Micah Shrewsberry Makes Loyalty Key to His New Staff

Penn State coach Micah Shrewsberry completes his staff with two familiar names.

Penn State men's basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry completed his staff with a former NBA G League assistant a standout from Purdue, both of whom he has worked with and coached.

Shrewsberry hired Tre Whitted, a former professional player, as the assistant to the head coach and Grady Eifert as video coordinator. Shrewsberry coached Whitted at Marshall and worked with Eifert the past two seasons at Purdue, where Eifert played and was a graduate assistant

About Tre Whitted

Whitted fills the role previously held by Talor Battle, who left Penn State for a coaching job at Northwestern.  Whitted played at Marshall when Shrewsberry served as the program's director of basketball operations. Whitted went on to play in the NBA D League and the Premier Basketball League.

Whitted was a four-year starter and three-year captain at Marshall, where he also worked with current Penn State assistant Aki Collins. After his playing career, Whitted got into player development. He was president and CEO of Groundwork Player Development from 2015-20, did skills training and was a guest coach with the Boston Celtics during 2019 training camp.

"Loyalty is a huge deal for me, and I tried to reflect that in the way I put together our staff,” Shrewsberry said in a statement. “I’m thrilled to have Tre joining us. I coached him when he was a player at Marshall and am now looking forward to the great experience of working with him. The basketball knowledge that he has gained throughout his career will be very beneficial for our program. On top of that, he is a great person who our players and recruits will enjoy getting to know.”

Whitted comes to Penn State from the 3 Step Sports Blue Wave Basketball Academy, where he coached boys and girls high school travel teams.

About Grady Eifert

Eifert joins Penn State's staff as video coordinator after spending six seasons at Purdue: four as a player and two as a graduate assistant.

“I’ve had a chance to work with Grady the last two seasons at Purdue,” Shrewsberry said. “He was very influential in helping me learn our system and help put our guys in the right positions to be successful. He played a key role in Purdue’s success as a student-athlete, so he knows what it takes to win in our league. That knowledge will be critical as we try to compete for Big Ten championships.”

Grady Eifert (Nikos Frazier/Lafayette Journal & Courier)

Eifert, a former walk-on, earned a scholarship as a sophomore and started all 36 games as a senior in 2018-19, when Purdue went 26-10 and reached the Elite Eight. He led the Boilermakers by shooting 43.8 percent from 3-point range. Purdue won or shared two Big Ten titles during Eifert's time with the team.

Eifert also received Purdue's Courage and Mr. Hustle awards and won the Big Ten's Outstanding Sportsmanship Award in 2019.

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