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room, wherever we go. So I don't want to put it all on the guards. I think Jamari's got good experience now. I think overall, the team's got good shared experiences. And let's bank on that they learned from that, and hopefully, we can utilize those this year. BWI Last year, John Harrar was thrust into maybe a little bit bigger of a role than he was suited for or wanted. How do you expect him to perform in a more evenly distributed environment? CHAMBERS I think John put too much pressure on himself. It wasn't like he played poorly, but he just put too much pressure on himself. Here's a guy who went for a double-double. He had 10 re- bounds in the first half of the [NIT] championship game in the Garden [in 2018]. So I think he put too much pres- sure on himself to be Mike, or to score, or to do more, when instead he needs to be John. Just play hard. Focus on the good things that you do. You defend, you rebound, you make great decisions on the offensive end. We've tweaked our offense a little bit to work with these guys, and it's worked out well. And John's lost a ton of weight. He's 230. He's running faster, he looks quicker, he's jumping higher. I think he feels good about himself. I think he's got a really good midrange jumper, he's hitting it right now. I'm going to allow him to shoot that top- of-the-key three. BWI What are your initial impressions of Seth Lundy now in full practices? CHAMBERS I think you're really going to like him. People compare him to Lamar, and I don't think that's right. He's playing the three, he can handle the ball, he can shoot it. I think that their bodies may be similar. I mean, he 6-7, 218. He's playing really well. He is very aggressive, very strong, plays tough and physical beyond his years. He really does. He's tough. He gets in there and he scraps. He'll dive, he'll take charges, he is selfless. BWI You made it clear that you don't need him to start as a freshman, that there's no pressure to do that. But can he play his way in? CHAMBERS Yes, he can. The way he's been playing the past four or five days, somebody is going to be unhappy by Jan. 1. I'm excited. Have we ever sat here and had discussions like this? We don't have to start a freshman. And we might, just because he's that good, because we can. Because I choose to. But then think about the depth that you have if you do that. BWI Is there a danger of having too many players? Your depth is as good as it's been, but are there downsides to that? CHAMBERS The downside is, some- body's going to be unhappy. You're not going to be able to play the nine and ten guys as much as you might want to, as much as they might deserve. Really, we all get comfortable with eight. We're all comfortable with eight. We all find a nice rotation. Everybody gets their rest time on the bench. But now I firmly be- lieve we would be doing this team a dis- service if we don't play ten. And we have to find that and how we're going to manage that and how we're going to do that. Trent Buttrick needs to play. He's going to play spot minutes for Lamar, and Lamar can't play 38 minutes again. Just can't. He was exhausted in Febru- ary. He can't play for 38 minutes. So Trent will get those minutes, and Trent is going to be our shooting five. So he's going to play some five when we have foul trouble, and we want him to shoot threes. We can have five guys on the floor who can score the basketball – shoot, dribble, score the basketball, and I'm talking about threes. So Trent needs those minutes. You know, we want Curtis, Izaiah, de- pending on who you start, either Jamari or M.J. And then obviously John. John is playing. He's one of the hardest workers on this team. He's got to play, we've got to find minutes for him. It's a good thing for us, because I think in the Big Ten, there are going to be ankle turns. There are going to be minor injuries. I always look at Michigan State. They got hurt, next man up, they kept winning. And I think we could be in that position, as long as we don't lose any of the big dogs. I think we could put ourselves in a posi- tion to stay at an elite level even if we had some minor stuff going. BWI What does it mean to you to be in year nine with the program and land the major donations you did for the facilities improvements that are coming? CHAMBERS It's huge. The belief, the investment, the generosity of Penn Staters, the alumni and our donors. After the season, everybody thinks I go away for the summer. I actually went on a little bit of a tour to raise money. And people were incredibly kind and gener- ous. And to me, the fact that we're able to do this and start it in April 2020, it's another powerful statement for our pro- gram to say, Hey Coach, we believe in you, we believe in what you're doing, and we like how you're doing it, you're doing it the right way. What do you need? BWI To what extent do you need that to be a yearly aspiration – those kinds of facilities improvements? CHAMBERS If you want to be consistent and you want to fight for the top half of the league, Big Ten championships or going to the NCAA tournament every year, and that's how you're going to be judged, then you need to make improve- ments every year. I'm really proud of what we've done here, though. We've branded the con- course, we branded outside, we changed the training room with hot and cold tubs, which I was super excited about. We did the training room, we got a new film room. It's all minor victories in my mind. A small step, minor victory, slow grind. Just take a step. Every year, you had to take a step. That was my goal, and I think we've done that. I think at least when you walk in the door, you know Penn State basketball plays here. And I think when recruits come in, they have what they need. Maybe we don't have the icing and the cherry on top, some of the bells and whistles you see at some of these places. But you know what, we have what we need to be successful, and we've developed basketball players who are now playing in the NBA and a ton are

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