrewsberry in that it’s a Big Ten assistant who’s done great work in recent years, but Battle is still really young and relatively inexperienced in the coaching world. It’s possible that Battle lands this job down the line if he stays in coaching and gets a shot first somewhere else, but Penn State likely wants to hire someone with more than three years of coaching experience, even if he did star here at his alma mater.