Bad losses happen, and players and coaches often talk about how they’ve learned from them and moved on. But few of them do so in such perfectly blunt terms as Penn State fifth-year senior guard/forward Myles Dread. Following the 10-seed Nittany Lions’ NCAA Tournament-opening 76-59 win over the seven-seed Texas A&M Aggies Thursday, Seth Engle of the Daily Collegian Penn State independent student newspaper ran an article with a few amazing quotes from Dread (seen above after that win) on how the team had rebounded from a Feb. 26 59-56 home loss to the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, a loss where they blew a 19-point second-half lead. A scatological one particularly stood out:
“Whenever you take a poop, you never leave it in the toilet" https://t.co/QDubD5SHkR pic.twitter.com/nejrTfleJG
— Treb (@treblaw) March 17, 2023
The full article has some good lines from Dread beyond that. Here are a couple:
A connection with [second-year coach Micah] Shrewsberry’s vision to shock the world with a written-off program was a major factor in Dread’s decision to stay in town for fourth and fifth years despite the program’s turnover.
“I’ve been an underdog my whole life,” Dread said. “A lot of these guys in this locker room have been underdogs their entire lives. Under recruited, almost disrespected at times. We’re used to it and we’re just gonna go out there and prove it every night.”
…“After that Rutgers loss, the practice leading to Northwestern, we were just clicking on all cylinders,” Dread said. “Just playing together, holding each other accountable. Meeting with players, visiting with coaches, and just deciding that we’re going to draw the line in the sand and go to the NCAA Tournament.”
Well, they certainly did that. And flushing that Rutgers loss seems to have worked out for them. But it’s definitely funny to see a player describe a terrible on-court performance with “that was our poop.”
[The Daily Collegian; photo from Jeffrey Becker/USA Today Sports]
