Penn State, Shrewsberry both have decisions to make in NCAAs

This is a good time to be a Penn State basketball fan. For a change.

There's a lot of stuff going on as the Nittany Lions head to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 12 years.

First, a note: I'm on vacation these first two weeks of March, so I've been trying to do as little work as possible, -- to no avail at times. Anyway, that's why I'm not doing a ton of stories on this basketball awesomeness.

But I do want to dive into a lot of this stuff, so here are 10 takes off Selection Sunday.

1. The time is now for Penn State to put up or shut up with regards to committing to basketball

I talked about this extensively in the We Are podcast on Sunday. I encourage everyone to go listen to that outstanding discussion.

In short …

Micah Shrewsberry is going to be in hot demand. Notre Dame likely will be interested, and Georgetown reportedly has him as a favorite. I don't think Georgetown is a very good job at all these days, but that program does have great tradition and may be appealing to Shrewsberry personally for any number of reasons.

Notre Dame, to me, would be a tremendous fit for him. That school should be coming after him hard.

Penn State needs to pony up a WHOLE LOT of money and assurances to get Shrewsberry to stay.

Will the school do that?

Can the school do that?

Look, Penn State has never, ever made a full commitment to basketball. Thinking it will do so now seems like silly wishful thinking, but hey, we can dream.

Football needs tons and tons of money. It's gonna be half a billion at least to renovate Beaver Stadium. Football needs all the NIL money it can get.

Yes, this whole basketball story is great. And passionate fans are loving it. Maybe, just maybe that will be enough to get everyone on board with adding more resources.

But … 

I can absolutely see the school balking at doing so.

That's who Penn Sate is with regards to basketball, and until the school does indeed make a huge commitment, then we all should doubt that it will happen.

2. OK, so will ANY commitment be enough for Shrewsberry?

Penn State can offer him lots of money and everything else he wants, and it STILL may not be enough to keep him if a much better job comes along.

Notre Dame is a much better job.

Georgetown is not.

There will be other good jobs open up soon. And more next year. And more the year after that. If Shrewsberry has success, it's probably just a matter of time until a great program comes along and makes him an offer he can't refuse.

Penn State will never, ever be able to afford to keep a basketball coach who is in that kind of demand.

So, in a nutshell, Shrewsberry holds ALL the cards here. No matter what Penn State offers, there's a good chance he will get better offers elsewhere over time.

3. What an incredible turnaround for the Lions

I'm blown away by seeing Penn State pick up so many quality wins down the stretch to advance to the Big Ten Tournament championship game.

Even at 5-9, I knew there was still a chance for a tourney bid because of the way the schedule was set up. Still, to expect Penn State to win so many close games against quality competition just seemed incredibly unrealistic.

The team played well and got some great fortune. For instance, if the offensive rebound against Maryland had gone anywhere else, then the Lions would have lost and finished 9-111 in the Big Ten. Then it wouldn't have played Illinois in the first round and just might have lost.

Instead, the rebound dropped right into Camren Wynter's hands for a winning putback with half a second left.

That's fate, plain and simple.

Penn State played great, got some luck and kept on riding the momentum.

4. This is a terrific first-round matchup

Penn State is a 10 seed and will play 7th-seeded Texas A&M on Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa. It's one of the best first-round matchups in the tournament.

The Lions got hot late and won a bunch of big games, so their confidence is sky high.

The Aggies won 10 out of 11 games -- including against Alabama -- down the stretch before losing to Bama in the SEC Tournament. That's a really good A&M team that is probably underseeded as a 7.

I believe Penn State, right now, is more like a 6-7 or seed the way it's played of late. The 10 seed is because the Lions were too inconsistent throughout the season.

So, in essence what we have here is really more like a 5 seed vs. a 7 seed as opposed to a 7-10 matchup.

5. Buzz Williams is always tough

I've long been a fan of Aggies coach Buzz Williams, going back to his days at Marquette and then Virginia Tech. His teams play as hard as anybody and are always incredibly gritty. They're not always tremendously talented, but Williams gets the most out of the talent he has.

Penn State is a tough matchup for anybody.

But A&M is a tough matchup for anybody, as well, because of its style and its coach's philosophy and experience.

Williams will come up with a good game plan against Penn State, you can bank on it. So it will be up to Shrewsberry to be ready for anything and everything.

6. Longhorns would await in second round

If Penn State wins, No. 2 seed Texas would be waiting in the second round. That would be a very difficult challenge for the Lions against a Longhorns team that beat Kansas twice in the last week.

7. My predictions

I'll take Penn State to beat the Aggies. Let's go 74-70.

Then I'll pick Texas to beat the Lions, 77-70.

However …

8. 'Booty ball' isn't beauty ball, but it's effective

Penn State can beat just about anybody in the country if:

1. It's hitting 3-pointers

2. Jalen Pickett is doing his "booty ball" thing of backing down defenders and putting defenses in tough spots

Both Texas A&M and Texas will try to come up with a plan to prevent Pickett from doing his thing, but that doesn't necessarily mean they will be effective at it.

If Pickett is getting into the paint and scoring, then it opens up a whole bunch of things on the perimeter. That formula, while unorthodox because most college point guards aren't great at posting up, has been a gigantic factor in Penn State's late success.

My main criticism on Shrewsberry early on was that he was too dependent on 3s and didn't have a plan B. Well, booty ball is an excellent plan B with this group -- and could be what sends the Lions to the Sweet 16.

9. Pickett one of greatest Penn State players ever

Jalen Pickett's name has to be included among the greatest Nittany Lions of all time. But where?

My personal rankings coming into this season were:

1. Lamar Stevens

2. Talor Battle

3. Joe Crispin

4. Jesse Arnelle

So, where does Pickett slot in, after earning second-team All-America honors and leading the Lions to the NCAA Tournament?

It's a really tough call. You can make a case, because of all the All-America honor, that Pickett could be as high as No. 2 on the list. But Battle and Crispin have withstood the test of time and were at Penn State their whole careers. And Arnelle is an all-time program great.

I would put Pickett at No. 5, with an asterisk noting that if he had had been with the Lions his entire career that he could conceivably be No. 1.

10. In case you missed it …

Be sure to check out the wonderful Memory Lane podcast featuring Joe Crispin reliving the magical 2001 Sweet 16 run.

Crispin is one of the all-time good guys in sports, and he loves talking hoops. The podcast is outstanding, and I can't thank him enough for taking the time to be on with me.